Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app review, part 2: New recipes

Screengrab from the Go Vegan! app.

Here is part two of my review of the Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer app for the iPhone. Yesterday, in part one, I wrote about some of the tried and true recipes. Today I will review some of the new recipes. Using the app, I made a dinner with three brand new recipes and one older recipe that was new to me. Overall, I found the recipes elementary, perhaps a good primer for new vegans. The format of the iPhone app also seems to encourage streamlined recipes.

Faux "Parmesan" Cheeze
The steps to this super easy recipe fit on a single iPhone screen. In short, you blend nutritional yeast and walnuts in a food processor and salt to taste. This recipe seems almost too basic to warrant inclusion. But it reminded me that the app is entitled, "Go Vegan!," so perhaps it is aimed at newbies rather than longtime vegans. The latter would probably already know that "nooch" + nuts = cheesy goodness. (They'd also know what nutritional yeast is.)

Sarah Kramer's cookbooks are so approachable and appealing because they include building blocks such as this condiment. However, in one way, I think Kramer is misleading to new vegans here. The recipe description says that this dish can be made for under $1. Maybe in Canada! Walnuts and nutritional yeast are rather expensive in the U.S. I estimate that this batch cost me $5. That said, the batch will last some time and has many uses.

Shoshana and Teresa's Wilted Kale Super-Salad

Again, this is a simple recipe, something easy to improvise without steps. The greens, root veggies (grated beets and carrots), and dried cranberries marinate in a basic balsamic dressing to provide the wilted effect. I added garlic to the dressing and onions to the salad for more flavor. Instead of adding chopped nuts as required, I used some of the faux parm as a topping. I'll definitely make this style of salad again but I'm not sure that I need to bookmark the recipe. It'd be a good gateway salad for newbie vegans.

Cast-Iron Chickpea Flatbread
On the app, Kramer feeds this flatbread to a dog in a fun video. I didn't have one of its four-ingredients, chickpea flour, but it was easy to find at the health food store. (Sadly, I couldn't find a cute, hungry dog.) My flatbread didn't flip out of the cast iron pan as easily as Kramer's did in the video but that could be because my pan isn't as seasoned as it ought to be. I think I'll make this recipe again, especially as I now have a bag of chickpea flour to use.

Tortilla Chip Soup
This one wasn't a new recipe but also was easy. It is basically a tomato-based soup with some cumin, chili powder, and peppers. I don't think I'll make this again, because I like my soups to be more substantial and stew-like, with plenty of grains and beans. However I will duplicate the tortilla chip garnish on other soups.