Has anyone read Linda Majzlik's "A Vegan Taste of..." cookbooks?

New vegan recipe books

Two new titles in the Vegan Taste of series by Linda Majzlik have been published. A Vegan Taste of East Africa and A Vegan Taste of Central America ....... priced at £5.99 each they are available post free from Jon Carpenter Publishing, Alder House, Market Street, Charlbury, Oxon. OX7 3PH Tel: 01689 870437 or 01608 811969.

I don't know if available to order from overseas, sorry's. :confused:

I am considering buying the whole set, only no one has really reviewed them on Amazon, B&N, and others. One person reviewed "A Vegan Taste of the Caribbean" and gave it one star out of four, but s/he sounded like a wet blanket anyway so I'm not inclined to heed it.

Has anyone read them, and, if so, how do you like the recipes? I am really wanting to expand my repretoire to vegan Caribbean, Mexican, African, Indian, and Middle Eastern fare . . .

Thank you for any information you may have! :)

I haven't gotten any of her books...yet, they are on my list. I have been experimenting with some recipes from this site:

http://www.congocookbook.com/

seems that a lot of them veganize really easy. I am working on perfecting the perfect nut butter stew...and I am playing with the black eyed peas fritters.

Good luck with your quest!

That website looks really good, thank you!!! And I see what you mean about being able to veganize . . . thanks again!!! :D

They're on my Amazon wishlist, but I haven't bought any yet :(

Have you considered Bryanna Clark Grogan's books? She has a lot of recipes on her site you could give a try to see if you like first.

http://www.bryannaclarkgrogan.com/page/page/590181.htm

She has Italian and Chinese cookbooks....;)

Both of which I own. Her chinese book is excellent - i've had it for over 5 years and used a lot. I haven't read the italian one yet thou. She's definately one of my favourite authors, infact I like all the books I've read by 'Book Publishing Company'. There's a vegan japanese book too by them that I have and recommend.

What is the title of the Japanese one? I love Japanese cooking but have developed a fear of getting something made with dashi...a past love of mine. Maybe I can start making things I love at home???;)

Contemporary and Traditional Japanese Cooking - details are here: http://books.offline.org.uk/index.ph...at=japanese#63

Yummmmmmm!!!!! Thanks so much!:D

I can check when i get home for any recipes in it you're specifically after, but it has plenty of tofu recipes and info for making and cooking with dashi/stocks (shiitake, kombu etc - bonito free!). I'm not sure there's any sushi info in there or not thou. Like bryanna's books it's written for an american audience (with techniques modified slightly), so i assume you'll be able to get most of the required ingredients.

I practically lived on agedashi tofu for a while...but can't eat dashi anymore, so a substitute for that would be wonderful. I was really fond of a noodle dish that has seaweed in it and I suspect dashi...sorry don't know the name....I couldn't pronounce it very well. The pickes were really good too.

Ah...but you are an angel! I really should get that book!

dashi is really simple to make - it's essentially just water that's had stuff left in it for a while ;)

Shiitake dashi is just boiling water with dried shiitake added for 30 mins then removed. Kombu (seaweed) dashi is the same but with dried kombu. Shiitake-kombu is...........you get the picture. According to wikipedia the most popular is Kombu-Bonito (bonito being little fishies :().

I sometimes make shiitake dashi then cut up the reconstituted shiitake and re-add with soy sauce, tamari, rice vinegar, mirin, sake (optional) and anything else from my cupboard i feel like (sesame oil etc) to taste. Boil it up, add deep fried tofu strips, simmer until the liquid has almost boiled off/is thick and use it in sushi. Alternatively add more water and miso to use as a soup base.

I own "A vegan taste of north Africa" and have to say that most recipes are really delish!

The only thing I didn't like so far were the things with TVP in it...but that's only a minority, most recipes are really easy, simple, good and naturally vegan, not veganized!

Hello there,
I have the Vegan Taste of Italy and was a bit put off by the dependence on vegan cheese substitutes in a lot of the recipes. I have put it away for a while and will come back to it later.

Rosalind

I have Vegan Taste of India and I think it's ok, although the recipes we've tried so far seem to turn out a bit on the blander side rather than flavourful like the stuff from our fave local indian restaurant! It does have lots of nice looking stuff in there, we just haven't gotten around to cooking that much of it. It seems quite low in fat really - sometimes I just want to load up the spices and put some fat in there to make it more 'authentic' ;) (authentic British version of Indian cuisine! :D )

In the Italy book Rosalind do they use shop bought cheese subs or give you recipes to make it yourself?

