Vegan al Fresco by Carla Kelly (photo: Megan Cole)
By Megan Cole
Let me start this by saying, I am not a vegan. I was a vegetarian once, but haven’t been for probably five or six years. But as a keen home cook, I am eager to try out recipes of all kinds, including vegan.
With about five vegan cookbooks on my shelf now, I am always looking for something new, interesting and not too dependent on soy. Flipping though the pages of Carla Kelly’s Vegan al Fresco, I found recipes that not only looked delicious, but also seemed perfect for the way I like to eat 98 percent of the time: packed full of flavour.
Vegan al Fresco is designed to equip cooks and diners with an arsenal of recipes idea for picnics, barbecues, road trips and all kinds of outdoor dining experiences. The recipes span everything from cider battered tofu to cookies, cakes and ice cream.
To put the cookbook to the test I picked three recipes: Peanut rice noodle salad, pan pacific tofu and coconut ice cream. My criteria for picking these was pretty easy; I had most of the ingredients in my fridge and cupboards already, and they didn’t require me to turn on my oven or stove in the summer heat.
Peanut rice noodle salad (photo: Megan Cole)
I am a sucker for a noodle salad on a hot day, especially one with an Asian influence. As Kelly recommended, I prepared the salad about an hour before I planned to serve it and it made all the difference. The salad had great flavour from the dressing, the veggies and then a squeeze of fresh lime before eating. The one issue I had, and I tend to have this with all rice-noodle salads, is I found it hard to get the right ratio of noodle to everything. The veggies and peanuts seemed to settle on the bottom or edges of the bowl with the noodles in the middle. But, overall, I would make the salad again.
Pan pacific tofu (photo: Megan Cole)
The pan pacific tofu, done on the barbecue, really blew my mind. Even as a vegetarian, I hated tofu. Something about the texture and the general lack of flavour in tofu throws me off and I end up pushing it to the side of my plate. Kelly’s pan pacific tofu was that beautiful balance of sweet, salty, sour and spice that I absolutely love in Southeast Asian cuisine. In the recipe, Kelly says to put oiled tinfoil on the grill and then put the tofu on the tinfoil. This is absolutely genius! You still get beautiful char marks through the tinfoil, but none of the sticking and falling between the grates of the barbecue.
Coconut ice cream (photo: Megan Cole)
No vegan outdoor meal would be complete without ice cream, and I chose the coconut ice cream. I don’t know if it was because I found it too sweet, but I am on the fence with the ice cream. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth and I love some balance with my ice cream, like a bit of sour to counter all the sugar. I also found the confectioner’s sugar in the recipe dominated the coconut flavour. The recipe was easy, straightforward and I had everything in my cupboards. But next time I would modify the recipe, removing some of the confectioner’s sugar and maybe adding some citrus juice, or maybe topping it with a sour cherry compote.
The final verdict for Vegan al Fresco: I am eager to try some of the other recipes, particularly the cookies and crackers. For any vegan, this cookbook is a great addition to a collection, and for us omnivores, there are great ideas for meat-free meals, which we should all have in the rotation by now. The recipes are easy and straightforward, and the ingredients are available in most grocery stores. Definitely a cookbook worth picking up.
Vegan al Fresco by Carla Kelly is available now through Arsenal Pulp Press.
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