Kate Kasbee - Vegan Boards: 50 Gorgeous Plant-Based Snack, Meal, and Dessert Boards for All Occasions

KATE KASBEE

50 Gorgeous Plant-Based
Snack, Meal, and Dessert Boards
for All Occasions

Chocolate Fondue Board ( )

INTRODUCTION

A Beautiful Way to Share Food

I believe the greatest memories are made gathered around food and in between bites.

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP in Illinois, my parents had a sprawling strawberry patch behind the pool in our backyard. We grew other fruits and vegetables, too. Our garden heaved with produce each hot, humid summer. But I remember the strawberries more than anything else. They were unbelievably sweet and juicy and unlike anything I had ever tasted. To this day, strawberries remind me of home and of the Midwest, the place I fell in love with food.

I had a healthy relationship with food from a young age; I can thank my parents for that. We were the type of family that ate dinner together every night. In a somewhat unusual role reversal for the 90s, my dad was the main chef in our house. When he traveled for work, my mom had a small repertoire of dishes she could pull out of her back pocket to make sure my sister and I sat down for a home-cooked mealeven if it was meatloaf.

When my dad was in charge of the menu, there was no shortage of carbs on the table. It wasnt unusual for our family to devour a casserole dish of baked macaroni and cheese and a loaf of French bread with butter. I absolutely loved it. Pushing carbs on people was a practice I emulated as soon as I was old enough to cook and bake on my own. In fifth grade, I earned the nickname Betty Crocker among my classmates for bringing a themed cake to school each week.

I will never forget the surprise and delight on my friends and teachers faces the first time I arrived at school carefully balancing a cake on top of my notebooks and papersand the second, third, and fourth times. At ten years old, it was my first taste of the joy that comes from sharing food with others. I was completely hooked.

Today, I still use food as a way to express my love and appreciation for the people I care about. You probably wont find me baking a cake from a box, though. Over the years, my food philosophy has shifted toward eating and sharing homemade, plant-based foods. One of my favorite ways to connect with others over food is through building grazing and family-style meal boards full of interesting colors, flavors, and textures that encourage interaction and exploration.

Except for strawberries, which youll find on many boards in this cookbook, these arent the foods I was raised on. Rather, they are the foods and flavors Ive come to love through my curiosity, travels, and trying just a bite of everyone elses meal. They include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lots of fresh herbs, which add visual interest and a lovely aroma to each board.

Many of the breakfast and brunch, grazing, meal, and dessert boards in this cookbook celebrate whole foods. However, I havent excluded packaged foods completely. Several recipes call for tempeh, a fermented soy product that slices and crumbles beautifully, creating a satisfying meat substitute. You can try it on the Midsummer Backyard BBQ Board ( ).

You will occasionally see suggestions for vegan cheese products and packaged goods, like premade pie crust and pizza dough. Feel free to make these components from scratch. My goal in creating this book was to strike a balance of healthy recipes made with love and convenient foods that can be unwrapped and served in minutes. The wonderful thing about grazing and family-style meal boards is that you can use them as templates and tweak them to fit your own food philosophy.