Product Description

It's hard enough to satisfy choosy diners at a hot New York restaurant—imagine having to do it without using meat, fish, dairy, or eggs! The Candle Cafe has been doing just that for years, offering vegan food that has earned the praise of food critics, celebrities, and countless New Yorkers.

The food at the Candle Cafe expands the horizons of vegan cuisine, proving that the healthiest food can also be the most flavorful and satisfying. From delectable appetizers like Quesadillas stuffed with Portobellos and Red Peppers and Tofu Satay with Coconut-Peanut Sauce to classic dips like Hummus and Babaganoush, veggan cooking never tasted this good. Even the soups are special—Spring Vegetable Minestrone Soup is filled with fresh flavor, and Butternut Squash Soup gets a kick from toasted pumpkin seeds. Hearty, satisfying sandwiches and main courses like Barbecued Tempeh-Chipotle Burgers with Grilled Pineapple, Porcini Mushroom Stroganoff, and Indian Eggplant Curry are infused with delicious flavors from around the world. For dessert, treats like Chocolate Mousse Pie and Lemon-Tofu Cheesecake with Blood Orange Glaze are creamy and indulgent.

With helpful tips on cooking beans and grains, a full glossary of ingredients, and plenty of color photographs, The Candle Cafe Cookbook is a treasure trove of vegan recipes that have been drawing crowds and raves for years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28448 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-22
• Released on: 2003-07-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780609809815
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Inside Flap
It's hard enough to satisfy choosy diners at a hot New York restaurant?imagine having to do it without using meat, fish, dairy, or eggs! The Candle Cafe has been doing just that for years, offering vegan food that has earned the praise of food critics, celebrities, and countless New Yorkers.

The food at the Candle Cafe expands the horizons of vegan cuisine, proving that the healthiest food can also be the most flavorful and satisfying. From delectable appetizers like Quesadillas stuffed with Portobellos and Red Peppers and Tofu Satay with Coconut-Peanut Sauce to classic dips like Hummus and Babaganoush, veggan cooking never tasted this good. Even the soups are special?Spring Vegetable Minestrone Soup is filled with fresh flavor, and Butternut Squash Soup gets a kick from toasted pumpkin seeds. Hearty, satisfying sandwiches and main courses like Barbecued Tempeh-Chipotle Burgers with Grilled Pineapple, Porcini Mushroom Stroganoff, and Indian Eggplant Curry are infused with delicious flavors from around the world. For dessert, treats like Chocolate Mousse Pie and Lemon-Tofu Cheesecake with Blood Orange Glaze are creamy and indulgent.

With helpful tips on cooking beans and grains, a full glossary of ingredients, and plenty of color photographs, The Candle Cafe Cookbook is a treasure trove of vegan recipes that have been drawing crowds and raves for years.

About the Author
JOY PIERSON is co-owner and recipe developer of the Candle Cafe. A nutrition counselor and regular spokeswoman on vegetarian eating, she has appeared on Good Day New York and Food Network.

BART POTENZA is co-owner of the Candle Cafe. He founded its predecessor, the Healthy Candle, in 1986.

Both authors live in New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Portobello and Red Pepper Quesadillas

serves 4

These quesadillas are perfect for a party. You can serve them as an appetizer, or cut them into smaller wedges for the perfect portable finger food. They're also great when you want a light bite along with soup or salad. The bean purée can be prepared well ahead of time and works with almost any kind of bean.

Bean purée

1 cup white, black, or pinto beans
1 1-inch piece of kombu
1 minced garlic clove, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili or chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Quesadilla filling

2 large portobello mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 12-inch flour tortillas
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
2/3 cup grated soy cheese

1. First, prepare the bean purée. Pick over and rinse the beans and put them in a bowl with the piece of kombu, add enough water to cover by about 2 inches, and set aside to soak for 6 to 8 hours or overnight.

2. Drain the beans, reserving the kombu, and transfer them both to a soup pot. Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer the beans, uncovered, for 40 to 50 minutes, until just tender. Drain and set aside, reserving about a cup of cooking liquid.

3. Transfer the beans to a food processor or blender. Add the garlic, chili powder, sea salt, lime juice, cilantro, and a bit of the cooking liquid and pulse until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasonings. The purée can be made up to 3 days ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

5. Prepare the quesadilla filling: Toss the mushrooms and pepper in olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Place on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast for 30 to 45 minutes. Set aside.

