The good people of the Post Punk Kitchen forums came up with a way to get more use out of our cookbooks. It’s similar to my Cafe Flora weekend a while ago but this time the whole forum is using the same book. Last week they picked Voluptuous Vegan, a book I love, but I didn’t get my arse in gear to join in. This week they picked Yellow Rose Recipes. I’ve liked what I’ve tried from the book so far but not used it as much as I’d like, so I joined in with gusto.
Over the course of the week I made 4 new dishes so I think I made a pretty good stab at it. The first dish I made was for week lunches and I didn’t photograph it – couscous chickpea salad. It stored and travelled well and I loved the leeks and mushrooms in it, but the dressing was a bit sharp for me. I would make it again but change the dressing and up the seasoning a touch.
The first evening meal was twice baked stuffed potatoes with sesame green beans. The idea of the potatoes was the same as the one I tried from Veganomicon a few weeks ago but the filling was very different – a nice broccoli and mushroom. The beans were simple but amazing and I’m not normally a huge green bean fan but i’d willingly eat a whole plateful of these.
Next up came Kasha Varnishkas. I’d been looking at this recipe for ages but since my husband is not a big lover of buckwheat I was waiting for him to clear off one night so I could try it. In the end he said he would try it so I made it with the addition of the mushroom gravy and some cabbage. Wow. We both loved it, and Joanna was right in her intro that it tasted even better the next day. If you haven’t tried buckwheat or think you don’t like it, try it this way and I think you’ll have a new love. It seemed to use quite a lot of pans but as I don’t do the washing up, I didn’t really care!
Last but not least, pasta e fagioli. This was quite a simple pasta dish with beans and spinach, but it had a nice combination of herbs and spices and was a nice comfort food meal and made really good lunch leftovers too.
This was a really successful week. It made it nice and easy deciding what to eat and it made me try a few things I’ve had my eye on for ages. If you’ve got lots of partially used cookbooks cluttering up your shelves, why not pick one out and try a few new dishes one of these weeks?
Cooking the Vegan Books 
I need this book!
I made the pasta last week as well, although I don’t think my review has made it onto my blog yet. We all really liked it and it did reheat well the next day for lunch! There are loads more I’d like to try in the book too, you’ve inspired me to get it out and see what I can make from it this week!
Ha Ha, last week I also could’t drag myself into the kitchen to cook from the voluptuous vegan, althoug I too love the book.
So sad that I don’t have Yellos Rose Recipes, all your food looks yummy as hell.