White and Wild Rice Salad w/ Walnuts, Cranberries, and Figs

White and Wild Rice Salad with Walnuts, Cranberries, and Figs {page 84} is one of the easiest, prettiest, and most flavorful salads I've had in a very long time.

The preparation, although it does require a decent amount of chopping, is quite easy, and the salad itself comes together in no time at all, once the prep work is complete. All of the colors and flavors play beautifully together to make a concoction that is not only a treat for the eyes, but for the mouth as well.

This salad is sophisticated, but at the same time simple enough to be enjoyed by people of all ages. Best of all, it has a vinaigrette-based dressing, which makes it perfect for picnics and other events outdoors, as you don't have to worry about it sitting out in the sun.

This salad is going to become a regular fixture at many of my outdoor gatherings, I'm sure of it!

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl

Winter Pasta Salad with Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette

For an interesting twist on your standard creamy pasta salad, why not give Winter Pasta Salad with Creamy Mustard Vinaigrette {page 90} a try?

This simple salad features vegetables that are easily found during the winter months {and coincidentally are hardy enough to keep around in your fridge as staples}, and is dressed in a deceptively healthy creamy mustard vinaigrette.

The salad was quite easy to put together, and was rather flavorful, but had a couple of shortcomings. First, I would have liked some sweetness in the dressing. I think if I make it again, I will include a tbsp or two of agave nectar. Second, the mustard was very strong and almost too tangy to eat the first night it was made {this may be corrected with the use of the agave nectar mentioned}. However, upon trying to leftovers the next day, most of the dressing had soaked right into the noodles, and the salad was then dry and quite flavorless. This definitely seems to be a salad that needs to be eaten the day it's prepared.

Overall, I really liked the idea. I thought it was very unique. With a couple of tweaks, I think this recipe could be a keeper!

Creamy Tahini Dressing - Guest post by Kristin

I love tahini in just about anything. I especially love tahini in salad dressing so I had to try out the Creamy Tahini Dressing {page 102} and I definitely was not disappointed. The tahini really shines in this dressing and makes me look forward to our nightly dinner salad. I did think that it was missing an element of sweetness so I might add a dash of agave nectar to it next time.

The only change I made to this recipe was to mix the dressing in the Vita-Mix instead of mixing by hand. The salad is green leaf lettuce, dried cranberries, and gomasio.

-- Kristin
Beans and Greens

German-style Kool-sla

My grandmother had just finished chopping up some cabbage with the intention of producing a salad when I strolled into the kitchen—I stopped her immediately. Now that the hardest part was done, I wanted to make something with it myself. I wasn't sure what, but shredded cabbage had to appear somewhere among 1,000 recipes. Enter the German-style Kool-sla (page 73).

What a delightful mix of sweet and sour! I had no idea cabbage tasted so fine with sugar. Instead of grapeseed oil I used sunflower, my grandmother's favorite and apparently a Romanian staple. It was fabulous and everyone enjoyed it (everyone being parents + g-ma + aunt). Raw cabbage never tasted this delicious!

- - Ulpia suddenly has a hankering for some kool-sla - -

Brown Rice Salad with Black-Eyed Peas

Having missed the requisite black-eyed peas and greens last New Year's Day, there wasn't a chance I'd let another new year dawn without them. I was surprised to find only one recipe in the book using this important and versatile little bean--Brown Rice Salad with Black-Eyed Peas (p85). Thankfully, it's a recipe that lends itself well to New Year's Day consumption.

In the recipe introduction Robin states this "is a deliciously easy way to serve the traditional New Year's dish," and I wholeheartedly agree. Once you've got your peas and rice cooked, this salad comes together lickety split. The only modifications I made were to add some lightly roasted kale and spinach, and since I was out of fresh parsley, I skipped it. Next go round I'll make sure to have the parsley because it really would have brightened things up. Aside from the rice and black-eyed peas, without which you wouldn't have a salad of course, the ingredient that makes this dish is the toasted pecans. In fact, EXTRA pecans would make it even better!

Robin also states that the dish "can" be made in advance of serving, but my recommendation is to definitely make it ahead and let marinate. Mr. V and Grandma V both thought it quite good, in fact Mr. V had three (yes three!) bowls and had some again the next day. I didn't particularly care for the dish until it had been in the fridge for a good hour. I could taste the olive oil too much and things seemed a bit disparate, but once everything had hung out together for a while, this salad came together in a most wonderful way. I most certainly won't be waiting another year to have this again.

