A vegan cookbook shows you what you won't miss

[Guest guest]

When someone who is unfamiliar with vegan cooking thinks of it, often associated

thoughts include weird dishes, strange grains, and less flavor.

However, Priscilla Feral, author of her second vegan cookbook, " The Best of

Vegan Cooking, " hopes to change all that.

 

According to friendsofanimals.org, vegan is defined as a " way of living which

excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and

includes a reverence of life. It applies to the practice of living on the

products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs,

honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives

for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals. "

 

Feral is president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals. She said she had

previously given everything she had to her first cookbook, " Dining with Friends:

The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine, " so writing a new cookbook was a

welcome challenge.

 

" I expanded my own cooking, and got to test recipes at night and on weekends, "

Feral said. She also brought in her daughter, who is a photographer, to help

with the book, including doing the cover photo.

 

Part of the inspiration for the book came from a trip to Venice with her

daughter. While dining in Italy's famous restaurants, certainly not known for

their vegan cuisine and loaded with rich meat products, stocks and cheese, Feral

found herself and her daughter making suggestions to the staff as to how to

rework famous dishes to work with their vegan diet.

 

" We got into asking them to replace the butter for risotto and use vegetable

broth instead of chicken broth, and not add any cheese, " she said.

 

That concept became a whole chapter of risotto dishes, Feral said.

 

" There's a formula for making it — most people think they have to go to a

restaurant to get it, " she said.

 

Feral said she hopes the book inspires people who are new to the vegan world and

will show them they're not missing out on anything.

 

" I didn't think anything should be sacrificed. We wanted to show people

delicious looking food, the eye is important. You need a good palate to be a

good cook. You don't have to sacrifice anything for good vegan cooking, " she

said.

 

Feral said that in addition to vegan cooking, her cookbook will help

inexperienced cooks learn important skills in the kitchen, and said she thinks

cooking is a dying art for today's young people.

 

" A lot of people my daughter went to school with in Fairfield County had parents

with incredible, to-die-for kitchens, but they didn't cook in them. There was a

lot of food brought in, a lot of takeout. No one assembles as a family for

dinner. They don't sit down at tables anymore, so kids don't know how to cook

anymore. They don't know what goes into food prep, " Feral said.

 

And people on other kinds of specialized diets can benefit from Feral's new

book, like people on low sodium diets, who can learn how to bring flavor to food

without using salt.

 

" You can bring a lot of flavor to food with herbs and garlic, " she said.

 

Feral said it is even easy to fool dinner guests with her recipes who won't even

guess they are vegan meals. She said that new vegans can feel that an entirely

plant-based diet will not feel that they have lost anything. Feral did say that

losing cheese can be an adjustment, as vegetarians, a step or two before

straight vegan, tend to " throw cheese on everything. "

 

" There are some really good vegan cheeses in Britain that we don't have in our

markets yet, " she said.

 

As far as a favorite dish in her new cookbook, Feral said it is hard to decide.

But she said her favorites go along with the cookbook's inspiration, the

Italian-based dishes.

 

" The cauliflower risotto is probably my favorite. It is not only a great risotto

but has the boost of cauliflower, " she said. Feral said that most people have

probably grown up thinking " Ew, cauliflower! " but the recipe shows " how

sensational it can be in food. "

 

Feral said that people " rave " about the recipe no matter what their diets are.

 

" The Best of Vegan Cooking " is available at friendsofanimals.org, as well as

online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Feral said she is also working on

getting the book into the Organic Market in Westport and hopes to have it

available at local bookstores soon.