We are both huge fans of Our Hen House and the amazing work they do to change the world for animals. We’re also huge fans of Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan personally, and we’re honored to call them our friends. You can imagine how totally psyched we were when they called us and asked us to do a review for their podcast of a new cookbook, Vedge: 100 Plates Large and Small that Redefine Vegetable Cooking, by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, owners of the famous world-class vegan restaurant, Vedge, in Philadelphia. We have been wanting to get to Philly to eat at Vedge for such a long time but haven’t had a chance in the past two years. We know– pathetic, right? Well, this was perfect; Our Hen House was sending The Vedge to us!
We attacked the book when we got it, pouring through the pages of outrageously tantalizing recipes and breathtakingly beautiful photography. We each wrote down which of the recipes we most wanted to test, checked our lists against each others’ and then started the work of shopping for ingredients and cooking. The results were tremendous. This book does not disappoint.
If you want to hear our review of the book you can do so by downloading Our Hen House’s Podcast #196, here on Our Hen House’s website or you can download it on iTunes here. Listen to the whole podcast, we’re certain you’ll LOVE it and be as addicted to it as we are.
We just wanted to add a word about Our Hen House. They truly set the standard in vegan independent media today, publishing new content to their website/online magazine daily. They have a blog, featured writers (yes, Vegan Mos’ Ethan was a featured writer a few weeks ago) and they do a weekly podcast as well, now running for 196 consecutive weeks! It’s for all of these reasons and so many more that we decided to up our donation this year and become Barnyard Benefactors for Our Hen House ( though Jasmin and Mariann know that we haven’t changed our names– we’re still their “Fabulous Gay Roosters”.) For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the Barnyard Benefactors are a group of donors who have pooled our resources together and we’re going to match your donations until December 31st, up to $10,000. This is the best time to donate to Our Hen House because your donations will be doubled. Also, just so you know, Our Hen House, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by the law and greatly appreciated!
Here are a few photos we took when we were taste-testing the recipes from the cookbook. Though they cannot compare to the amazing quality of the photography in the book, we just wanted you to see how these simple and easy-to-make vegetable recipes can look stellar, even in hands that are unexperienced with the recipes.
Some of the recipes we tested (clockwise from upper left) fingerling potatoes with creamy Worcestershire sauce, shaved Brussels sprouts with whole-grain mustard sauce, chocolate stuffed beignets, and sweet potato turnovers with sweet kraut.
