Avalovara

…aka cookbooks. A sampling of what I own and recommend (in no particular order):

The Millenium Cookbook and The Artful Vegan: These two vegan cookbooks come from The Millenium Restaurant in San Francisco. Recipes are gourmet-style – fancy recipe titles, long list of unusual ingredients, multiple sets of instructions, requiring an hour or two (or even three) in the kitchen. The results are amazing. I reserve these for special occasions or when I want to impress.

The Candle Café Cookbook: Cookbook of the Candle Café, a vegan restaurant (two locations) in New York City.

Teany Book: This should please Pierre. Moby, who is not just a musician but also a vegan (this pleases me), has a “tea salon” in New York: Teany. The book provides the story, and a handful of lovely recipes. Many times when I bake you brownies, I am using the “chocolate petit-four” recipe from Teany.

The Joy of Vegan Baking: A cookbook my sister got me. I prefer to choose my own cookbooks, as it is too much of a hit-and-miss business, but I have admit – she presented me with a gem here. What I love about it: in addition to the delicious recipes (accompanied by tantalising photographs), this cookbook contains a lot of information about how to substitute ingredients (e.g. when veganising recipes) and a plethora of practical tips that will improve anyone’s baking.

My Sweet Vegan: Another vegan baking cookbook, written by 18-year old Hannah Kaminsky. The cookbook includes some amazing creations, but pays less attention to more healthful substitutions. Hannah also has a blog, on which she shares many of her experiments.

From the Tables of Lebanon: Middle Eastern cuisine is simply divine. It is simple, but amazing: a dash of lemon here, some freshly ground pepper there, a spoonful of extra-virgin olive oil. Try some hummus, spinach pies or tahini sauce, and you will know what I mean. Recipes (classified as vegetarian, though most are actually vegan) in this book are all quick and most ingredients are readily available, which is why this is one of my most used cookbooks.

Silk Road Cooking: Another vegetarian, rather than vegan cookbook that contains delights from the Silk Road, stretching from Italy to China. This book is also full of anecdotes and gorgeous photographs of spice markets and other Asian scenes, which is why I purchased an extra copy for my mother (who does not particularly like to cook, but loves Asia).

The Greek Vegetarian: Although Greeks are now known as meat-eaters, their cuisine actually features a lot of vegetarian cooking. This is because traditionally meat was too expensive to eat every day and people would subsist primarily on vegetables, including foraged wild foods (borage, herbs of all types, etc.). Greek cooking has the simplicity of Middle Eastern cuisine (in fact, there are plenty of shared dishes) and is equally outstanding. I obtained this book motivated by a visit to Athens in 2007, when, while attending the English A1 IB training, I stayed with the family of my friend Eleni and feasted on home-cooked Greek food every day!

Nonna’s Italian Kitchen: I have loved every recipe from this vegan cookbook that I have had for a few years. The author is also sensitive to allergies, and often recommends substitutions for people unable to consume soy and wheat.

ExtraVeganZa: A cookbook from a vegan farm in Phoenix Arizona. I received this book as a present recently, so I have only tried a handful of recipes, which I love.