Recipe Round-Up: The Great Vegan Protein Book

Towards the end of last year, when I lifted the great cookbook ban of 2015 (I was saving for my US trip), this was one of the first new books I bought. The Great Vegan Protein Book shows you exactly where vegans get their protein. It is split into four sections: beans, nuts/seeds, tofu/tempeh and seitan. This is the first time I have done a full round-up for this book, so let's see what I've done!

Pudla and Eggplant Balela: This was a great combination. I have seen pudla popping up in many cookbooks and blogs lately, and have been enjoying trying different once, but this is hands down my favourite. It is just super delicious and savoury! I failed cookbook reading 101 with the balela and somehow, even though I read through the recipe four times, didn't notice until that afternoon that it was meant to chill overnight, so it was only marinated for four hours. It was still really good though, and the leftovers were even better! Instead of marinating, roasting and then dicing sliced eggplant, I just marinated and roasted diced eggplant. I also realised I was out of white balsamic, so I used a mix of regular balsamic and water, and I summed corn kernels instead of capsicum. I served it all with a drizzle of tahini.
Rating: Pudla :D, Balela :)



Sushi Rice and Bean Stew: This was like a nice miso stew or soup, but I felt it just needed a little something extra to really take it to extra yummy. I loved the sushi rice component of this recipe, it is a very handy recipe to have. I chopped up the mushrooms from the mushroom soaking broth and added them back to the stew, because you can never have too many mushrooms.
Rating: :)



Giardiniera Chili: This is a very yummy chilli, packed with veggies and beans and nooch. Yum! I served it over baked potatoes and baby spinach and topped it with avocado. The recipe says it makes 8 servings, but I got 5 out of it.
Rating: :)



BBQ Lentils: This recipe uses a quick homemade BBQ sauce, that I found to be quite sweet. Next time I would cut down on the maple syrup. It is baked in the oven and makes the kitchen smell like a happy place! This recipe says it serves 8-10, I made a half batch and got 3 serves out of it.
Rating: :)



Wild Rice Pilaf with Spicy Cashews: The cashews in this recipe are so tasty, you could just make them as a snack on their own. They coating is a bit clumpy, but means it is full of flavour, though it did wash off and dilute down in the pilaf a little bit. Overall, this dish was quite sweet, but has a nice combination of textures with the crunchy cashews and chewy wild rice.
Rating: :)



20 Minute Tofu Soup: I was feeling pretty sick one day, so I made this yummy vinegary soup to help me feel better. And it did. I don't have a lot of different chili sauces lying around, so I used sriracha rather than sambal oelek. This said it makes 3 to 4 servings, but I had a cold to feed and got one and a half servings out of it.
Rating: :)



Tofu Fried Rice: This was a bit meh, I could have done with more flavour. I subbed snow peas for sugar snap peas and carrots for capsicum, and also had extra bok choy. I didn't use the bean sprouts because I can only buy them in large bags and they always go off before I can use them again, so I skipped them.
Rating: :|



Well-Dressed Tofu Bowls: Yes and Yum. Sushi Rice (from the above mentioned Sushi Rice and Bean Stew) with sauteed tofu cubes and Brussels sprouts and a yummy peanut sauce... what is not to enjoy here? My mum thought the sauce was a bit too vinegary, but I had no issue with it (I do love vinegar).
Rating: :)



Caribbean Tofu: I made this as a mixture of both slabs and cubes for different uses. It is tasty, though goes quite soft when baked in the liquid as the recipe instructs. I only used half the amount of mild curry powder because I don't like things to get too hot!
Rating: :)



Caribbean Tofu and Pasta: The cubes of the above tofu I used for this pasta dish. I only used 8 oz of pasta (rather than 12), which makes for a chunky sauce to pasta ratio and four servings. I left out the capsicum and jalapeno, and again only used half the amount of mild curry powder called for.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Where you see a tea towel, we see a cape! Fun with SuperMo at the clinic. ;)