I think it’s nice when a cookbook author doesn’t exclude themselves from their writing. I don’t know Kerstin Rodgers and I hadn’t heard of her before getting V is for Vegan, but I can say with a substantial amount of confidence that no one else could have written this book. In her recipe headnotes, you learn that she’s an amazing organizer and director, heading up supper clubs and feeding hundreds of people at music festivals. She’s traveled the world and generously shares her souvenir-like memories, observations, lessons within the pages of this bright pink and yellow book. She shares some pretty great recipes too, gyoza and crumpets among them!
I have to say it, a lot of these recipes seem pretty twee to me. Gold-dusted pineapple flowers. Maybe at some point in my life making those will feel appropriate, but probably not more than once or twice. This isn’t an everyday cookbook, but the beautiful magazine-spread photos and whimsical layout make some of the more esoteric recipes worth reading and contemplating. Oh, to imagine a life in which we have time to step out to our backyard English gardens to gather a few edible flowers for tonight’s fresh flower and herb pasta or a towering, layered, 18th-century-style salad. I mean it–it really is nice to dream about.
That said, the gyoza and crumpets I mentioned earlier were totally doable and wonderful. I had been wanting to make gyoza for a few years, but I was intimidated about the prospect of making my own dough (all the recipes I’ve seen for vegan gyoza call for store-bought vegan dumpling wrappers, but every ingredient list I’ve ever checked has included egg!).
Combined with some independent research on making dough and dumpling folding techniques, this recipe has been categorized ‘keeper’ in my book, i.e., I want to make them every day from today until forever because they are so delicious and I want to eat them all the time.
And the crumpets! How fun. I can’t wait to make them again and perfect the process. They were chewy and amazing and reminded me of that German Apple Pancake/Dutch Baby fluffy but eggy texture I had been craving from my pre-vegan epoch.* I used to Google every now and then for a vegan German Apple Pancake recipe, but no more Googling for this problem will I do!
I had to get crumpet rings to cook these puppies in on the stovetop, but to me, four 99-cent round cookie cutters work sooo much better than crumpet rings (j/k, I’ve never used a crumpet ring – AND I NEVER WILL!). Back to the book though, I’ve learned to be a little skeptical of Rodgers’ recipe directions, to trust my gut about what heat or amount of cooking time will work best, because she said medium-high, and that was NOT RIGHT!
I also made a basil-quinoa-hazelnut-eggplant concoction that was nice, but I probably wouldn’t make it again. I have enough go-to, easy-peasy dishes in rotation already, and this one didn’t offer enough give any of them the boot.
I’m looking forward to making: Vegan Malt Loaf, Scrambled Tofu on Truffled Sourdough Bruschetta, Ramen Hacks, Spectacular Russian Stuffed Cabbage Rose, and, gosh darn it, maybe I will make that 18th-century salad.
*I looked up the word ‘epoch,’ and you can actually use it in reference to a person’s life, isn’t that cool? [Ed. note: yes, yes it is.]
**I also looked up whether or not the asterisk should go before or after the period, and it turns out asterisks go before a dash but after all other punctuation! YLSNED! (You learn something new every day!)
***Also looked up the difference between acronyms and initialism. I know I’m misusing asterisks right now. I’m sorry about that.
Full Disclosure: I was sent this cookbook free from the publishing company for review, however, all of the opinions stated above are my own.