I was recently asked, on the cool Yahoo List "Fatfree Vegan," what my favorite recipes were from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's, "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease," where he advocates a "no added fat vegan diet" from his 20 years of peer-reviewed research successfully reversing (and in theory) preventing heart disease.

That's difficult to do as often, having been cooking veg for over 2 and a half decades (and owning some 350+ veg'n cookbooks) I usually look for concepts and ideas, rather than distinct recipes, that I haven't seen before. Some of the recipes I like, some I'm not crazy about... that's usually the case with any cookbook (although this book is half a fascinating read about reversing heart disease and the other half, 150 no added fat vegan recipes). Also, I rarely make or eat desserts, probably 'cause once I start, hard to stop.

That all being qualified, I did post the very tasty "Oatmeal-Maple Cookies" in an earlier post. Probably the most unique dessert recipe in the book, that I haven't tried yet, is the "Chocolate Red Devil Cake" that Ann Esselstyn created for her grandson's 5th birthday, which uses, among other things, a beet! Very intriguing, and since I'll be harvesting beets in about a month, I will probably shock the hell out of my non-veg friends and make one.

"Rip's Salad Dressing" (Caldwell's son is a vegan firefighter in Austin) with citrus juice, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, vinger of choice, sweetner, is a favorite combination I stumbled upon on my own. I do it in an old salad bottle without measuring, just going by taste. The "Curry Sauce" using brown rice is quite good, easy, and quick.

But, my favorite has to be the "Broccoli-Mushroom Pie." A fascinating approach that lends itself to some neat possible variations. Essentially a bed of cooked brown rice topped with tomato slices, green onions, sauteed mushrooms, little miso in water in the mushrooms, added broccoli and collards, pepper, and poured over the rice/veggies. THEN the coup de grace: A thick lemon sauce made with flour, cornstarch, tamari, lemon zest, broth, and non-dairy milk. Into the oven, and voila! Very clever and very tasty recipe.

I was allowed to publish some recipes from his book when I interviewed Esselstyn, so you'll find the recipes for the Pie, Cake, and Curry Sauce in a Mad Cowboy Newsletter from last year, here. If you pass ANY of this around, PLEASE give credit to the Esselstyn's and their website. It's an important message and, with all the work that went into the book, they deserve full credit. Having been working on my first cookbook (and it's in hiatus until Fall, just too much else to do), I was stunned at the amount of effort that goes into developing your own recipes. People who pass them around without giving credit have no clue.

Gotta run... contract work, harvesting, preparing for end of summer planting is demanding.... Go LOW fat Vegan!