This is Cath (a.k.a Mom),
First, let me say that the recipe for Sweet Potato, Poblano Black Bean Enchiladas was very, very well written and easy to follow! Kathryne breaks the ingredient list and instructions into three well-labeled sections: Roasted Veggies, Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce, and Enchiladas. This recipe was a three-pager (which included the photo) but had such clear instructions that a novice in the kitchen would be successful.
From “Love real Food” by Kathryne Taylor
Chelsea is here with me this week, and when I started to make the Enchilada sauce, she came into the kitchen to see what in the world I was doing. As I began to make the base, the mixture of spices cooking with the olive oil filled the house with a lovely fragrance! The sauce came together nicely while the veggies were roasting – again, Kathryne gave clear step-by-step directions that allowed for perfect timing, which was helpful as it takes about an hour and a half from start to finish. Was it worth all the chopping, mixing, and waiting???? Yes!!!
I really loved this dish! It was just the right about of seasoning and spices to appease those of us who love flavor – and those (like my dear mother) who think anything spicier than ketchup is an affront to the palette! The roasted sweet potatoes added an unexpected hint of sweetness to the dish – that coupled with the roasted peppers, and the cilantro, avocado and sour cream added right before serving, was perfect.
One final comment – I would recommend making double the enchilada sauce if you plan on having leftovers. We had this for lunch the next day, and it was a bit dry – having the extra sauce would have made it as great as it was the night before!
This is Chelsea (a.k.a. the daughter),
I was very excited to receive the PlantYou book, which did not disappoint visually. This book is hardback which I always think is nice when working in the kitchen. I’m pretty hard on my cookbooks, and the hardbacks hold up much better than the paperback cookbooks. Carleigh did a lovely job formatting the book, as all the recipes are clear and easy to follow. For every recipe, she includes not only the standard list of ingredients but an additional ingredient list with the name and a picture of the ingredients for those of us who are visual learners. Initially, I didn’t think that I would like this feature. But after flipping through the book a few times, I realized that it was much easier to find recipes when you had a specific ingredient in mind.
Another feature of the book is that she has a visually simplistic image of every dish for every recipe. While I think this is a nice feature, I don’t know if the photographs always do the dish justice as the images were primarily taken from an overhead view against a white background. A different photo style would have worked to make her dished look more appealing. But overall, I believe Carleigh did an excellent job with this book’s format and visual presentation.
The first recipe I decided to try was the sheet pan fajitas. The recipe looked easy, and I had just bought a tortilla press that I was anxious to try. The veggies used for the fajitas included bell pepper, onion, and portobello mushrooms. I don’t usually buy mushrooms, as I have difficulty finding them in non-plastic packaging. However, I decided to bite the bullet and get the mushrooms so I could follow the recipe as closely as possible.
For the tortillas, I used the recipe for sourdough discard tortillas from the cookbook The Zero-Waste Chef. The author Anne-Marie Bonneau has a blog, Zero-Waste Chef, and an Instagram page (@zerowastechef) where she posts recipes and lifestyle tips for living a zero-waste life. She has several great recipes that use sourdough discard. I would highly recommend giving her book a try! The sourdough discard tortilla dough is vegan and very easy to make. If you want the dough to be sourer, you can prep it the day before and throw it in the fridge for later, or you can make it that day. The tortilla press made shaping the dough much more manageable. Although I ended up manually thinning out the dough as I didn’t think the press got it thin enough.
One thing that surprised me about this recipe is that the veggies were not tossed with olive oil before being placed in the oven. I tend to throw everything in oil and probably use too much of it, so I was pleasantly surprised that the veggies were still flavorful and well-cooked despite the lack of oil. I’m curious to see if this is a trend that Carleigh will continue to follow throughout the book.
Overall, this recipe was filling, straightforward and fast to prepare. If you’re short on time and need a quick meal for dinner, this dish is definitely for you. You’ll have the veggies chopped, seasoned, and ready to go before the oven is done preheating. This recipe was a great introduction to PlantYou, and I look forward to trying more recipes soon!
Our Different Kitchens 