Chef Stéphanie Audet’s first cookbook is a keeper. It’s all-vegetarian and mostly vegan and gluten free. (If recipes aren’t overtly vegan or gluten free, there are often gluten free options.) I’m still working through it, but my favourite recipes so far are a Middle East-meets-California pomegranate, sumac and avocado salad, the gnocchi with hazelnuts and lovage and the roasted half sweet potatoes topped with chickpea and tahini.
The gnocchi are especially impressive, as they end up in an unusual but very addictive broth with just enough lemon to cut through the richness of the dough, so you get these creamy dumplings with softened spinach and this savoury-crunchy hazelnuts. I think it has to do with the fact that we used coconut oil, which adds to the sweet nuttiness and makes the gnocchi oily in a good way. Normally I wouldn’t like the oiliness, but it leaches into the broth and makes it richer, while keeping the texture of the gnocchi incredibly tender.
Audet is excellent at combining flavours, especially nutty elements and sweet-and-sour ones. The pomegranate salad is something I crave constantly, though I know it was that much better because my cherry tomatoes were in season, but it’s another dish that’s easy to throw together, with greens, a dressing and some fresh vegetables. And now that pomegranates are available year-round, in Montreal at least, I’d eat it any time.
And the roasted sweet potato one was so simple I thought it’d be boring, but I now use the tahini dressing on everything.
The only recipe I’ve tried so far that didn’t ‘wow’ was the Indian potatoes with real cinnamon and curry leaves. There wasn’t enough sauce to infuse my cinnamon stick, so I ended up having to add water, which made the potatoes glue-y. Could be the potatoes fault, could be the cinnamon stick’s fault, could be my pot’s fault. There was also a typo; the recipe says to preheat the oven, but you don’t end up using it. A previous version probably called for roasting the potatoes, I figure, which might have worked better or involved less oil, but hopefully it’s fixed in the forthcoming English-language version.
What you need to know
The book is in French only, for now. But the language is clear and simple, so it should work for you even if your French isn’t perfect.
This is what I wrote about it in the Montreal Gazette in Dec. 2019:
“This French-language-only (for now) vegetarian cookbook from Stéphanie Audet, the former chef of Montreal’s LOV, is a stunningly photographed collection of elegant, plant-based dishes. Easy-to-follow recipes feature herbal sparks, like fresh lovage in the fork-tender gluten-free gnocchi with toasted hazelnuts. For efficiency-loving cooks, recipes are often three-in-one, like the “Babacourgette, Baba Ganoush et Poivrons Rôtis” that clocks in at just one hour in total prep time and yields a complete appetizer platter. Other keepers include kombucha-marinated vegetables; salsify with lentils, kale and chimichurri; and “Sunday Brunch”: maple-marinated tempeh, garlic-roasted sweet potatoes and grilled tomatoes with dill.”
Where to get it
Cuisine botanique (Renaud-Bray, $32.95)
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