Sunday, October 21, 2012

Book Review - Vegan Eats World - Giveaway!!


How excited am I for yet another new cookbook from Terry Hope Romero? I'm more excited than a 12 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert! That's pretty darned excited. I have cooked so many recipes from Viva Vegan, Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar it isn't funny. Terry's recipes are always well written and tested, it is always a safe bet to whip one out for hungry friends with confidence. When I heard she was writing an international cookbook, it was all I could do not to break out into multi-lingual, international song.

The book starts off with a huge table of contents. She breaks the world down into 12 chapters that cover everything from spice blends to curries to desserts and lots more in between. Like Veganomicon, Vegan Eats World includes handy icons for meals that take under 45 minutes, mostly inactive time, cheaper ingredients, easy, low fat, gluten free, and soy free recipes. This makes the huge book a little less intimidating. 

The first part of the book is a section called Kitchen Cartography. This section is great for the less experienced cook. It offers lots of great tips and basic prep hints with cute little illustrations. I've never been very good at mis en place, but after reading her little blurb on mis en place, it just seems to be silly not to do it. Terry includes some basic cooking terms and methods. It is an international cookbook, so she takes a bit of time to describe some ingredients the reader may not be familiar with and separates them out by region. Even you seasoned cooking veterans are likely to learn something new. 

The second part of the book includes all of the creative and varied recipes. Terry knows her way around the kitchen and the world. There are 300 recipes in this section. Each chapter includes an encouraging introduction. The recipes are easy to read and use. The biggest problem you will have with the book is deciding where to start and what to make first. To help you with this quest, she provides really handy resources including some menu ideas, recipes by icon and an excellent index at the end of the book.

For me, it was an ingredient that I wanted to use that led me to the recipe I made first. I had some aji amarillo paste in my pantry that really needed some love. I fell in love with this pepper paste while testing for Viva Vegan. I was thrilled to find a very intriguing recipe in which to use it. The Andean Aji Bean Stew (pg. 116) had five of the cute little icons listed: mostly inactive time, cheaper ingredients, easy, low fat and soy free. Sounded like a perfect weeknight meal to me!

As the icons indicated, this was a very easy and low maintenance recipe. The most time intensive prep was peeling and chopping the butternut squash. It is chock full of antioxidant rich veggies. The beans and quinoa give it a good protein boost. The aji amarillo gave the stew a beautiful spice. I loved the hint of smokiness imparted by the smoked paprika and liquid smoke. This was a wonderful one dish meal. It got a thumbs up from my family and one very meat eating co-worker. This is going to be in my regular rotation for sure. 


Now it is your turn! You can win your copy even before the release date! One very lucky commenter is going to take a trip around the world with Terry courtesy of Da Capo Lifelong Books. Leave a comment about your most memorable international food/eating experience or your favorite type of international cuisine by midnight tomorrow night, Monday, 10/22/12. The winner will be chosen at random Tuesday. US and Canada shipping only please. 

OK, folks. Here is the winner of Artisan Vegan Cheese...

Commenter #14!! Laura C.

Laura, please make sure to contact me at vegintraining at g mail dot com with your shipping information. Congrats!!!


31 comments:

  1. That's a hard choice, because Thai, Indian, and Middle Eastern are all fantastic in my book. Once we had an Indian food potluck at church and since we have several Indian families that attend our church most of the food was super tasty.

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  2. I think I'd have to go with Greek/Mediterranean type stuff - falafel, hummus, flatbread, gyros, all that delicious goodness!! I'm a confessed picky eater, but it's hard to go wrong with food that you think of when you say "Mediterranean cuisine." :)

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  3. It is so hard to pick a favorite cuisine... Everywhere in the world has something good! But I am really really partial to Thai food, because my mom cooked a lot of it when I was a little kid so it's delicious and nostalgia-inducing.

