vegan nicoise salad

This vegan nicoise salad (Jessica in the Kitchen) swaps the tuna, eggs and anchovies for chickpeas, flavoured up with baby red potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, green onions and capers, with lettuce, radishes and olives. All covered in a red wine salad dressing flavoured with shallot, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh herbs with lemon.

Read up on food safety for people and pets. Bin onion scraps, as acid could harm compost creatures.

If you look in grocery stores, nearly all now sell cans of vegan tuna (some in vegan mayo). If you want to simplify or adjust this recipe, try a can of this. It’s really nice, and leftovers make a lovely snack on sandwiches.

French-inspired Vegan Tarte Tatin

vegan tarte tatin

This tarte tatin (So Vegan) is super-simple, all you need are apples, sugar, Flora vegan butter and pastry (see below). Choose organic apples (conventional ones are covered in shellac – dead insects – to make them waxy). Once baked, slice and serve with vegan vanilla ice-cream.

vegan puff pastry

This recipe is ‘4 ingredients’, but it’s best to make your own pastry, to avoid palm oil. Doves Farm has a super-simple recipe (use chilled Flora vegan block butter) and leftovers are easily frozen.

Easy Vegan Croissants

vegan croissants

These easy vegan croissants (Rainbow Nourishments) are so easy to make. With a slight caveat. As to avoid palm oil, you’ll have to make your own puff pastry. But it’s easy, just follow the simple recipe at Doves Farm (using Flora vegan butter), and freeze any leftovers for next time.

This recipe uses homemade or store-bought jam that you thicken on the stove. The ‘eggwash’ is replaced by a mix of plantmilk and maple syrup, and if you don’t have a sweet tooth, you can replace the jam filling with a mix of vegan cheese and pesto.

People associate croissants with France, but it’s likely that they were invented there. There is a legend that a Turkish baker created them, in a crescent-shape (to mirror the moon on the national flag), to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman Empire.

French Plant-Based Recipe Books

the two spoons cookbook

The Two Spoons Cookbook is a super book by a Canadian who lived and cooked in France for several years. She went vegan in her early 20s after losing a loved one to cancer, and also struggling with severe IBS.

vegan baked Brie

The book offers a show-stopping blend of over 100 dishes including:

  1. Baked ‘Brie’
  2. Classic flaky croissants
  3. Buttery brioche
  4. Herb garlic cheese
  5. Mushroom bourguignon with buttery mash
  6. Summer rainbow ratatouille
  7. Pear tarte tatin
  8. Sweet cherry frangipane tart

cauliflower vin

Sarala Terpstra dreamed of moving to France for 10 years and finally did so just after the pandemic. She then learned to cook in the elegant wine capital of Bordeaux with a toaster oven, and rides a bicycle to the store. Her debut book Vegan French Favourites offers 30 classic recipes using wholefood recipes. Learn to make her cauliflower au vin and chocolate fondants.

rustic apple tart

The Buddhist Chef’s Homestyle Cooking is a book by a popular French-Canadian chef who says that rather keep making hundreds of recipes, just keep practicing until you have a good base of 10 or so excellent recipes to enjoy. Food to learn in this book includes:

  • 5 ingredient apple tart (with flaky pastry)
  • Tuscan soup
  • Macaroni salad with jalapeno-marinated tofu
  • Shawarma tofu wraps
  • Ratatouille lasagne with almond ricotta
  • Buffalo cauliflower
  • Trio of vegan cupcakes

Often people take recipes from the Internet, the recipe fails and people think they cannot cook. It’s not the cook to blame, but rather the recipe. You need to buy a GOOD recipe book and practice the same 5 to 6 recipes. Then you will no longer need to look at the recipe. Jean-Philppe Cyr

A Book of Vegan French Pâtisserie Recipes

voila vegan

Voilà Vegan is by a classically-trained baker, who set up a bakery in the world’s most butter-obsessed city in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. From donuts to brownies to macarons and profiteroles, her desserts were a surprise hit with locals and now she blends techniques from both sides of the pond.

Recipes include:

vegan cherry clafoutis

  1. Cherry clafouti
  2. Banana tarte tatin toast
  3. Strawberry shortcake Mille Fueille
  4. Boneshaker cinnamon rolls
  5. Pumpkin cake donuts
  6. Gateau de Voyage (travel-friendly cakes)
  7. Chocolate brownies
  8. Donut profiteroles

vegan donut profiteroles

Amanda Bankert is an American pastry chef, who trained at Cordon Bleu Paris. After making artisan donuts for local coffee shops, she and her business partner opened the doors of the first donut shop in the foodie 2nd arrondissement of this beautiful city, known of its historic charm of antique shops and chic arcades. Locals soon flocked, with word getting out that Parisians were fans of a vegan cake shop. This obviously led to a cookbook deal!

Garlic & Herb Vegan Cheese Alternative

kinda vegan cheese

Kinda Co Garlic Herb Vegan Cheese Alternative is handcrafted by experts in beautiful Somerset. This is lovely served with crusty bread or as part of a vegan cheeseboard.

You can freeze this cheese on the day of delivery, and use within 6 months (thaw overnight in the fridge before eating). It’s expensive, but no more than artisan dairy cheese, so buy a few in to freeze, and serve as a treat, when company arrives!

You can recycle the packaging (reuse the ice pack or drain contents and recycle the liner – keep dry ice away from children and pets). 

France and vegan food?

Years ago, a vegan travel writer talked of an English tourist visiting France. He was asked if he had anything to declare. He replied ‘only my veganism’. The customs officer replied ‘Then I advise Sir, that you turn back’.

Today things are more hopeful. Many top chefs (with Michelin stars) have gone vegan and are boycotting foie gras. In fact, if you take out the meat and cheese, French cuisine is fairly plant-based anyway with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Unlike how the media portrays, French people don’t guzzle bottles of wine, smoke endless cigarettes and eat fancy cakes all day. They practice moderation in a country where (like it or not) it’s frowned on to get overweight and lounge around in jogging pants all day.

When French women living in London are asked how they stay so slim and healthy, they remark they would never dream of devouring an American-sized muffin. Like Italy, French petrol stations don’t sell aisle of crisps and chocolate bars

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