It’s nearly 5pm, and the sun seems especially infused with goldenness (is that a word? if not, it should be!) as it prepares for a later and later sunset. I’ve got a few minutes to write this quick post before I resume preparations for the coming workweek.
I started reading books that will be contenders for a Silver Birch nomination later this year, and since I can’t tell you anything about these until the nominations are announced in October, there will be many weeks when I just won’t have any books I can write about. This is the first of those weeks, but I did want to tell you about a delicious cookbook that I’ve been using recently in my efforts to adopt a more vegan lifestyle. The Buddhist Chef: 100 simple feel-good vegan recipes by Jean-Phillippe Cyr is written by a, you guessed it, Buddhist chef who manages the kitchen at a Meditation Centre, I’m not sure where, but he’s from Quebec, so he’s practically “local”! Since borrowing this cookbook from the library before Christmas, I have tried numerous recipes and want to try many more, as time permits (there’s only so much tofu and tempeh I can eat in a week!). One of my favourites is for eggless mushroom and leek mini-quiches, which are simple, tiny bites of heaven made with chickpea flour and broth instead of eggs. I’ve also made a spicy flavourful lentil dish, normally made with pork, called Cretons, which I guess is a very popular breakfast spread in Quebec, and I’ll admit that it’s delicious on a toasted Jerusalem bagel on a Saturday morning. Almost all of the recipes are simple and are made with ingredients I already have or are readily available, such as lentils, tempeh, tofu, soy sauce, and, of course, maple syrup. I would highly recommend this book for fans of lentils and mushrooms, as many of his recipes call for mushrooms as meat substitutes. I’m thrilled to try out new recipes from this book, and was so excited about them, I bought a copy of the book for myself. There’s a second book, The Buddhist Chef: vegan comfort cooking, that I like less than the original, but it, too, has lots of good recipes. I just made Breakfast Date Cookies from that book, which I borrowed from the library, and they are yummy. So if you are interested in exploring vegan cooking, I would recommend either of these as a simple way to start your journey.
That’s all for today. Enjoy the rest of the sunny day, and try to take in at least some of the sunset!
Bye for now…Julie
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