Cafe Flora Cookbook [Hardcover]

Catherine Geier (Author), Carol Brown (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 4, 2005

For more than a decade, Seattle’s award-winning Cafe Flora has been serving up ingenious vegetarian and vegan dishes, which have become so popular that even meat lovers long for the taste of their Portobello Wellington or Oaxaca Tacos. Their modern, sophisticated approach to vegetarian cooking is inspired by international culinary traditions and informed by a decade of chefs working toward a goal of common good and uncommonly good food.

For the enterprising home cook, the chefs at Cafe Flora are the perfect guides for an incomparable culinary adventure. Their dedication to discovery has led them to develop unique ways to transform classic favorite recipes into meat-free dishes, often with greater flair than the original. And now they are sharing their flavor-enhancing tricks and preparation techniques that make every dish at Cafe Flora memorable.

From beverages and brunch dishes to appetizers and main courses to sides, salads, and condiments, the 250 original recipes are given with easy-to-follow, detailed instructions, to save time cooking and cleaning up. Along with serving and presentation suggestions, substitutions where appropriate, and a host of other culinary tips and advice, The Cafe Flora Cookbook embodies the true genius of this inventive restaurant.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Seattle's popular vegetarian restaurant shares its recipes with fans of meatless cooking. What sets this book apart from so many other vegetarian cookbooks is its attempt to take this branch of cookery beyond the usual melange of steamed and stewed greens into more decidedly haute cuisine. Portobello Wellington lacks the beef and foie gras of the parent dish, but its accompanying sophisticated Madeira sauce marks it as more complex than just mushroom-stuffed pastry. For a stunning brunch dish, Geier turns a quesadilla inside out, coating the potato and cheese-stuffed tortilla with a layer of scrambled eggs. Goan curry uses chickpeas and a welter of freshly toasted spices and homemade vindaloo paste to achieve its effect. A welter of pizza recipes shows how adaptable basic pizza can be to a host of different interpretations, some savory, others sweet. Many recipes, specially marked, satisfy vegan requirements; but dairy products and eggs abound throughout most dishes. Meat substitutes such as seitan appear only rarely. Oddly enough, there are no dessert recipes. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“The menu has become a meld of nutritional righteousness and culinary artistry. Few local restaurants put out so many pretty plates—all actually good for you.”
—The Seattle Times “Cafe Flora—still a standout in the sea of green. It’s the perfect restaurant for vegetarians to bring non-vegetarian guests.”
—Pacific Magazine “Cafe Flora…has flair, integrity and soul.”
—The Stranger “The popularity of Cafe Flora…extends beyond a strictly vegetarian clientele.”
—Seattle Magazine “If being vegan means a lifetime of lightly breaded coconut tofu with sweet chili dipping sauce or a spicy chickpea falafel wrapped in warm pita bread, you can sign us up.…The highest compliment the Cafe receives, though, is the presence of its regulars—many of whom see nothing wrong with an occasional…crispy-skinned Thanksgiving turkey, but still come to meat-free Flora. It’s just that good.”
— Seattle Weekly’s Dining Showcase

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HP Trade (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557884714
• ISBN-13: 978-1557884718
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Indescribably Delicious! December 5, 2005

By R. Hanson

Format:Hardcover

I wonder: what am I doing writing a review for a cookbook? I rarely write Amazon reviews and the few reviews I have written are related to a completely different genre of book. Plus, I've only recently taken a renewed interest in being in the kitchen - I don't suppose that makes me an "expert" by any stretch of the imagination.

But I wanted to share my opinion of this book with other readers. It's fantastic and the recipes are delicious.

Never before have I enjoyed a cookbook so much. Reading through the table of contents was enough to get my palate fired up. At the time of this writing, I've created over a dozen of the recipes in this book, and each one is a sure winner, not one is a reject. I might have tried more recipes by now, but the temptation to go back to a dish I've already tried is just too great. (We've done the Coconut Tofu with Sweet Chili Dipping sauce four times, now.)

How about a really wonderful Portobello Wellington with Madeira Sauce? Now THAT was a Thanksgiving dinner! Yam and Mushroom Enchiladas with Smoky Tomato Sauce? Spinach, Mushroom, and Gorgonzola in Puff Pastry with Red Pepper Coulis? Despite what I - a carnivore - have always thought, vegetarian cooking can be great. That's a claim I've never been able to make regarding any other vegetarian or vegan cookbook.

The book is extremely well laid out with timing suggestions, "prepare ahead" ideas, and handy tips for getting through the process without any unexpected surprises. Each recipe is preceded by a good description that makes you want to try it immediately. If a recipe has multiple components, each is presented as a logical and timed subsection of the overall plate.

I only wish I knew about this restaurant when I visited Seattle last year. Next time... next time.

Five Stars for the book that got me back into the kitchen after a long hiatus. Feel free to contact me with any questions, but I'll be busy cooking up the next Flora meal.

~R~

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspired Vegetarian Gourmet October 3, 2007

By J. Daugherty

Format:Hardcover

Chiming in to agree that this is terrific modern, gourmet food. Well flavored but not fussy. Everything I've made so far has come out perfectly. I've learned new flavor combinations that work well together, and I feel like I can put that information to use when I cook other things.

There are plenty of vegan choices, and these recipes are all marked in the table of contents. There are no dessert recipes. Sections are starters, soups, salads, dinners/suppers, pizza, sandwiches, brunch, beverages, side dishes, sauces/spreads. They list sources for some ingredients (like arame, miso or fenugreek) and often give you an easier to locate alternative.

For recipes that require a number of steps, they've been extremely organized about breaking it down into manageable sections. There are number of fairly involved recipes mixed in with easier things like pizzas (their herb pizza dough is spot on), but the results of the more time consuming recipes are well worth it. Besides, I have enough of those "veg. meals in minutes" type books for quickie meals. Cafe Flora is something else altogether - elegant and original vegetarian recipes that have broadened my cooking horizons.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an entire book of Cafe Flora recipes!!! March 8, 2007

By Gayle Schmidt

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For almost 15 years, the most popular dish I've served to friends and taken to potlucks has been one cut from a magazine and attributed to Cafe Flora. Knowing this dish appealed to both vegetarians and non, I would periodically check to see if there was an entire Cafe Flora cookbook "out there". Then, just before a spate of seasonal visitors were scheduled to descend, I googled up what is now my most used and reliable partner in terms of taste, nutrition and dependable results. I ended up amazoning another one to a vegetarian family member who, like me, is always trying to bridge the tastebuds of meateaters and veggers. And, the recipes are FUN to make.