--The Divine Miss V

Arugula and Apple Salad with Creamy Mustard Dressing

Oh my. Another stellar success. The Arugula and Apple Salad with Creamy Mustard Dressing (p50) is super simple to put together and would be great for a quickie weeknight meal or side, but it would also be just as at home on your fanciest dinner party table. Its flavors and textures are perfectly balanced and impressive. It's the type of salad you would get in a nice restaurant, only it comes from your kitchen for a fraction of the cost.

If you're skeptical of apples and onions together, let that go. They play off of each other in the most delightful way, and the dressing--oh the dressing--brings everything together so stupendously you (and your guests) will be in awe of what you created.

For my trial run, the dressing was made as written (Have I mentioned the dressing? Oh the dressing!). My modifications were slight--romaine instead of leaf lettuce, and a baby arugula/spinach mix instead of straight adult arugula. It was still enough to get that lovely peppery bite from the arugula, which was only enhanced by the creamy mustard dressing. Have I mentioned how good the dressing is?

Both Mr. V and Grandma V were enamored. And me? Well, I was a tad disappointed I had to share. The only thing I would do differently next time--and oh yes, there will be many more to come--is to make more of everything.

--The Divine Miss V

Chilled Cucumber Salad

We eat a lot of cucumber salad in Romania, so I expected the Chilled Cucumber Salad (page 60) to be fairly pedestrian for my guests, but they were intrigued and delighted by the use of dill weed. It's simple, refreshing, and still manages to impress. (And a lesson in how a simple touch can turn “same old” into “something new.”)


I served the salad with Smoky Shiitake Mushroom Crepes for a light birthday dinner (so as to save everyone some room for the impending chocolate mousse cake). The cucumber-mushroom crepe pairing had been haphazard (I needed a salad and all I had were cucumbers), but my guests immediately exclaimed how well the two went together.

My wonderful grandmother was my sous chef for this meal, chopping the cucumbers and slicing the onions paper-thin just as I requested. Mandolin? Ha! Slice-master Mimo needs no such contraptions. (She also poured the crepes for me; she raised us on crepes (clatite) and entirely approves of the vegan version.)

- - Ulpia, never going to cut the crepe (you roll and pick up, see) - -

Chinese "Chicken" Salad

I don't tend to make salads at home. I find them time consuming, and the return on investment low, but Chinese "Chicken" Salad {page 83} may become a frequent exception.

The dressing had a great peanutty flavor that combined well with the crunchy vegetables. I can see adding additional vegetables and nuts next time, to provide more variance of flavor and color. I looked hard for Asian-marinated tofu, but couldn't find anything along those lines, so I used Honey Sesame Baked Tofu {read the package -- no actual honey in it! Go figure!} and it paired really nicely with the Asian flavors.

It was a very nice salad, and when eating a good-sized portion of it with some bread it could easily be a full meal. I will definitely make this {and variations of this} often.

-- Your Friendly Neighborhood Batgirl

Salad with Lime Cilantro Dressing

You would think I'd learned by now not to make recipes that feature ingredients I don't like. I'm certainly not talking about the lime or the cilantro in the case of the Lime Cilantro Dressing (p103), but the yogurt that forms the base. I have never liked yogurt, neither dairy nor soy nor coconut milk nor any other, but I seem to be okay with it if it's "in" something. I trusted the lime and cilantro to cover up enough of the yogurtyness to make me love this dressing, but alas, they did not.

However, the flavors of the dressing are great, and actually the more I ate it, the more I liked it. But I cannot get used to yogurt, no matter how hard I try. If you don't mind the taste of yogurt, this is a cool and creamy dressing that goes nicely atop a salad with a Mexican twist such as beans, corn, tortilla chips, jalapenos, etc. In my opinion, this dressing would have been better as a vinaigrette and I will try it again, but go in that direction over a creamy dressing.

--The Divine Miss V

Spinach Salad with Fuji Apple and [Dates]

We're still in the what-Ulpia-fed-her-guests series. For an elegant lunch, I served the Spinach Salad with Fuji Apple and [Dates] (page 55) with a French Onion Pie and it got rave reviews from all of my guests (like most everything I made from this book). The salad is simple to put together but looks and tastes sophisticated. The original recipe calls for figs, but seeing as I could strangely find neither fresh nor dried figs, I used dates. They worked beyond well. So well, in fact, that the next time I make this (and there will certainly be a next time), I plan on keeping the dates.


Because I had the pie in the oven and no clue how to roast almonds (and no time to find out); I tossed them into a pan and sprinkled on a touch of olive oil. Super plan; they were incredibly delicious and had my guests coming over into the kitchen to steal some straight from the pan.

