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The Great Vegan Grains Book Review

I consider myself lucky to have received a copy of The Great Vegan Grains Book recently. Just published, it is the latest from vegan masterminds Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen. You may remember them from such blogs as Vegan Appetite and Have Cake, Will Travel. Both blogs are fairly quiet these days, but both were around back in the days when vegan blogging was new and exciting.

I’m in my busy season right now with craft fairs galore but wanted to try out a couple of dishes and get a quick review up. Tami and Celine are two of the nicest vegans I know from the internet and I love using their cookbooks. In full disclosure, this book came to me for free but I haven’t been paid nor asked for a review.

The Great Vegan Grains Book features Celine’s gorgeous photography and an eclectic mix of recipes that feature grains ranging from the familiar rice to the more exotic einkorn. There’s a solid introduction with information on a variety of grains that includes cooking times and liquids for every one used in the book.

First up, I made the split pea and rice artichoke mujadarra (seen above) which was fabulous. I never use split peas except in split pea soup and this dish was so light and fresh I loved it. I also had the roasted corn and barley chowder, which was again light and fresh. I’d make this next time in the late summer when the fresh corn is high, but the mujadarra will be a winter staple.

I just received a bottle of Bar B Cutie bbq sauce from the man behind the I-40 Vegan (another blog from back in the day) and can’t wait to try the BBQ Bulger Burgers next. I’d highly recommend The Great Vegan Grains Book to anyone interested in expanding their bulk bin adventures beyond rice and quinoa.

20 Days of Handmade: Zuckerguss Zine

This is not to be missed! The fabulous Mihl from the long running vegan blog Seitan is My Motor has released her first zine!

Zuckerguss Zine: 15 Free baking recipes for your Vegan Holidays is available for download at her site now! If you’ve been following her site for any time you know that Mihl is a baker extraordinaire.

Coconut Spice Mini Cakes? Spekulatius Tiramisú? Lebkuchen (Pepperkaker)? Sign me up! I’m hoping to find the time to make one or two of these this month.

Mihl is kindly releasing this zine for no cost, so please head over to check it out. Her photography is gorgeous and I know this was put together with love and care over the past months. Enjoy!

Vegan Finger Foods Review Now With Cookies

I recently got the new Vegan Finger Foods from my local public library and tried out a few dishes. The book is by the fabulous duo of Tami Noyes of Vegan Appetite and Celine Steen from Have Cake Will Travel. They are two of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting through the internet.

The first recipe I tried were the buckeye balls and they don’t disappoint. Buckeye balls never disappoint. These are slightly different than my usual recipe with the addition of cinnamon and it added a little something extra. I took a bunch up to my friend Amy at Herbivore and she noticed the cinnamon as soon as she tried one. Excellent.

I also chose two vegetable dishes, the small plate Brussels sprouts and the green beans jalfrezi, pictured above. The Brussels were good, but I thought the green beans were the star. Next time I would add more tomato because that really made the dish for me. I’d also like to increase the saucy part to cook lentils in, because I think that would make an excellent addition and create a one pot meal. We had leftovers and they were equally good the next day. This is the perfect season for this dish, as tomatoes and green beans are popping up in your garden or local farmers market.

My final recipe was the chocolate orange cookies which I made for a bake sale to benefit the Out To Pasture animal sanctuary. These are good! The orange is very subtle, which I enjoyed as I don’t like a heavy chocolate/fruit flavor combo. The base was quite nice and I thought they made an excellent, light summer cookie.

Vegan Finger Foods is filled with Celine’s lovely photography. There are a number of dishes I would probably never make as is (panda is not cutting out cute cucumber cups to stuff) but there’s no reason some can’t be easily modified if you don’t need a party friendly appetizer. And if you do need that fancy presentation, this book has it ready for you. There’s a wait list for Vegan Finger Foods at my library so I had to return it but I’m looking forward to checking it out again and trying the corn fritters with tomato thyme sauce and more desserts. Celine has a way with cookies and panda does love cookies.

Full disclosure! This book was not provided by the publisher and I received no compensation for my review.