vegan baking

Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Torte
Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Torte

Chocolate Hazelnut Banana Torte excerpted from The Vegan Bridge: Expanding Plant-Based Cuisine by Romain Avril and Richelle Tablang. Photography by Igor M. Aldomar.

The Vegan Bridge: Expanding Plant-Based Cuisine by Romain Avril and Richelle Tablang.

For the meat-eater looking to incorporate vegetarian options into their repertoire; for the novice chef trying to develop new techniques; for the home cook who wants to dazzle with recipes that are bold, flavourful, and totally unique – French-trained chefs Romain Avril and Richelle Tablang want to introduce you to the Vegan Bridge.

From simple snacks and sides that add a vegan twist to a flexible meal, to show-stopping vegan mains that will captivate vegetarians and omnivores alike, Romain and Richelle demonstrate how incorporating vegan meals into everyday life can be done easily, without sacrificing taste or presentation.

Everyday staples like Vegetable Chips, Garlic Roasted Chickpeas, and an array of dips, smoothies, and salads provide the perfect entry-point for cooks of all skill levels, while impressive entrées like Chive Gnocchi with Wild Mushrooms Florentine, Deep-Fried Tomatillo Tacos, and Cauliflower Tikka Masala bridge the gap between a garden-variety meal and plant-based perfection. (more…)

Apple Cannoli
Apple Cannoli

Apple Cannoli, Acorn: Vegetables Re-Imagined: Seasonal Recipes from Root to Stem by Shira Blustein and Brian Luptak. Photography by Gabriel Cabrera.

Acorn: Vegetables Re-Imagined: Seasonal Recipes from Root to Stem

From practical to playful, inspired recipes that reveal the hidden potential of plants

At the award-winning restaurant, The Acorn, plants are celebrated: explored, enhanced, coaxed with creativity, and dressed for a night of being the center of attention and the phenomenal focus of every plate. In their first cookbook, Shira Blustein and Brian Luptak—The Acorn’s owner and chef—share their truly unique recipes, highlighting the endless possibilities that come when cooking with the seasonal and wild-crafted ingredients gifted to us by nature. Defying categorization, with dishes that are anything but predictable, this cookbook will leave even the staunchest of meat-eaters satisfied.

The recipe chapters are structured by season, with an Essentials chapter at the start of the book—full of pickles, vinegars, oils, and plant-based alternatives—and a Cocktails chapter at the back. All the recipes are broken into components, and range from the simple but sublime Spring Radishes with Ashed Spring Onion Almond Sauce, Fried Garlic Scapes or Stinging Nettle Soup, to the intriguing Fried Zucchini Blossoms with Fermented Zucchini Purée and Apricot Chili Sauce, Smoked Caramelized Parsnip and Potato Pâté, or Squash and Chanterelle Gnocchi. And the recipes focus on minimizing waste and maximizing the potential of each plant—as the stems of one recipe become the pickled star of another.

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