Product Description

Elevate your vegan palate to the sumptuous level!

ExtraVeganZa is an exquisite compilation of recipes that push the boundaries of vegan cuisine. The book presents over 250 tantalizing savory and sweet vegan recipes, including:

• Appetizers, spreads, snacks and dips
• Soups, salads, dressings, toppings and sauces
• Rice, grains and legumes
• Main dishes, side dishes, casseroles and pastas
• Breakfasts, buns and breads
• Cakes, icings and glazes
• Pies, pie crusts and "cheesecakes"
• Puddings, mousses and fruit gels
• Cookies and squares
• Sweet loaves, brownies, cobblers, crumbles and oddballs
• Beverages and frozen treats

Adding unique flair, ExtraVeganZa highlights the elegant presentation of dishes using edible flowers and fresh herbs as garnishes, as well as natural foods as alternatives for food dyes, producing some rare colored treats for the eye. An edible flowers glossary and a special section on natural food dyes helps the reader experiment further.

Also unique is the philosophy of the book. An important milestone in vegan cuisine, it incorporates the larger scale vision of growing your own food or at least knowing where it comes from, and creating a more sustainable lifestyle. At the author's organic farm and B&B, they grow as much food as possible for themselves, their guests, farm workers and the local community.

Laura Matthias is a field biologist, B&B owner-operator, and organic farmer. A long-time vegan, she has researched the nutritional value of foods, worked in a vegan restaurant and cooked vegan food as a personal chef for clients with dietary sensitivities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61120 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-26
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Laura Matthias is a field biologist, B&B owner-operator, and organic farmer. A long-time vegan, she has researched the nutritional value of foods, worked in a vegan restaurant and cooked vegan food as a personal chef for clients with dietary sensitivities.

Customer Reviews

Too Shee-shee-froo-froo
I have always appreciated a healthy lifestyle and diet. Though I am not strictly vegan, I don't deal in meat in my home and have been cooking vegan for about a year now. I was getting bored with my How It All Vegan cookbook, and wanted to venture out. I purchased this one after reading several positive reviews. The book hardly lived up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous book with a lot of tasty recipes. However, the recipes really only work if you've just pulled the ingredients out of your garden. I don't have that luxury; in fact where I live I don't even have a green grocer. That said, if you're looking for accessible vegan recipes that use igredients that you can find in your supermarket, this is NOT the book for you. Added to that, the book contains no nutritional info on the dishes, and doesn't even have one of those fun intro to veganism sections. The section about edible flowers just felt like another adventure into recipe erudition. On the whole, this book will probably sit on my shelf and come down on the rare occassion that I have a lot of money to spend at the farmer's market and want to make a big meal. Other than that, I've written it off as a venture that I wish I hadn't taken.

Delicious, un-intimating recipes that have become favorites
Mm, mm! When I look for cookbooks, I look for something that not only sounds good but doesn't look too intimidating to make or have ingredients I'll never be able to find. I'm not the world's best cook by far, so I steer clear of anything truly complicated. When I saw this book it sounded delicious so I went ahead and picked it up and boy am I glad! I've only made a few recipes but they have all been DELICIOUS! The veggie kebabs and the shepherd's pie have become staples in my family and when serving guests because they are just SO good. Very good recipes that don't require you to be a professional. Perhaps not for someone who has never cooked before (it's not a tutorial-type book), but well worth having. I have several vegan-specific cookbooks as well as some general cookbooks and I think this may be my favorite of all of them. YUM!

Beautiful, yummy and imaginative cookbook!
I give great praise for this book and the author. She did an amazing job creating simple delicious recipes that are easy to make and delicious! Everything is so lovingly rendered it makes me feel like I am a guest at her B&B. I don't usually bake but these recipes are so awesome it makes me want to run in the kitchen and bake something. I especially appreciate that she uses alternative flours like spelt, rice, and hemp, which are good for you and better for people with food sensitivities. The main dishes and salads are wonderful too. I highly recommend this book!