VeganMoFo 2015 #10: Blue Books

10. Something blue.

Something blue, something blue, something blue... food wise all I could think of was blueberries, and it isn't really blueberry season right now. Blue things in my kitchen? I have a couple, but really my tastes run more to marshmallow pink. What is the greatest resource in my kitchen? My cookbooks of course! In this post I will be sharing a photo of a favourite recipe from each of my blue cookbooks. To qualify they had to have both a blue spine AND a blue base to the cover. In just over 100 books I had eight that fit the criteria.





BIG VEGAN by Robin Asbell was the subject of my last post before MoFo. Thankfully I still had a couple of recipes left to share!
Simple Rice and Veggie Curry One Pot: This simple recipe is made in a rice cooker, and includes sweet potatoes, green beans and cabbage. I used medium grain brown rice instead of short, which worked fine. I had to decrease the curry powder to fit my mild tastes.
Rating: :)



BLISSFUL BITES by Christy Morgan is a great cookbook, full of yummy seasonal recipes.
Lemony Roasted Beets, Brussels, and Yams: This dish is absolutely beautiful to look at! It tastes sweet and lemony, and was great served as a component of a bowl (with a grain, chickpeas and tahini miso dressing). I used sweet potato instead of yams. I had to spread the vegetables across two baking sheets as they wouldn't fit only on one.
Rating: :)



BUT I COULD NEVER GO VEGAN by Kristy Turner is one of my new cookbooks. It is super fun, with lots of clever and inventive recipes grouped under all the different excuses people give for why they could not go vegan.
Jackfruit Nacho Supreme: This was the first recipe I made from here (well, technically second because I had to make the sour cream recipe first). Seasoned jackfruit is piled on top of tortilla chips and then topped with a refreshing bean and corn salsa and assorted nacho toppings, the most important of which is the cashew-based nacho cheese sauce. I found the sauce became very thick, so you may need to thin it a little. I left out the capsicums and chiles because that is how I roll.
Rating: :)



LA DOLCE VEGAN by Sarah Kramer is not a book I tend to use a great deal, however when I needed to find a miso gravy for my Veggie Grill-inspired harvest bowl for day 6 of MoFo, this book delivered.
Merciful Miso Gravy: This gravy is really yummy, my mum particularly loved it (and she knows her gravy). It is based on roux and milk (oat milk in my case) and then mixed with a miso slurry at the end. I added a little bit of gravy browner, as I prefer my gravy brown, so if you make it as the recipe states then it will be a creamy colour.
Rating: :)



THE NEW VEGAN by Janet Hudson is a book I have not used in a long time. While I have made a few nice things from it, it reads like an omni cookbook with the word 'veggie' in front of what would otherwise be a non-vegan ingredient. Plus some of the recipes just don't look right. I am resharing this photo from a previous post, because I haven't made anything new to upload.
Greek Toast: Cream cheese, olives, sundried tomatoes, cucumber and capers make a creamy and tasty filling, and the toast s coated and baked until crunchy and brown. It is yum!
Rating: :)



THE ULTIMATE UNCHEESE COOKBOOK by Jo Stepaniak came out a very long time ago, before we were all making artisan vegan cheeses. I got this book from a friend who was cleaning out her cookbook collection, and I have only made one recipe from it so far. It is appropriate for today's theme!
Creamy Bleu Cheez Dressing: This dressing is based on tahini and miso and has a heft dose of lemon juice and white wine vinegar. I replaced the oil in the recipe with hot water, and I only made a half batch. I poured it all over a salad of cos (romaine for my US friends), black beans and cucumber. Yum!
Rating: :)



VEGAN COOKIES INVADE YOUR COOKIE JAR by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero really needs no introduction!
Rocky Roads: I made these recently for a bake sale to use up some white chocolate I had kicking around because I myself am not a fan of white chocolate. I didn't have white chocolate chips, rather a bar of chocolate that I chopped up for this, and the chunks melted and made the cookies kind of deformed, but people still snapped them up! The ones in this picture are the prettiest ones, and the one of the right is smiling at you! These also have regular chocolate chips and chopped roasted almonds in them. No marshmallow or jelly, because American rocky road is not as good as Australian rocky road! ;)
Rating: :)



WRAPPED IN PASTRY by my friend Leigh Drew is now out of print, which is sad for those who don't have it because it is great and contains my go to pastry recipes! Also, the title is a Twin Peaks reference, so that is awesome. This book has so many goodies in it, some of which I will touch on later in MoFo.
Peanut Butter Caramel Blueberry Pie: This is every bit as awesome as it sounds, and was the first recipe I made when I tested for this book. The peanut butter caramel is so simple (four ingredients), and I have used it many other times for other recipes. Normally I think of strawberry as a friend for peanut butter, but blueberries are amazing. They also look pretty, along with salted peanuts. So yummy!
Rating :D



I just realised there are some blueberries, blue cheese and a few blue bowls in this post!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo



Those eyes! I could stare into them for days. I miss Gizmo everyday, but the last few weeks it has really been hitting me hard again. Sharing these photos and showing everyone what a beautiful girl she was makes me happy.