6. Assemble the quesadillas: Spread a thin layer of the bean purée onto a tortilla. Top with half the roasted mushroom-pepper mixture and half the onion slices. Sprinkle half the cheese over the vegetables and repeat with the second tortilla. Fold the tortillas in half.

7. Bake the quesadillas until warmed through, about 15 minutes, turning once. Or, for a crisper result, broil or grill the quesadillas for about 5 minutes per side. Cut into quarters and serve at once.

Customer Reviews

The best vegan book I've ever owned!
I have a total of 11 vegan cookbooks, and the candle cafe cookbook is the one I always use. I have been so disappointed in other vegan cookbooks because they either have hard-to-find ingredients, are too time-consuming to make, and are bland and boring. This cookbook is none of that! Almost every ingredient can be found at your local supermarket so it's not too expensive to purchase these items. Secondly, being a mom to a toddler gives me very little time to spend in the kitchen, and this book offers delicious meals that are easy and quick to prepare. And most of all, everything I have made from this book has been just like eating a gourmet meal! This is a MUST HAVE for everyone who is vegan or is even thinking about trying a vegan meal. I made the lemon tofu cheesecake with blood-orange glaze, and gave some to my carnivorous husband. He is the type of person who won't touch tofu with a ten-foot pole. And he ate every bite of it and thought it was great. I also made the chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting, and everyone LOVED it! Also, recently I prepared the seitan piccata with white wine and caper sauce. I only had the "chicken-style" seitan and used that instead. I have to tell you that it tasted like fried chicken in a wonderful brown gravy sauce! It was excellent! This cookbook is one of those "everyday" cookbooks, but with gourmet flavor. I am not a woman who likes to cook much, and I do not have much experience in the kitchen, but being vegan I have to cook my own meals once in a while, and I have been using this book every day, and every day I have a new favorite dish! I have been writing disappointing reviews on every cookbook I've tried, but this one I would give 10 stars if I could. If you are even thinking of buying this book, please do. You will not be disappointed!

Great restaurant, book could be better
The Candle Cafe is one of my all-vegan family's top favorite restaurants in NYC. so I was excited about the prospect of making some of their recipes at home. Somehow, the cookbook is a disappointment, mainly due to inaccuracies in the recipes. I was all set to make the Asian Baked Tofu, for instance. The instructions say to cut the tofu into 3 blocks, then marinate. The recipe is supposed to serve 4, but there is no further instruction on how the tofu is to be cut further. The chocolate mousse pie came out well, but the proportions of the ingredients are enough to make 2 pies; also I'm glad I left out 1/2 cup of water called for in the cake crust, or it would have been too moist and soupy. not to go on, though there are other such examples. These little innacuaracies can make or break a recipe, so though I'm looking forward to trying a few more, I feel I need to be wary.

The photos in the middle of the book are lovely, but the pages and layout of the recipes are pretty dry, The small fractions sent me running for my reading glasses.

For me, the book rates three stars, but I'm giving it four for the general devoted veg/vegan reader, plus the fact that I'm such a fan of the cafe that I don't have the heart to give it just three stars.

Owners: If you want this book to represent your restaurant, please check the recipes -this is NOT the stuff you offer in NYC!
I totally agree with what some people have already said here:
These recipes never saw a test kitchen.
Not only that, whoever wrote them didn't think twice with many of them. The proportions are so outrageously wrong one would think they used some computerized formula to adapt their industrial-kitchen quantities to a 6-serving scale. Take for example their Coconut-peanut sauce. When we had it with their tofu-satay at the Candle Cafe, we thought it was just amazing. Look at the ingredients: 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 coconut milk, 1/4 brown rice vinegar, a thai chili, 2 tbsp chopped cilantro, 2 tbsp chopped mint, 1 tbsp fresh ginger... what could go wrong? Well, add a 1/2 cup of soy sauce and that's what's wrong. All these delicious (and not cheap) ingredients go down the drain because after adding so much (light!) soy sauce the only thing you taste is salt! Of course you blame yourself for not having used your common sense but then... Who edited this book???
I'm sorry, I love the restaurant, but now I cannot wait to go again and ask them that same question to their face.