When looking for new recipes from Veganomicon to try during the week, I found myself marking way too many pages. Rather than just picking the one that sounded most promising and making that, I decided to end the week by choosing four recipes that seemed to go together, and making all of them. This is how I ended up spending my Sunday afternoon creating an unnecessarily large Mediterranean feast of baked lima beans, lemony potatoes, tomato and zucchini fritters, and cashew-cucumber dip (vegan tzatziki).

Mediterranean-style baked lima beans and lemony roasted potatoes

Greek-style tomato-zucchini fritters with fresh herbs and cashew-cucumber dip

This was my first time cooking with lima beans, and I found that they didn’t get as creamy as the recipe said they would. As they’re pretty labour-intensive, next time I’d probably substitute cannellini beans and see how they fare. The accompanying potatoes have been a favourite here for a little while, and are something that I should definitely make more often. Although mine usually seem to take longer to roast than the recipe states, these are super easy to make and absolutely worth the minimal effort.

The tomato-zucchini fritters were an untried recipe, and were my favourite part of this dish. Frying things in oil has never been a strong point of mine, but these worked perfectly and were delicately delicious. The tzatziki dip was a great addition to the fritters, and as an added bonus made a lot and has since made my fridge smell glorious. I’ll most likely be making these again sooner rather than later.

And so my week of Veganomicon cooking ends. Just when I thought that I’d made the best dishes from it already, it surprises me again. Even (at least) two years after buying it, this book is the gift (to myself) that keeps on giving. Vegan or not, buy it if you don’t already have it.

(My cheque for all this free advertising is in the mail already, right?)