Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Dust Off the Shelf - The Classics

It's time to dust off my cookbook shelf again! This time with a triple shot of Sarah Kramer and a double dose of Tanya Barnard: La Dolce Vegan, How it all Vegan, and The Garden of Vegan. Like many of you out there, these cookbooks were the first thing I turned to when I went vegan (hence the post title, "the classics"). And it was a good thing too, because they are filled with familiar recipes that are generally simple to prepare and taste delicious.
From La Dolce Vegan, I cooked up the Aloo Gobi Potatoes and Cauliflower, making sure I added plenty of peas (a favorite of mine in Indian dishes). This was the perfect quick meal: a short ingredient list and minimal cook time, plus the result was full of flavor and rivaled the aloo gobi at my favorite Indian restaurant in town! Served with my favorite lemon basmati rice on the side. In The Garden of Vegan, I dove right into the extensive dessert section. I was looking for something to build a cute housewarming gift around, and these lemon poppyseed shortbreads were just the thing. Lemon is such a fresh and inviting scent; perfect for a new homeowner! I wrapped the cookies with a cute yellow bow and added it to a box with a lemon tea towel, zester, squeezer, and a tiny bottle of lemon oil.
And finally, from How It All Vegan I made one of my childhood favorites -veganized-... chocolate chip cookie bars. Part cookie, part cakey brownie, but all parts good. These turned out so moist and fluffy, it was difficult not to eat the whole pan!
So now my cookbook shelf is looking rather spiffy and well used... but it will surely collect dust once again, and that's when I'll be back with another round of Dust Off the Shelf!

40 comments:

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

I loooove HIAV. It was one of my first vegan cookbooks :o)

Animal-Friendly said...

Chocolate chip cookies bars- maybe even better than the cookies themselves!

And thanks for the reminder to dust off my own cookbook shelf and to cook some new dished from "the classics"

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

COOKIE BARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Virginia said...

i love chocolate chip cookie bars!!

Eddie G said...

I just recommended these books to a vegetarian friend from Houston who's making the transition to veganism :)

Amey said...

ooooh, I love your "Dust off the shelf" idea! I have so many cookbooks... it's hard to do them all justice!

dreaminitvegan said...

First of all I love peas! Didn't as a kid. Secondly, I have been wanting to make chocolate chip cookie bars. Love em!

Carrie said...

Ooh I have LDV, I'll have to try that aloo gobi!

Anonymous said...

I almost never use La Dolce - I just don't find anything that "speaks" to me - that being said, this looks really good so I should check it out!
Also, great gift! Seriously, and those cookies are wrapped up so sweetly!

jessy said...

oh my gosh, i don't own any of those rock'n cookbooks! think i'm going to have to remedy this soon! w00t! what a wonderful idea on all the lemony goodness for a housewarming gift - the shortbreads look so gooooood! and those chocolate chip cookie bars are just perfect! mmmmmmmmm! i love the color of the aloo gobi potatoes and cauliflower - what a nice touch in adding peas. mmmm, peas! yay!

Lauren said...

Yummmy!! Everything looks so lovely! La Dolce Vegan was my first vegan cookbook, I hold a special place in my heart for it! :)

Leslie Richman said...

I love those books as well. Mine are all burned, stained, and water-warped!! I need to get back into them. The potatoes look delicious!

Bianca said...

I need to dust that trio off the shelf too. The Garden of Vegan was my first vegan cookbook, which I had on the shelf for several years before I actually went all the way vegan. It was definitely very helpful during the transition!

allularpunk said...

yay, i love dust off the shelf posts! i don't own a single one of these books, can you believe it? my first vegan cookbook was vwav, which i still have not made much out of (kind of hard to find ingredients for around here, surprisingly). the cookie bars look so good, though! every time i read your posts i am reminded that i really need to bake more. alas. i don't, that much. i do love drooling over the things you make, however!

allularpunk said...

forgot to mention: love that lemony housewarming gift. you are so sweet and creative!

Anonymous said...

