Thursday, July 7, 2011

Rustic Tater Salad

Back in November, my mom picked me up a copy of Vegan Rustic Cooking: Through the Seasons at the gift shop inside the Rainbow Co-op in Jackson, Mississippi. We were driving home from New Orleans and we'd stopped there for vegan lunch at High Noon Cafe. When she saw this book, she asked if I'd ever heard of it. I hadn't. I thought I knew about almost every vegan cookbook (because I'm a huge cookbook nerd!), but this one passed my radar.

That may be because Diane White's seasonal vegan cookbook was published in the U.K. It's filled with traditional European recipes, like Cottage Pie, Baked Courgettes (that's zucchini in America), Yorkshire Pudding, and Bubble and Squeak. Thankfully, the measurements are in both metric and American equivalents, so I can understand the recipes.

I'm finally cracking the book open. I'm not sure why, but the first thing I made with this Potato & Chickpea Salad:

It's boiled new potatoes (from the downtown farmer's market) topped with chickpeas, radishes, snow peas, carrots, and plain soy yogurt. Weird, right? But delightfully refreshing and tasty. I'm not sure if this is a traditional European salad. There are a few more non-traditional recipes in the book, so it might not be. But it was very different from anything I've ever made.

The cool, creamy yogurt was a great topping for the lightly salted and peppered taters, and I loved the crunch of the radishes and snow peas. I served the salad with crusty garlic bread, as suggested in the book.

What's your favorite (or should I say, "favourite" with a "u") European recipe? I know I have some European blogger friends out there! What do you love to make?

17 comments:

Prada handbags sale said...

wow......looks very delicious, but i cant cook this snacks, what a pity!

Alessandra said...

What a nice salad, but I guess that I like everything with chickpeas :-).

Nice recipes in your blog, if you don't mind I put your link on my blogroll :-)

Ciao
Alessandra

Mihl said...

That book looks interesting! I could never choose one favourite European recipes as there are so many different cuisines out there!

T said...

I love Dutch hustpot- mashed potatoes and carrots with tons of fried onions and garlic, and Hungarian lesco - onions, peppers and tomatoes with faux sausage, yum!

And of course, pierogies and all things italian...

The Health Sensei said...

my favourite european recipes were all lifted from the fertile crescent...anything mediterranean....

JohnP said...

I want you to try the Yorkshire Pudding. It would be great to find a vegan recipe for YP which works.

Anonymous said...

I can't say I've ever heard of that salad as a typical European dish, but it quite possibly is, just not from the UK! Or maybe I've had my head in the sand because it sounds yummy.

Favourite european dish? I'd say a roast, with faux meat obviously! My boyfriend has really gone in for vegan roast dinners even though he's omni (for now!!!).

Suzanne said...

How I miss the High Cafe along with Rainbow! I never realized how good I had it until I moved away. :-(

The salad looks quite tasty. I'll have to keep an eye out for the book.

Amelia said...

Yummy! I'm half British and am a big fan of Eton Mess. It's like a deconstructed fruit pie that's really good. I feel like it could be easily veganized, too! You should check out my blog too, www.vegannerdery.blogspot.com!

Emma said...

Oh new cookbook on the radar indeed. Never heard of that one even though I'm English. Please try the yorkshire pudding and report back if it's good. "Toad in the hole" was one of my fave meals back in omni days. It's sausages with yorkshire pudding poured around them and baked in a tray until puffy! (Toad=sausages and hole=yorkshire). A vegan version could easily be made I guess with seitan or tofu sausage :)

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

I met a bunch of your BPC mates at summerfest -- lots of amazing authors from your publisher! you're in such great company! can't wait you for book!

panda with cookie said...

You can't go wrong with chickpeas!

SarahByng said...

Im in the UK, and i suggest Vegan Battered Fish and Chips with Mushy Peas and buttered bread. Very English. soya steak with a bit of seaweed could work

Bethany said...

That looks a lot like the "Fitness Salat" I used to get in Germany all the time! It definitely had a yogurt dressing. It used to have stuff like chickpeas, radishes, sprouts, carrots, cukes, and other things in it. It's been over 8 years since I've had one, but your picture just made me remember it!!

Unknown said...

That's a food combo I never would've put together, ever. Crazy. I do some Irish dishes, one is a vegan stew Irish stew that people seem to love and I also cook colcannon all the time.

Elle said...

Spotted dick pudding! It's a spicy steamed sweet bread-y British sort of thing. http://www.nakedwhiz.com/spotdick.htm I just do all the obvious substitutions (vegetable suet, egg replacer, almond milk, etc) and then spice the crap out of it with pumpkin pie-type spices. Traditionally, it's served with custard but I love it with maple syrup. But if you really want to bother with it: http://www.vegsource.com/talk/mcdougall/messages/9917337.html Cheers!

misss_e said...

Oh this looks delish!