A favourite from our #contentkitchen book collection is the ‘always vegetarian, mostly vegan and sometimes raw’ plant-based foodie bible that is ‘The Vibrant Table’ – an invaluable resource for anyone who wishes to add a little more colour and vibrancy onto their plates and into their bellies.
Written by Anya Kassoff who spent her early years in the then USSR state of Northern Caucasus dreaming of huckleberry ice cream night after night, and fostering a growing urge to inject some colour into her daily plate of ‘Soviet culinary blandness’. At a time when being self-sufficient was a necessity, homegrown fresh fruit and veg was not unfamiliar to Anya, who was luckily blessed with a mother who prized herself on making the most out of what was available. Anya has obviously inherited her mothers creative and adventurous streak which is reflected in her signature culinary style.
After moving to the United States and in awe of the abundance of produce available year round, Anya began dabbling in vegetarian cooking, a rare style of cookery in her native Russia. Enthralled with how interesting and satisfying meat-free cuisine could be Anya began to explore the variety plant-based cooking can provide. Having experienced unexpected health issues after the birth of her second daughter, Anya extended her culinary experiments to raw food as a natural means of healing and chronicled her new food fascinations on her now, internationally renowned, blog Golubka.
As the extension of her beautifully curated blog that she runs with her oldest daughter and photographer, Masha, The Vibrant Table compiles a collection of recipes – from sweet to savoury – to see you through every time of day and every day of the week. Below we reveal our must-try recipes and a sneak peak of a few pointers based on Anya’s recommendations to make the most out of the book.
Things to consider
- Ensure you have the highest quality of fruit and veg you can source and afford. All recipes are based around fresh produce, try to make as many of the produce based ingredients as local and organic as possible to allow for the highest quality of flavours to be present.
- Many of the recipes rely on herbs and spices to enhance the fruit and vegetables included. If taken away, the recipes lose their intended flavour. Try to stick as close to the recipe as possible or substitute if you must, but do not remove the spice/herb element completely.
What We Love
It has to be noted that this book is a beauty. Not only does the layout make it easy to use but the photography makes the dishes look edible right from the page – even if you don’t cook from it, you’ll definately devour each page with your eyes! We also love the small plates section which includes great treats for children, parties and snacks. We love the way Anya laces the book with tips for ‘hiding’ greens in delectable places to fool the ‘health’ shy in the family into getting their five-a-day.
Our favourite dishes
In light of a pending Autumn we’ll be enjoying warming bowls of Amaranth Pumpkin Porridge jewelled with Cranberries and Cardamom, lunching on Pumpkin Seed Falafels with Grilled Peach Salsa, dinnering on Cauliflower Pie with a Sweet Potato Crust and nurturing out sweet tooth’s with Apricot and Lavender Tarts.
A highly recommended addition to any #contentkitchen!
