Foods That Don't Bite Back by Sue Donaldson

The book I've been cooking my way through most recently is Foods That Don't Bite Back; Vegan Cooking Made Simple by Sue Donaldson.

I borrowed this from the library and was amused to see that someone had borrowed it before me and put little checkmarks on the recipes they tried. I love when people do that! Although I wish they had given an indication of whether the recipes had worked for them; a little smiley face or something would have been nice. I had to laugh, then, when I opened up a Punjabi vegetarian cookbook and saw that the Checkmarker had been there, too. We have the same taste in books!


Pissaladiere - This is the first thing I made from this book, and holy crap am I glad that I made it. This is France's answer to pizza; imagine a soft thin, yet fluffy crust with just the right amount of chewiness and just firm enough to support a thick creamy layer of sweet, caramelised onions. A colourful lattice of roasted peppers (a vegan substitute for anchovies, in this case) and a final sprinkle of pine nuts, capers, and kalamata olives elevates this to Special Occasion status; but it's easy enough to make that I think a weekly pizza night should be declared a special occasion.


Ratatouille - This is a dish to celebrate the summer harvest; tomatoes, eggplant, bell pepper, and zucchini, all stewed together with fragrant seasonings like garlic and basil. I served it with fresh corn on the cob and a big platter of garlic bread, and my family enjoyed it very much. I re-worked the leftovers by mixing in cumin and curry and serving it on a plate of gai lan with mock mutton from the Chinese grocery store. Good stuff. My only complaint is that I think the zucchini should be added closer to the end of the cooking time, since I'm not a fan of soft zucchini. I also feel that the dish benefits more from fresh herbs, rather than dried.


Korean Tofu - This dish is amazing! Tofu is marinated in a mixture of tamari, sugar, garlic, onion, and mustard, fried until browned, and then the marinade is added to the pan to make a glaze for the tofu. I used minced fresh onion instead of powder, and wet mustard instead of dry, but I think the result would have been delicious either way. Even my mom enjoyed this stuff and getting her to try tofu is no small feat. This made very pretty meal on a bed on greens, and the leftovers were great cold.


Mexican Corn Salad - Oof, this is the one recipe I did not like. The only change I made was to put onion instead of cilantro. The flavour was great, but the issue I had was texture; the soft black beans, the soft cooked corn, the soft tomato, the soft avocado....The recipe suggested using fresh corn, but it actually should have demanded it since maybe that would have brought in more texture. If I were to make it again (and I might, since the flavour was fine) I would introduce some chopped celery or cucumber to bring in some crunchy elements. Bell pepper, too. As it is, though, the salad does make a good salsa for burritos, but I wasn't able to make enough burritos to get through it all.


sorry, this would have been prettier with more lettuce


Carrot Tahini Sandwich Filling - Ah, here's a different sandwich filling. I'm used to making a sort of fake chicken salad sandwich by mixing vegenaise and relish with coarsely mashed chickpeas; that and hummus are really the only savoury sandwich spread recipes I know, so this was something new for me to try. Shredded carrots are mixed with tahini, vegenaise, nutritional yeast, and some diced green onion. The end result is a vibrant spread that was delicious on toast with some shredded lettuce. I can't wait to throw this in a wrap with a handful of sprouts and some julienned bell pepper. This'll be great for work lunches; the only thing is that it seems to have a tendancy to turn the bread orange, but that's easily bypassed by putting it in a little jar and spreading it on the bread just before I eat it.


Creamy Chocolate Pudding - First of all, I should mention that I think every vegan should have a tofu-based chocolate pudding recipe up their sleeve. It's so easy to blend firm silken tofu into a creamy dessert, and omnivores will never guess that it's actually made from tofu. The recipe I've long been making consists of melted chocolate chips blended with tofu. It's rich and chocolatey and sets up firm enough to make a chocolate pudding pie that you can slice into and serve with some soy ice cream if you so desire. So, since I already had such a good recipe, I was wondering if this new recipe could stand up to it. In the Foods That Don't Bite Back version of chocolate pudding, firm silken tofu is blended up with granulated sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and just a little bit of oil. The result was so much richer and chocolatier than I expected. It even passed the Mom test. I'm still going to use melted chocolate for my pies, but I think I'm going to make it this way from now on when I want a straight-up creamy chocolatey pudding.


Recipes: 4 out of 5 stars. The flavours were excellent throughout, but the textures of the corn salad and the ratatouille were just a little too soft for me.

Extras: The book has an excellent introduction and a great section for sample menus. It's too bad that there aren't any photos or nutritional analyses, and I was excited to see a chapter about vegan pets but a little disappointed to see that she reccomends seeing a homeopathic vet. 2.5 stars.


Final grade: 6.5 stars


Would I reccomend it? Yes, I think it's a pretty good book overall, and probably worth it just for the pissaladiere recipe. There's a lot of good standard recipes from a variety of cultures here.

Little Buddy checkin' out my meal. As I type this, he's curled up in the laundry basket and kicking a pair of blue-jeans repeatedly. Weirdo.