Review & Giveaway: “tibits at home”

If you saw my last post you’ll know that I had a lovely meal at tibits vegetarian restaurant last week. I don’t know when I’ll next be able to make an escape to London to visit again, but, luckily for me, tibits have their own cookbook so I can recreate the restaurant’s dishes at home!

(All images are my own)

The book “tibits at home: stylish vegetarian cuisine” was released last year and features 50 recipes in total, many for dishes you’ll see on tibit’s “food boat” as well as some new ones too. The book is divided into four seasonal sections, reflecting the importance tibits pays to seasonal ingredients in their restaurant. Although the book is not exclusively vegan, the recipes using dairy and eggs are are mostly easy to veganize with a few simple substitutions.

The book pretty accurately reflects the way I like to eat- whole foods and interesting flavours, with influence from cuisines around the world. The book definitely wouldn’t look out of place on an elegant coffee table as the pictures, at least one for each recipe, are simply stunning.

I like to try out a few recipes before reviewing books so headed to the autumn and winter sections and chose 3 dishes.

Since I’m back into pasta I honed in on the “Linguine with pumpkin and chard”. This recipe as written isn’t actually vegan but I swapped out the double cream for canned coconut milk and found it still plenty rich for me. The sauce is lovely and lemony and lightens up this winter-warmer.

You might remember I mentioned a “dried green bean salad” we sampled from the “food boat” at the restaurant. As this is one of their signature dishes it’s featured in the cookbook and they actually sell the beans themselves- I, of course, had to pick up a bag.

After a soak and a simmer for half an hour they rehydrate but keep a satisfying, chewy texture. A balsamic marinade, a generous helping of walnuts and some sautéed onion is all that’s needed to turn them into something special.

I thought I’d make a sort of pick ‘n’ mix lunch with a few different dishes, like our meal at the restaurant, so opted for a second salad to have with the dried bean dish. I’d just recently picked up some Camargue rice to try so the “Red Rice Salad”  was an obvious choice.

If you haven’t tried this variety of rice I’d recommend you do. Brown rice is a staple in my diet but this is quite different. It has a stronger flavour and a bit more bite to it. The dish was well-spiced but not overly so, making it ideal to serve alongside a couple of other salads.

Tibits have kindly agreed to let me share this recipe with you:

Red Rice Salad:

160g(1C) Camargue Rice
1 Red & 1 Yellow Pepper
1 Courgette
1 Bunch of Parsley
2T Rapeseed Oil
3T White Balsamic Vinegar (You can find this in most well-stocked supermarkets)
1t Chilli Oil (I used a pinch of chili flakes instead)
1t Fine Sea Salt
1T Tomato Paste
1/2t Hot Curry Powder
1/2t Mild Paprika
1/2t Ground Coriander
1/2t Ground Cumin

Method

1 Bring the salted water to the boil, add the rice and cook for 30 minutes. Drain in a sieve and chill under running cold water. Rinse well.

2 Chop peppers and courgettes into 1 cm dice.

3 Wash the parsley, shake well and chop finely.

4 Put the remaining ingredients into a bowl and mix well, add the rice.

5 Add vegetables and parsley, mix well and refrigerate.

Tip: rice grown in the French Camargue region, gets its red colour from the high clay content of the soil. Camargue rice is untreated and unmilled ’brown’ rice. It has a mild nutty flavour and stays grainy when cooked. Alternatively, you can use Riso Venere (Italian black rice) for this recipe.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

It’s GIVEAWAY time! Tibits are offering a copy of the cookbook to one UK reader. To enter, do any one or all of the following things and leave a comment for each letting me know that you have done so. The more you do the more chances to win you have!

1. Leave a comment on this post

2. “Like” Coconut and Berries on Facebook

3. “Follow” me on Twitter

4. Tweet about the giveaway and post the url in the comments.

Giveaway ends Thursday 21st November 12am GMT. Winner will be picked randomly and contacted by email within 48 hours of the closing time.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes, but, as always, all opinions are my own.

Hope to see you all back here on Saturday for the Virtual Vegan Potluck. I’m in the “dessert” category! Can’t wait to share my recipe.

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