Cafe Flora Cookbook
July 12, 2010 · Posted in Bestselling Cooking Books
Product Description
For more than a decade, Seattle’s award-winning Cafe Flora has been serving up ingenious vegetarian and vegan dishes which have become so popular that even meat lovers long for the taste of their Portobello Wellington or Oaxaca Tacos. Now, from brunch dishes to appetizers and main courses to sides, salads, and condiments, here are 250 of its original recipes-with detailed instructions, clearly presented, to save time cooking and cleaning up. Along with serving and p… More >>
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5 Responses to “Cafe Flora Cookbook”
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I wonder: what am I doing writing a review for a cookbook? I rarely write Amazon reviews and the few reviews I have written are related to a completely different genre of book. Plus, I’ve only recently taken a renewed interest in being in the kitchen – I don’t suppose that makes me an “expert” by any stretch of the imagination.
But I wanted to share my opinion of this book with other readers. It’s fantastic and the recipes are delicious.
Never before have I enjoyed a cookbook so much. Reading through the table of contents was enough to get my palate fired up. At the time of this writing, I’ve created over a dozen of the recipes in this book, and each one is a sure winner, not one is a reject. I might have tried more recipes by now, but the temptation to go back to a dish I’ve already tried is just too great. (We’ve done the Coconut Tofu with Sweet Chili Dipping sauce four times, now.)
How about a really wonderful Portobello Wellington with Madeira Sauce? Now THAT was a Thanksgiving dinner! Yam and Mushroom Enchiladas with Smoky Tomato Sauce? Spinach, Mushroom, and Gorgonzola in Puff Pastry with Red Pepper Coulis? Despite what I – a carnivore – have always thought, vegetarian cooking can be great. That’s a claim I’ve never been able to make regarding any other vegetarian or vegan cookbook.
The book is extremely well laid out with timing suggestions, “prepare ahead” ideas, and handy tips for getting through the process without any unexpected surprises. Each recipe is preceded by a good description that makes you want to try it immediately. If a recipe has multiple components, each is presented as a logical and timed subsection of the overall plate.
I only wish I knew about this restaurant when I visited Seattle last year. Next time… next time.
Five Stars for the book that got me back into the kitchen after a long hiatus. Feel free to contact me with any questions, but I’ll be busy cooking up the next Flora meal.
~R~
Rating: 5 / 5
Chiming in to agree that this is terrific modern, gourmet food. Well flavored but not fussy. Everything I’ve made so far has come out perfectly. I’ve learned new flavor combinations that work well together, and I feel like I can put that information to use when I cook other things.
There are plenty of vegan choices, and these recipes are all marked in the table of contents. There are no dessert recipes. Sections are starters, soups, salads, dinners/suppers, pizza, sandwiches, brunch, beverages, side dishes, sauces/spreads. They list sources for some ingredients (like arame, miso or fenugreek) and often give you an easier to locate alternative.
For recipes that require a number of steps, they’ve been extremely organized about breaking it down into manageable sections. There are number of fairly involved recipes mixed in with easier things like pizzas (their herb pizza dough is spot on), but the results of the more time consuming recipes are well worth it. Besides, I have enough of those “veg. meals in minutes” type books for quickie meals. Cafe Flora is something else altogether – elegant and original vegetarian recipes that have broadened my cooking horizons.
Rating: 5 / 5
For almost 15 years, the most popular dish I’ve served to friends and taken to potlucks has been one cut from a magazine and attributed to Cafe Flora. Knowing this dish appealed to both vegetarians and non, I would periodically check to see if there was an entire Cafe Flora cookbook “out there”. Then, just before a spate of seasonal visitors were scheduled to descend, I googled up what is now my most used and reliable partner in terms of taste, nutrition and dependable results. I ended up amazoning another one to a vegetarian family member who, like me, is always trying to bridge the tastebuds of meateaters and veggers. And, the recipes are FUN to make.
Rating: 5 / 5
The recipes in the book are really something of a revelation to me. I live in Seattle and have dined at Café Flora dozens of times. Still I didn’t really expect what I found in the cookbook. In addition to signature recipes the book presents a very well thought out structured approach to vegetarian gourmet cooking. So not only do you have recipes, but you are given a pretty good idea of what sorts of things you should make in batches on weekends and save. That for me was really the key to being able to make something other than bland vegetarian fare.
I’ve not generally been fond of the Moosewood or Laurel’s Kitchen sort of recipes. They generally seem unelegant, a bit off, and mostly dull. The recipes in this book are in fact quite elegant, well honed, and exciting. Combinations like balsamic-fig reduction and gorgonzola will have you planning week of dining around the book.
Rating: 5 / 5
By the time I die, I will have cooked every recipe out of this cookbook. I am in love. Everytime I decide to cook from this book, I start drooling and get really excited in anticipation. I always use this book for company and it never fails. Yes, the recipes are involved. There are some that aren’t so much, but for complex flavor, expect to work a little. It’s completely worth it. I’ve made yam quesadillas w. cilantro pesto, coconut tofu with sweet chile dipping sauce, lentil pecan pate, smoky split pea soup, ceasar salad w. herbed croutons & fried capers, soba salad with spicy peanut sauce and vegetables (best peanut sauce recipe to date), wasabi potato salad, the house balsamic vinagrette (a go to!) & the dijon curry vinagrette (YUM with apples on your salad!!!), mac & cheese, roasted vegetables vindaloo, pumpkin enchiladas with roasted tomatillo sauce, english pea pancakes with colorful vegetable saute and basil butter, black eyed pea fritters w. spiced coconut sauce and tumeric basmati rice (WOW!), spinach mushroon, & gorgonzola puff pastry rolls w. roasted red pepper coulis, portobello wellingtons w. madeira sauce (BEST BIRTHDAY DINNER!), fried green tomato sandwich, falafel, baba ghanouj, nutburger w. tomato jam (go to sauce for all burgers!), chickpea and roasted yam wrap with tahini sauce, asparagus tarragon scramble w. sundried tomato aioli (BEST AIOLI EVER!), wild mushroom scramble, tofu scramble w. fu sauce, hoppin john fritters w. cajun aioli, rosemary roasted potatoes, soy sausage (will never buy veggie sausage again!), and lavendar nectar. That’s not even scratching the surface-I still have a long way to go to meet my goal of making everything from this cookbook. You should too!
Rating: 5 / 5