As of late around here, we've been trying all sorts of new spices and seasonings to add a little variety into what we're eating. I'm now eating mostly vegan, and one of the best things to add into your diet {vegan or not} is lentils and a variety of beans. I thought I would start to post some of the recipes and tricks that I've been trying.
I have been reading a lot of different vegan and Indian cookbooks and I will include links to the sources so that all of you can enjoy them {and hopefully I won't have anyone try to sue me}. Although I'm using a lot of Indian spices and recipes, I hesitate to call it Indian food, because I have not been taught by anyone how to do it correctly, so I'm calling it MEI {Middle Eastern-Inspired food}.
Some of my favorite books so far:
Vegan Indian Cooking by Anupy Singla
This woman is amazing! She walks you through all of the various spices, lentils - what they look like, where to find them, how to roast spices {a new one for me!}, and how to cook beans/lentils in your slow cooker so that you don't have to spend lots of time over a stove. She also has quite a few new and inventive recipes for not just dinner, but also breakfast and dessert! The only downside to this book so far is that most of the recipes are rather time consuming until you've built up your pantry of spices and homemade spice mixes {she gives recipes and instructions on how to make each combination}. She has another book using the slow cooker, which I am waiting to get from the library so that I can use my favorite appliance too.
The New Vegan Cookbook by Lorna Sass
If you have to get one vegan cookbook, get this one. She has written out helpful hints and tons of basic recipes for everything from creamy herb salad dressing to cuban picadillo. This cookbook has a great variety of recipes for foods that you can easily combine with whatever else you plan to make for gatherings, barbeques, or just lunch.
Simple Vegan by Good Housekeeping
This book was a pleasant surprise. It has awesome recipes that are not overly complicated, and have turned out really tasty. My favorite recipe so far has been their idea for black bean burgers, which I have been able to manipulate into many different flavors depending on what we are in the mood for. Good Housekeeping also has a really good vegetarian recipe book, which has some good vegan recipes which I really like. This book would be great for vegetarians out there who don't mind having some vegan dishes. However most of the vegetarian recipes are not easily converted to vegan {they rely a lot on eggs, cheese, and dairy products}.
The Sexy Vegan Cookbook by Brian Patton
This is good for plenty of laughs and definitely has some good recipes, but too many of the recipes rely on cooking with tempeh, seitan, and tofu. I don't mind using these manufactured protein substitutes sometimes, but they always seem a little off to me, as someone who recently gave up meat. He has some really good salad recipes though that have worked well.
I'm writing up some new recipes that I have recently tried, as well as some that have become quick favorites, so as soon as those are finished, I will post them here.
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