Cafe Flora Cookbook

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!

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.

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.