Cookbook Review: Vegan Africa

Ethiopian food is up there with Indian for my favorite cuisine. I'd say it's a solid tie, but nothing satisfies like spongey injera and hearty wats. When it comes to traditional African food though, Ethiopian is where my knowledge stops. But Africa is a giant continent with many different countries and many styles of cooking. So I was so excited when Marie Kacouchia's Vegan Africa cookbook came out a couple months ago.

I was sent a review copy, and it's a thing of beauty. Hardback, full color, and loaded with photos. The recipes aren't organized by country but rather type of food (like sauces, snacks, starters, mains, rice, desserts, and drinks). But Marie includes background on each dish in the recipe intro. 

There are so dishes I'd like to make from Vegan Africa. There's an injera recipe that looks relatively simple compared with some of the other recipes I've seen. My one try at homemade injera years ago was a massive fail. 

I've also got my eye on Sauteed Spinach and Mushrooms with Plantains (a sub-Saharan Africa dish), Egusi Stew (a Nigerian pistachio stew), and Yam Akpressi (Ivorian eggplant and yams). The Plantain Beignets are also calling me! Yum!

So far, I've made two dishes, which I served together. I had the Cauliflower Yassa with Atassi. 

Yassa is a Senegalese dish made with chicken or fish, but Marie veganized it with cauliflower. And it was wonderful. The dish has olives, which give a nice salty tang, and a spice mix of mustard, garlic, ginger, and bay. Even though it didn't have a protein, it was a very hearty meal.

But the protein was in my side of Atassi — Beninese rice and beans. This simple dish was made with blackeyed peas, white rice, cumin, paprika, and a little baking soda. It reminded me a lot of the pigeon peas and rice that I love from our local Jamaican restaurant (Evelyn & Olive). The dish made a TON, so I had atassi for days.