Reviewed by annieb123 on
Vegan Boards is a style guide with recipes for beautifully presented plant based spreads by Kate Kasbee. Due out 2nd March 2021 from Quarto on their Harvard Common Press imprint, it's 160 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.
Sharing food with friends and family is a fundamental visceral pleasure. Doing so around a beautifully prepared and appetizing board is sublime. Although we can't assemble in large groups (because of the pandemic), these intimate spreads are perfect for cozy tête-à-têtes or even making a special effort dining alone.
The introduction covers the basics of building a board including the board itself (not necessarily wooden), bowls, serving utensils, and food considerations. The board setups are arranged thematically: breakfast & brunch boards, grazing at home, meal boards, seasonal & celebration boards, and fruit & dessert boards. The following section of the book contains the recipes used in the boards. Recipe ingredients are listed in a bullet-style sidebar. Measurements are in American standard with most metric measures in parentheses (yay!) followed by step by step instructions. Boards using the recipes are listed in the header. The book doesn't include nutritional information. The recipes are pictured with the finished boards and the pictures are beautifully clear and colorful. Many of the recipes do use prepackaged ingredients and condiments for convenience. The author says clearly that readers who prefer to make items from scratch should do so ("more power to you") but that she includes them for readers who want to save time in the kitchen.
The dishes and boards here aren't *fancy* but they really *feel* special because of the presentation. I liked everything about this book, from the plant based dishes, to the presentation, the clearly written recipes, and the beautiful photography and food styling. Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 2 February, 2021: Finished reading
- 2 February, 2021: Reviewed