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  4. My favorite international eating experience was in Budapest, a city that I expected to be a hungry vegan in! I was proved wrong when I encountered several awesome restaurants serving traditional hungarian food, vegan style!

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  5. When we were living in NYC my husband and I discovered the area where all the dosa places are and it was amazing. My favorite cuisine is probably tex-mex.

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  6. My favorite international eating experience is an amazing falafel stand in a tiny town in Israel-best falafel ever!

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  7. I'm a big fan of middle eastern, especially the mezze type vegetable dishes. Ethiopian is growing on me, though..

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  8. French baguette with tartex while riding the train to England. The best.

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  9. My most memorable international dining experience was eating a traditional Japanese breakfast at a monastery in Japan.

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  10. I'm going to have to go with Italian food! I'm Italian, I speak Italian, I've been to Italy...most memorable meal? Espresso and biscotti on a rooftop in Florence, overlooking the whole city.

    Mamma mia! Spero che vincero questo libro! (I hope I will win this book!!)

    XOXO

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  11. Can't wait to try that stew! Don't enter me in the contest tho, cause I already have a copy on it's way to me. :)

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  12. A most memorable meal was a dinner of Turkish treats that my Aunt made when I was a kid. It was my first experience of home-cooked international cuisine (other than Sicilian, which is what I grew up with in my family) and I was just so awestruck by all the strange new tastes and ingredients. I definitely remember the oh-so-delicious and flaky burek and baklava. Lots of olives, grapes, apricots and figs too. All so squealingly yumful!

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  13. I love so many cuisines, but Ethiopian is definitely my current favorite!

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  14. I love Afghan and Persian food!

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  15. Oh man, what a hard choice. I guess I would have to say my current favorite is Indian, but I also love middle-eastern and Thai.

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  16. THAI FOOD!! I never really discovered it til going Vegan, and it's so good I wanna go visit Thailand :-)

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  17. My favorite international food memory was eating waffles practically every day when I studied in Brussels. I wonder if those are vegan...

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  18. I have a tie, Japanese, Middle Eastern and Caribbean are my favorite international cuisines.

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  19. I love Indian, Thai and Korean food. It's hard to pick one. I love all of the flavors!

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  20. Exciting! One of my best experiences was when my friend made an Eid dinner for a large group, and made it completely vegan so I could participate. It was delicious! As a bonus, all of the guests were amazed that it was vegan, and we had a great discussion about it.

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  21. I love Asian food which I think is great since it's so readily available vegan.

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  22. It was wonderful in Australia, to see the care and concern over environmental preservation... sharing in a backyard barbecue, which was this enormous stone structure. Eating local ingredients picked that day, in the open air... super!

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  23. There's a pretty awesome Middle Eastern bakery near my husband's work that makes the best hummus wraps. He always brings me home the extras when his office has catered lunches!

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  24. I'm quite partial to Polish dishes, especially as the weather turns colder, because they remind me of my grandma and learning how to cook by her side.

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  25. My most memorable international dining experience was eating spaghetti and drinking wine on a canal in Venice, Italy. So magical! I love Terry so I'd love to win this book!!

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  26. It's a tie between Chinese and Indian food for my favorite.

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  27. My favourite is quickly becoming Vietnamese--strong, clear flavours, good spice, and you feel light but satiated at the end.

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  28. My favourite international cuisine is Mexican. Mole, tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas... YUM!

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  29. I guess one of my most memorable international food experiences would have to be the first time i had Ethiopian food. It was so different to have food served on an edible platter of bread and to eat with my hands by the help of edible utensils of the same bread. Some of the flavors were similar to Indian, but still, the whole experience was so new and exciting, and everything was so flavorful and delicious.
    I am also breaking out in multilingual, international song and dance in anticipation of this book while weeping tears of joy! I am sooo excited for it!

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  30. We're finally getting some decent Thai places in my neck of the woods and I can't get enough of Thai basil vegetables.

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  31. My favorite cuisine is Indian. I could eat that 90% of the time....at least!

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