I too was thinking about buying some ( or all ) of these books but I am surprised by the lack of reviews whcih has really put me off.

I am ordering 2 coook books I borrowed from the library and really dont want to return lol - these being leah lenneman's easy vegan cooking and rose elliots low gi vegetarian cookbook, which is called something else in paperback version and has some vegetarian recipes but is mainly vegan.
Everything I've tried from these 2 books me and my omni OH have loved.

But if you have any of linda majzlicks books would you recommend them? and which ones are the best to start with in your opinion?

please comment


nicola

i bought the Mexican and Thai cookbooks, but haven't found them very inspiring. that said, i haven't been cooking anything interesting lately so it may just be my general apathy than any failing on the part of these books lol ;)

I've got the Italian one but I have to admit I haven't cooked anything from it yet. I think the lack of pictures is a bit of a problem for me because one gets used to all this gastroporn in magazines.

Some of the recipes do look worth a try though some seem a bit obvious.

I got the Greek one for xmas and it's rather good, I made a lot from it though there's nothing that special inside. A lot of veggie-based simple things!

I finally ordered some of the Linda Majzlik books, the French, Greek, Italian and Middle Eastern ones. I have looked through them and they have some great sounding recipes in them. I am like a kid in a sweet shop and dont know what to choose.lol

I agree pavotrouge, they are simple, mainly vegetable, grain etc based but they have given me some renewed enthusiam for cooking veg dishes. I think I have been eating too many meat analogues lately anyway.

For anyone who is interested - the Italian one does include quite a lot of cheese substitutes, and tvp type recipes, but then the substitutes these days are quite acceptable and I'm happy with that. She also assumes you can buy them, rather than making them yourself.

the other 3 books are mainly vegetable, bean, grain type meals, with less substitutes. All the books are great, though IMHO.


I will try some of the recipes and report back.

nicola

I think I have them all but rarely cook so can't really review them for you! However I've cooked many things from her other books (the dinner parties one and the baking one) as they are more suitable for what I want when I'm cooking - for parties or dinner parties.

Just thought I'd report back.

I have been cooking from these books and the recipes are great. Everyone including the omni's ( the rest of the family) have enjoyed them. I have cooked mainly from the greek and middle east ones so far mainly because I've been very busy and I had all the ingredients in, and they were quick recipes!!!


I'm looking forward to buying more of her books, the indian one is next on my list with one of the african ones.

I dont seem to miss the pictures - my food never turns out like the pictures anyway lol.

nicola

Does anyone have the Thai one?

yes, i do. it has some interesting-looking recipes but i haven't got round to trying any of them yet.

how much does it rely on replacements?

I love Thai food but am rather spoiled when it comes to Thai cooking due to a Thai-ex-girlfriend.

i take it you mean meat/dairy replacements? from a quick skim of the recipe titles, it would seem they don't use any replacements at all, except for a few that call for soya milk. the recipes are primarily vegetables, tofu and rice or noodles.

thanks a lot, then I think I'll buy it!

I also came across them on a website. I am very interested in cookbooks that have vegan recipes only. I own a lot of cookbooks and I can veganize many recipes, but it would be nice to have some vegan books as well.

Interesting to read your experiences.

Mirjam

Meanwhile I have quite a number of her books and I find it hard to choose a recipe to make because they all look very delicious. So far, I have tried some Greek, Middle Eastern and baking recipes. The baking recipes I made could have been a little sweeter and a little more spiced, but that is entirely a matter of taste, I suppose. I think it is great that she makes these cuisines available for vegans. :) My recent purchases are A vegan taste of Thailand and A vegan taste of East Africa and I may use one of them for the dinner group at our church in two weeks when we have to do the cooking.

Hi Jamie,
Ive been wanting to find out what kind of dishes are in that book.....vegan taste of india and only just came across your post. Would you mind just detailing the title of each recipe (if there are not too many:umm_ani:!) .I want to get an indian, spicey cookery book with predominantly vegetable dishes without much fat or breads and grains. Is this a good one to go for? And have you any others in mind?
Thanks for taking the time to read,
Nicolette

I have the Taste of France book, I have made the Mushroom, walnut & lentil pate, Red onion, tomato & tarragon tart, Vichyssoise and the Chocolate & hazelnut ramekin. They were all really good