Afro Vegan: Family recipes from a British-Nigerian kitchen

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The book is fine. The food seems like it would be okay (except...the cornbread... jfc) but I dunno. I guess the main problem I had was the remix, and also how food is actually really distinct in all these cultures and I didn't feel the recipes went with each other. I know it sounds weird to read a COOKBOOK from cover to cover but this is one that you must read from cover to cover. Ibadan is essentially one big family, so there would always be tens of people over for lunch, which was perfect because we loved cooking for a crowd. Barbeque days meant Teddy Pendergrass on loud speaker, lots of Maltina (a fizzy malt drink), Star beer, boli (barbequed whole plantains), meats, corn, Jollof, of course, and Fan-Milk ice-cream to finish it all off.”

This book's theme is the connection between Africa and the Americas (particularly (souther) US, the Caribbean isles, and Brazil), though recipes presented here. Some are no doubt familiar from the author's previous books, but they have been 'remixed' here. There are 100+ recipes, many with pictures; at the end are some menu suggestions. Michael W. Twitty (author of "the Cooking Gene", another great book) gives the afterword. Again Terry gives us music with each recipes, and books/films with some, also. The theme is heritage, and it shows. I also enjoyed the bits of history and supplemental music and book suggestions paired with the recipes. Those made this more like a book you can just sit down and read straight through. There are even some gardening tips and a word from Michael Twitty at the end.Now based in London, Alakija included many of her family’s longtime favorites in the book, including her mother’s groundnut stew and her aunt Keffi’s fresh coconut chips. “I can’t hear the words ‘garnish’ without hearing them in my aunt’s voice,” she admits. “She helped look after us for a while after my dad passed, so we cooked a lot then, and her favorite thing to say when cooking was always ‘garnish, garnish, garnish!’” Kwaku, whose hot sauce features in the book, was also touched to have the sauce included. “He’s been making it for as long as I have known him (my whole life),” Alakija says. “It’s fresh, hot, tangy, goes with everything and can be adjusted to suit different tastes.” With each recipe, he tells you what it would be best served with. He also highlights what flavors will attach to your taste bud for each dish so you can get the flavor profile of the dish. So you would know if the dish is something you should try. I love the menu suggestion that create a full menu based on recipes in the book. although some of these use special sauces or rubs, the nice thing, he includes how to make those in the book. We have a massive terracotta barbeque that lives underneath a cabana in the garden,” she remembers. “It must be over 25 years old, so it is very loved! We’d all help in some way, which was part of the fun, though it was overlooked by our kitchen window, so my dad could keep an eye out to see if we were manning it properly.

If you want to update your vegetable recipes, you NEED this book! No longer will you be confined to the same repetitive vegetable recipes you've relied on day after day! i love that the majority of recipes do not include the seitan or tempeh. while there is some that does include it, it isn't overwhelming like many vegan or vegetarian cookbooks i've come across. I liked the playlist of the day along with current reads for some of the recipes. It gave the cookbook a bit of a vibe. The Gunpowder Lemonade is a gunpowder tea concoction with lemon juice and spearmint syrup. Gunpowder tea is an aromatic blend of finely rolled tea leaves. It has a strong aroma, moreso than the usual lightness of green teas. The spearmint syrup provides a rich, soothing flavor. It can be prepared as an iced beverage as described. I preferred to sip mine hot. Gunpowder Tea is the national drink of Morocco in North Africa.

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If you love the cultures of Africa, the Caribbean and the South you will be delighted by this book. When I was a kid, I always read books about places my mom could never take me. This book has taken me to Brazil, Ghana, Caribbean, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Louisiana, The South, North Carolina, Kenya, Senegal, Salvador, Haiti and so many other places. I felt like a kid all over again.