The sweetness of the dates paired with the tartness of the Fuji apple and the delectable crunchiness of the roasted almond slivers—not to mention the appearance of my lifelong beau, spinach—make for one stunningly beautiful salad.

I'm running out of adjectives to describe these foods. The English vocabulary lacks the means of conveying all of these glorious tastes I've been trying to blog about. I nearly threw in “umami,” which is what I'd call those almond slivers all nice and roasted, cozied up to the sweet and tart. Anyway, buy the book and make the stuff—including this salad—and then you won't need descriptions.

- - Ulpia, whose lovely grandma chopped the fruit - -

My Kinda Meat Loaf with Baked Mac and Cheeze and Winter Salad Saute

I realize this is on the longish side, but there are three recipes to cover. Stick with me!

Like most vegans, I'm always on the lookout for the next great mac and cheese or chz or cheeze or however-you-prefer-to-spell-it recipe, so I'm somewhat surprised I was the first of my fellow bloggers to try the Baked Mac and Cheeze (p222). First of all, I want to let you know that the extreme yellow color you're seeing is primarily due to the fact that I used quinoa pasta, which is very bright yellow once it's cooked. This is one of the faster mac and cheese recipes I've tried. While the pasta is boiling you can easily put the sauce together, and with nutritional yeast, yellow mustard, paprika, and turmeric combined with the other ingredients, you get a rich-colored and deep-flavored sauce. Mix it all in a casserole dish, sprinkle with bread crumbs and it's ready for the oven. It gets nice and bubbly, and if you're anything like me, you get a little bubbly with excitement upon pulling it out of the oven. But I have to say it's not my most favorite I've had, but neither is it my least favorite. It's a solid, nice and creamy baked mac and cheese. I may have overdone it on the mustard a tad, as I was tasting a bit too much for my liking (and I LOVE mustard of any kind). Also keep in mind I'm more of a stovetop/creamy, less baked and bread-crumbed mac and cheese lover. Much like music, mac and cheese among vegans is truly a personal taste thing, so I would suggest trying this one for yourself and seeing how you like it. I do plan to make it again as it's extremely easy and made from pantry staples, but probably with just a few personal tweaks.

So what's the brown lumpy thing on the plate you ask? Well it's My Kinda Meat Loaf (p294) of course. I didn't grow up eating meat loaf very often, in fact, I don't really remember eating it all as a kid, but I do know it's the much-maligned "joke dish" from the 50s. However, I do love a good vegan meat loaf and similar to the mac and cheese quest, I have tried a number of recipes. In my experience, it is ALWAYS better the next day, so with that in mind I made this a day ahead and reheated prior to serving. This is another easy, pantry-staple recipe. The foundation is tofu, vital wheat gluten, and oatmeal. There's also a bit of tahini in this one. One thing that I loved about it is that it's not a "ketchup-y" meat loaf. There's ketchup in the mix, but there's none of this "slather it all over the top before and after you bake it" business, which I appreciate. I'm not a big fan of ketchup anyway, but I prefer my meat loaf to be less sweet more savory, and that requires a good gravy. Several posts have mentioned the Mushroom Sauce (p546), and this was a repeat for me as well. Again, I used baby bellas as I find all other mushrooms to be vile, and this is a wonderful gravy with a multitude of uses, including the perfect topping for meat loaf. That said, the meat loaf was good. Not mind-blowing, but good. Here again I have to say it's not my favorite, but not my least. I will note possible user error here and admit that I likely overmixed it, which Robin warns about in the instructions. So like you were told in school, follow directions!

Finally, and so I didn't feel entirely guilty about the contents of this meal, I added the Winter Salad Saute (p381). I was skeptical at first because the idea of warm lettuce and cucumbers isn't immediately appealing to me. But during the summer I hosted a pizza party at which a friend included cucumbers on a falafel pizza, which quickly got rid of my skepticism about warm cukes. This salad is marked with an F for fast, and it is. Make sure you've got all your veggies washed, chopped, and ready to go as thing move quickly and you do not want overcooked lettuce and cucumbers. I liked this salad, but I can't say I loved it. The addition of fresh parsley really perks it up, but I think I'd like to taste some other herbs or spices in there as well. Perhaps basil or cilantro. I may play around with this one again. It's especially handy if you've got some salad veggies that are a bit past their time for eating raw but you don't want to waste them.

While I may seem a bit not-in-love with this meal as a whole, I should note that both Mr. V and Grandma V were big fans. Perhaps it's a factor of the cook being critical of her own cooking, so I suggest you try these recipes and not fear making them your own. You're also welcome to invite me over and I'll be happy to taste test for comparative purposes.

--The Divine Miss V