Those bars look fabulous--well, everything looks good. I should pull out my own copies more often!

Cody said...

Those books are the the first vegan cookbook I bought. The first two were on clearance through a book club I belonged to, and sat on my shelf for almost a year before I finally started cooking from them and decided that veganism wouldn't be so difficult afterall.

Chrissy said...

I have LDV - I need to get her other books as well.

And I LOVE your housewarming gifts. Lemon desserts and lemon themed gifts - so perfect and thoughtful and adorable! I'm totally stealing it the next time I need to give a gift. :)

Amy said...

Mmmm yum! I want lemon basmati rice and lemon cookies and cookie bars!!!! It all looks incredible!

I love your housewarming gift. So pretty :)

Anonymous said...

I don't own any of Sarah Kramer's books and I think you just convinced me to get them. :D

A_and_N said...

Aaloo Gobhi is one of my favorites too :) I think Indian food provides a lot of tasty options for Vegans :) there is a gorgeous temple around Houstin that I've been wanting to visit for quite sometime now but never get the right opportunity...

Leslie Richman said...

I went home after reading this and made the Aloo Gobi Potatoes and Cauliflower for dinner!! So good. I added way more peas than the recipe called for too...because they are delicious!

VEGAN TICKLES said...

I've also been trying to utilize my cookbooks lately. I always tell myself...'No more cookbooks for you!" Then I start looking at blogs, get inspired, go to amazon, and order more books.

Anonymous said...

We made the Portobello Bake from Garden of Vegan the other night... YUMMM!!!!

MeloMeals said...

Yay for delicious vegan indian food!

Also, those chocolate chip bars look so great.

Vic Robinson said...

How it all Vegan is one of my favs. There are a ton ot great ideas in there.

Zoey said...

All your food looks delicious. I may be the only person I know who hasn't cooked out of these cookbooks. The Aloo Gobi Potatoes and Cauliflower look good enough that I will need to look into getting a copy of La Dolce Vegan.

Anonymous said...

La Dolce Vegan was my first veg cookbook. Your Aloo Gobi is electric looking! :) I'm making chickpea curry tonight. Hooray for Indian food!

aTxVegn said...

I love going back to the classics too! Indian food is always a great choice and so are chocolate chip cookie bars!

Cakespy said...

The cookie bars look PERFECT--what an ideal finish! I was just looking through your vegan baking recipe booklet from an event you had last year, so many good ones in that too! mmm.

The Voracious Vegan said...

You always have the best posts, I love the idea of this one. Really fun and very creative.

That aloo gobi looks insane. I eat aloo gobi all the time and this looks soooo good.

You are such a creative gift giver. love the lemon themed housewarming gift. How sweet and thoughtful of you. I would love to receive something like that.

And man oh man....cakey, moist, fluffy chocolate chip cookie bars. YUM!

jd said...

That Aloo Gobi looks so good! And so do those desserts!

It's funny how many amazing recipes are just sitting on my shelves (and yours!) at any given moment...

That's why I like that you decided to revisit "the classics" - I'm inspired to do the same thing now :)

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Everything looks wonderful. I could go for a chocolate chip cookie bar right now. It's dreary in SA. How have things been going for you? I've been out of touch but I haven't forgotten you. Hope all is well.

Tami said...

Now I want LDV just for that aloo gobi and cauliflower recipe. Yum!

Anonymous said...

I have all three books and use them quite a bit, but I have not tried these recipes. I will definitely be making them now. Yum!

jb said...

Everything looks delicious! The shortbread cookies look like a lovely gift!

Vaala ◪ said...

I think I've really got to dust off my cookbook shelf too! I keep finding things I really want to cook but never get around to making them!

Hannah said...

I have 2 out of 3 of these books, and honestly, I don't think I've ever used them. I could definitely stand to learn from your example though, it looks like you found some great recipes in them!

Anonymous said...

OMG, the cookie bars.

Bex said...

I've recently been going back to these too. They are full of good basic quick recipes to either follow closely or wing it into something else.