I always find it interesting that vegans are portrayed as hemp wearing, salad eating bitches, I've known some pretty hefty vegans, believe me - it's a myth. I've also met some who use veganism as an excuse for picky eating (chips and ketch, beans on toast).
The problem is that it always seems boring and austere, even I'm guilty of it - I was getting brownies for the office once at the local coffee shop and was told that all their brownies were vegan, even though I know better I immediately assumed that this was at the cost of omitting some delicious ingredient.
But vegetables have so much flavour and texture, as long as you don't append the dreaded V word to your dish, it;s entirely possible to enjoy a meal of 'side dishes'.
I'm pretty feeble though, I have to ease myself in, like getting into a hot bath. Here I'm using polenta and tomatoes as a vehicle for the leftover roast beef. I hate heating roast beef because I usually have it quite rare and hate to overcook if for leftovers.
I need to give this book a few more goes before saying something cruel like how boring and thoughtless instead of how safe and approachable it is, but The Joy of Vegan Cookery isn't really killing it so far. It doesn't have any pictures, which isn't very joyful and doesn't help to explain how 125g of polenta is meant to serve 4 people. You sprinkle the polenta, eccentrically, through your fingers into some boiling water and cook while two heads of garlic roast. Then mix half of the garlic into the polenta and the other half into a freaking kilo of tomatoes! and sautee, long enough for the tomatoes to release their juices and turn into a watery mess, but not long enough to cook down and thicken. Serve.
I don't know if you can tell, but I was disappointed. There were two of us, but had I planned to feed 4 people it would have to be with a sad solo tablespoon of polenta swimming is a sea of tomatoes. Flavor wise this would have been ok without the beef, but on the strength of this recipe, I'm not buying it!
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