{cookbook review} Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food

The folks over at Da Capo Press (Perseus Books) contacted me to see if I wanted a free copy of the newest cookbook from Susan O’Brien called Gluten Free Vegan Comfort Food. Naturally, I said yes.

The recipes in this book are right up my alley. They aren’t outrageous and do not require a ton of expensive or unusual ingredients that wouldn’t already be found in a gluten-free or vegan kitchen – or regular kitchens for that matter.

Since I usually make all the food decisions in the house I decided to get Levi’s help in choosing a couple recipes to test for this review. He chose these recipes:

• Banana Macadamia Nut Curry
• Key Lime Pie

I’m actually shocked he didn’t try to sneak more dessert recipes in there. Like, really shocked. He’s such a sweets fiend.

I’ve made these three recipes and I have to say I’m pretty impressed with this cookbook. So impressed, in fact, that I might go pick up Susan’s other gluten-free and vegan cookbook which is similarly named (okay, identically named) like my blog.

First, the Banana Macadamia Nut Curry. I hadn’t considered adding bananas to a curry before and it was really different. I loved the texture contrasts with the soft banana and the crunch of macadamia nuts. This Hawaiian-inspired dish is definitely a departure from the normal comfort food I was expecting to see in this book.

What I was most excited about trying was the Key Lime Pie. It requires using another recipe in the book for a nut crust, too. So I guess technically I made three recipes for this review. The crust recipe flopped horribly. I followed it exactly as written and I can’t pinpoint where it went wrong. The crust basically ‘melted’ into the center of the pie plate. So disappointing. So instead, I decided to use the same raw pecan crust base as I use for the Pumpkin Pie Bars.

The Key Lime Pie recipe calls for 2 packages of Mori Nu tofu (in the tetra paks) and I am usually skeptical of desserts like ‘cheesecakes’ and ‘cream pies’ that are primarily tofu-based. I haven’t done a lot of baking with tofu and generally try to avoid these types of recipes. But since Levi picked it out, I was keen to see how it’d turn out. The flavor was quite good. I used fresh key limes and juiced them. I like the tartness. We served the pie with MimicCreme’s Healthy Top on top. I used coconut palm sugar and it darkened the mixture considerably. So then I tried to make it look more limey by using a few drops of green color – which turned the whole mixture a weird grey color. Stupid idea, Megan. In any case, I served the Key Lime Pie to some non-judgmental dinner guests and everyone pretty much enjoyed it. It’s a rich dessert but the tartness lightens it up.

Overall the recipes turned out quite lovely. I always find it a challenge to stick to a recipe completely but since I was reviewing these I stuck to them fully. As written, these recipes were great. With a bit of personalizing and tweaking you could do even more.

I’d recommend Gluten-Free Vegan Comfort Food as a good addition to your cookbook collection. I suspect for those new to the diet, or friends and family who are struggling with good ideas to make for those following a gluten-free and vegan diet, they would really benefit from these creative yet simple recipes.

You can pick up a copy through my Amazon link here.

Or, you can stay tuned and win a free copy yourself with a giveaway I’ve got planned in the month of April. Details to come very, very, very soon.

Disclosure: If you click through any links to Amazon from my site and buy something I receive a tiny percentage. Also, I received a free copy of this book from the publishers. I was not given this book in exchange for a review. However I really liked the cookbook and wanted to share it with you.