Vegan Soul Food w/ additonal Memphis Crunk

Even though I'm trying to eat ever increasing amounts of vegan food, sometimes I'm not great at controlling what I eat.  If there's a cookie around, as there often are at work, the rational part of my brain focused on high cholesterol is overridden by my impulse of "Ooh, free cookie!"  And in my life, there are an unbelievable amount of free cookies.

But in keeping with my desire to be vegan and save the world or myself or whatever I still try and try.  Sometimes it's not very hard.  Working at a library, I have an endless supply of new and innovative cookbooks at my disposal.

Enter this one:  Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry.  This caught my eye on the shelves of MI library because of a place I ate in Atlanta that served vegan soul food - Soul Vegetarian.  This cookbook is probably my favorite vegan cookbook ever. More than just an African-American cookbook, it's an American cookbook, period.  Fresh tasty stuff that is good for you, too.  Indulgent treats.  Multiple recipes for watermelon, which I've just really gotten into recently.  Includes Lunches, Dinners(entrees like Tofu and Beans), Desserts (even a recipe for a vegan coconut butter pie crust which I am anticipating with all my soul!), drinks with names like Memphis Mint Julep and California Slurricane.  Tonight's dinner was greedily ripped from the pages, without many changes at all:

Yes, I still eat on the floor.

Shaved Cucumber Salad with Citrus-Cilantro Dressing(p. 61), Rosemary-Roasted Tofu Cubes (p. 146) and a Frozen Memphis Mint Julep (p.37) on the side.  The only changes I made were subtracting the sweetener from the Cucumber salad dressing and adding, like waaaaay more paprika to the tofu cubes.  The cubes definitely reminded me of something meaty...chicken nuggets with a mildly bacony flavor.  I never say this, but I am probably going to buy this cookbook after my library loan period is up.  It's a keeper!

Memphis Mint Julep or "green mint slurry with booze."