Recipe Round-Up: Color Me Vegan

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is an amazing activist, cat mother and author. While she has left cookbook writing behind for the moment (though she is still publishing amazing books about being vegan) her first three tomes were packed full of amazing recipes. Color Me Vegan (oh, I want to write Colour instead!) is the third of her cookbooks, and takes a fun theme of colour. Recipes are broken up by colour into chapters, and she certainly encourages you to put as many colours on your plate as you can! You can find out more about Colleen at her website.

White Bean and Artichoke Salad (White/Tan) and Gazpacho (Red): This combination made a refreshing summer dinner, served with some salad and some olive and thyme sourdough toast. The salad is quite substantial, and leftovers also go great on top of some toast and avocado. I just left out the capsicum the salad called for, I didn't replace it with anything. I was keen to make the gazpacho as it doesn't have any capsicum in it, unlike a lot of other gazpacho recipes I have seen. Next time I would decrease the amount of red onion (it calls for alf an onion) as the raw onion taste was a bit strong for my liking.
Rating: Salad :), Gazpacho :)



Orange-Glazed Tempeh and Nectarine Salsa (Orange): The salsa has the option to make it with nectarines or peaches, and I had nectarines (I will try it with peaches at some point), and was sweet and lovely - a great complement to the tempeh. The tempeh was amazing - coated in a fabulous, tangy glaze. I served this with brown rice and some baby spinach.
Rating: Tempeh :D, Salsa :)



Coconut Rice and Tofu (Koyadofu) Teriyaki (White/Tan): The coconut rice is fantastic! It uses light coconut milk, so is not too coconut fatty for me (yay), and it can be made in the rice cooker for ease. The tofu has been frozen and then defrosted, to give it that super spongy flavour soaking ability. The teriyaki is very simple, though does become a tad salty when it is reduced down. I served these with some stir-fried vegetables (also with some of the teriyaki sauce).
Rating: Rice :D, Tofu :)





Apricot Red Lentil Stew (Red): The apricots add a little sweetness, but not too much. This is lovely served over brown rice and with some broccoli. Sorry for the slightly blurry photo!
Rating: :)



Cashew Cheese (Yellow): Colleen makes the most amazing cashew cheese sauce. It has a few steps, however it is worth it. It is downright drinkable! I used it to make a delectable baked mac and cheese. I served it with some Mango BBQ tofu (from Veganomicon) and some broccoli for an excellent dinner. There is also the option to make the cheese as a solid block for slicing using some agar flakes, which I haven't done yet.
Rating: :D





Summer Squash with Cherry Tomatoes Topped with Cheesy Toasted Pine Nuts (Yellow): I used a blend of green zucchini and yellow summer squash, plus red cherry tomatoes (I couldn't find yellow), so it ended up being quite colourful. It is baked in the oven, and the flavours all meld together beautifully. This was lovely served with greens, rice and some sauteed Fry's strips.
Rating: :)



Swiss Chard Pie (Yellow): This recipe uses some of that amazing cashew cheese sauce to make a totally awesome, very quiche-like dinner. I couldn't find yello, white, red or rainbow chard (silverbeet), so I used green, and it was still nicely yellow. The timing for cooking this through was perfect, though you need to wait for 30 minutes after baking before slicing, by which time it was lukewarm. But so delicious. Totally only makes 2-3 servings, not 4-6, you won't stop eating!
Rating: :D



Walnut Basil Pesto (Green): This is quite a garlicky little pesto, which can be used in many ways. I used some of it for the dish that follows this, but for the leftovers I mixed it through some rice, some pasta, some veggies, really anything you can think of. It says it makes 3/4 cup, but I got less than this.
Rating: :)



Quinoa, Tofu, and Kale with Walnut Pesto (White/Tan): This is fantastic, a trinity of vegan goodness. I used one and a half cups of quino instead of two to get my preferred grain to other stuff ratio, and I used slightly more than the 1/3 cup of the walnut pesto (above) it required to get lots of flavour.
Rating: :D



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Dim Sim is peering out from my desk chair here, that look of concern is because Sahara jumped onto the bed when Dim Sim wanted to play chase the ribbon on the bed. Her face is so cute!