ExtraVeganZa: Original Recipes from Phoenix Organic Farm

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ExtraVeganZa: Original Recipes from Phoenix Organic Farm

Author(s):

Laura Matthias

Label: New Society Publishers
Publisher(s):

New Society Publishers

Studio: New Society Publishers
Manufacturer: New Society Publishers
Binding: Paperback
List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $18.43
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Elevate your vegan palate to the sumptuous level!

ExtraVeganZa is an exquisite compilation of recipes that push the boundaries of vegan cuisine. The book presents over 250 tantalizing savory and sweet vegan recipes, including:

Appetizers, spreads, snacks and dips
Soups, salads, dressings, toppings and sauces
Rice, grains and legumes
Main dishes, side dishes, casseroles and pastas
Breakfasts, buns and breads
Cakes, icings and glazes
Pies, pie crusts and "cheesecakes"
Puddings, mousses and fruit gels
Cookies and squares
Sweet loaves, brownies, cobblers, crumbles and oddballs
Beverages and frozen treats

Adding unique flair, ExtraVeganZa highlights the elegant presentation of dishes using edible flowers and fresh herbs as garnishes, as well as natural foods as alternatives for food dyes, producing some rare colored treats for the eye. An edible flowers glossary and a special section on natural food dyes helps the reader experiment further.

Also unique is the philosophy of the book. An important milestone in vegan cuisine, it incorporates the larger scale vision of growing your own food or at least knowing where it comes from, and creating a more sustainable lifestyle. At the author's organic farm and B&B, they grow as much food as possible for themselves, their guests, farm workers and the local community.

Laura Matthias is a field biologist, B&B owner-operator, and organic farmer. A long-time vegan, she has researched the nutritional value of foods, worked in a vegan restaurant and cooked vegan food as a personal chef for clients with dietary sensitivities.

Customer Reviews

small town vegan

I own a number of really good vegan cookbooks, but this is my favorite. Every recipe I have tried has been fabulous. Really fabulous. The cookbook IS created with the freshest ingredients in mind (boy, i wish there was a wonderful farm here where I could buy fresh produce), but even living in a small town with no vegan resources...I have no trouble making any of her recipes. All her muffins are very good (the coconut almond carob chip one is sooo good), her dressings and sauces are awesome (strawberry jalapeno, coconut peanut sauce, yum!), the veggies (the sesame cabbage I could eat all day), the appetizers (spinach balls, black bean lime dip). Anyways, I really think it is awesome. GO OUT AND GET IT!!

Fabulous!

I've been vegetarian for over 20 years (vegan on and off) and have collected many, many cookbooks. This book is my absolute favorite - the one I reach for if I'm cooking for non-vegetarians who are traumatized at the idea of not getting meat. This woman uses SPICES and GARLIC. I can absolutely count on her recipes to be so flavorful that even my omnivore husband is wowed.

And if you like to read cookbooks, this one is a treat. Suffice it to say that her pigs do their spring tilling.

Lots of lavender and delicious recipes

I love this book - everything from the clever name to the mouthwatering pictures to the liberal use of lavender and did I mention that the recipes are delicious too?

The author, Laura Matthias, has quite a story. She was a field biologist raising a young son and wanting to escape the city. When she found a rundown organic farm with a funky house, she jumped at the change to move to the country. With lots of help, she got the farm up and running and then decided to open a Bed and Breakfast where she could serve gourmet breakfasts made from her own farm fresh produce. This cookbook is made up of many of the dishes she serves at the B & B - and lots more.

The appetizers include Spinach Balls, Artichoke Heart Dip, Spicy Stuffed Avocados and lots more that I can't wait to serve at my next party. Since I was reviewing this book in the winter, I was happy about the all the delicious soups to choose from. I made the Spiced Red Lentil, Potato Parsnip and the Sweet Pepper Corn Chowder. We liked them all but the favorite of the kids was the Red Lentil while I especially liked the Chowder - made with coconut milk and jalapeno peppers.

I didn't have a chance to try any of the salads (like I said, it's winter) but there are some great choices like Mint Beet, Tuscan Bean, Pad Thai Noodle, and Sesame Spinach. Side dishes also sound good - like Coconut Cilantro Rice and Lemon Curried Lentils and Potatoes. I just bought the ingredients for the Black Bean Sweet Potato Almond Burgers and my kids can't wait for me to make the Smoky Baked Beans.

I did get to try a couple of entrees. The Vegan Pad Thai was very good - more peanut buttery than the authentic dish but a real hit with my family. The Baked Kabocha Squash with Savory Stuffing was perfect for our holiday dinner and I'm still looking forward to trying the Root Vegetable Pot Pie and the Friendly Shepherd's Pie.

I'm baking my way through the wonderful assortment of muffins, buns, and breads offered. So far, we've made the Apple Walnut Spice Muffins but I want to try the Lemon Lavender Blueberry Muffins next. Speaking of lavender, the Lavender Chocolate Chunk Cookies were amazing. Really amazing. Really, really amazing. I almost always try the chocolate chip cookie recipe in any cookbook I review and this is the first vegan version I really feel I can rave about. If you like thick, crisp chocolate chip cookies (which my husband for one much prefers over the chewy kind), you will love these. I happened to have guests over the day I tried them and they were gobbled up in no time. (Darn, I was hoping for leftovers!)

Okay, I'll go on with my review before I start drooling. There are lots of other goodies like pies, cakes, tarts, brownies, truffles, puddings, "cheese" cakes, baklava - okay, I really am drooling now. I think I'll go do some baking - and you, don't you need to be heading to the bookstore to get a copy for yourself?

Recipe as seen on www.vegfamily.com by Cathe Olson

Too Shee-shee-froo-froo

I have always appreciated a healthy lifestyle and diet. Though I am not strictly vegan, I don't deal in meat in my home and have been cooking vegan for about a year now. I was getting bored with my How It All Vegan cookbook, and wanted to venture out. I purchased this one after reading several positive reviews. The book hardly lived up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous book with a lot of tasty recipes. However, the recipes really only work if you've just pulled the ingredients out of your garden. I don't have that luxury; in fact where I live I don't even have a green grocer. That said, if you're looking for accessible vegan recipes that use igredients that you can find in your supermarket, this is NOT the book for you. Added to that, the book contains no nutritional info on the dishes, and doesn't even have one of those fun intro to veganism sections. The section about edible flowers just felt like another adventure into recipe erudition. On the whole, this book will probably sit on my shelf and come down on the rare occassion that I have a lot of money to spend at the farmer's market and want to make a big meal. Other than that, I've written it off as a venture that I wish I hadn't taken.

Delicious, un-intimating recipes that have become favorites

Mm, mm! When I look for cookbooks, I look for something that not only sounds good but doesn't look too intimidating to make or have ingredients I'll never be able to find. I'm not the world's best cook by far, so I steer clear of anything truly complicated. When I saw this book it sounded delicious so I went ahead and picked it up and boy am I glad! I've only made a few recipes but they have all been DELICIOUS! The veggie kebabs and the shepherd's pie have become staples in my family and when serving guests because they are just SO good. Very good recipes that don't require you to be a professional. Perhaps not for someone who has never cooked before (it's not a tutorial-type book), but well worth having. I have several vegan-specific cookbooks as well as some general cookbooks and I think this may be my favorite of all of them. YUM!

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