More Cookbook Reviews

Oodles and Oodles of Vegan Noodles

by Cheynese Khachame
Genres: Cooking
Published on November 21, 2023
Pages: 128
Format: eARC Source: Netgalley

The first plant-based, pan-Asian noodle cookbook, featuring classics made vegan and exciting innovations

When author Cheynese Khachame became vegan, she brought her passion for Asian cuisine along for the ride. As she veganized—and improvised—her favorite recipes, TikTok followers ate it up!

Now, in Oodles and Oodles of Vegan Noodles , Cheynese plant-ifies popular dishes from Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and China and offers entirely new noodle recipes. From cold to hot, soups to sauces, this cookbook fulfills all your wildest cravings—cozy up with a bowl of Vietnamese Pho, spice up your lunch with Soba Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce, or give classic carbonara a twist with Udon Carbonara Japanese Style.

With more than fifty delicious plant-based recipes and mouthwatering photos, Oodles and Oodles of Vegan Noodles is your one-stop shop for meals to slurp!

I love noodles but I don’t get to eat them very often. I can’t go to most Asian restaurants because of the husband’s food allergies. I was excited to find a plant-based noodle book so I could make them at home.

Most of the ingredients in this book are easily found in well-stocked grocery stores.

The photography in the book is outstanding. Everything looks so good. There are several recipes that I could make without any modifications for allergies. Others could be modified easily.

There are several standard soup bases that have recipes here along with vegan substitutions for oyster and fish sauces. Those are nice recipes to have on hand if you need them.

I’ll definitely be saving a few of these recipes to make if we want some Asian food. The only issue is that most of the dishes have many ingredients and are not quick to make. These would be recipes to make on days when you have a lot of time to devote to making dinner.

More Cookbook Reviews

Beautiful Bread

by Theresa Culletto
Genres: Cooking
Published on October 10, 2023
Pages: 176
Format: eARC Source: Netgalley

For beginner and expert bread bakers alike, learn how to turn artisan focaccia breads into over 30 showstopping edible creations!

Let professional baker and bread artist Theresa Culletto show you how to take your bread baking to the next level by turning rustic focaccia breads into artful masterpieces. In Beautiful Bread, you will not only master how to make four types of focaccia—white, whole wheat, dark multigrain, and sweet—you will also learn techniques for decorating them with vegetables, fruits, herbs, seeds, and more through over thirty stunning bread art projects inspired by flowers, famous artists, nature, and holidays, including:

Spring Tulips
Cherry Blossoms
Monet's Lily Pond
Under the Sea
Solar System
Saint Patrick's Day Lucky Clover
Easter Basket
Christmas Tree
And more!

For beginners, Theresa offers a comprehensive overview of bread baking 101, including essential ingredients, tools, and terminology. For seasoned bakers, she provides a plethora of inventive tips and techniques. Complete with step-by-step instructions, a vibrant photo accompanying each project, and recipes for savory and sweet toppings and fillings, Beautiful Bread will soon have you creating edible art that’s almost too beautiful to eat . . . almost.

I’ve made focaccia a few times in the past few months. I was interested in this book to learn how to make it fancy.

There are three main bread recipes here – a white focaccia, a whole wheat, and a sweet focaccia. The white is similar to what I’ve made before. I’d also be interested in the trying the sweet one.

The main focus of this book, after learning how to make the bread, is decorating. The author shows ideas for how to decorate using vegetables and herbs. She shows how to make many types of flowers, how to make decorations for holidays, and how emulate the styles of different artists in bread. They are very pretty and will inspire you to try to be more artistic when baking bread for parties.