Alfajores de Maicena are deliciously light and melt-in-the-mouth Argentine cookie sandwiches filled with dulce de leche. Anissa Dann is the chef and owner of Wicked Good Plants, a vegan baking and pastry company based out of Napa, CA, and shows us how she makes a vegan version of this beloved Argentinian cookie. In her California-style cookie, she replaces the dulce de leche filling with a decadent almond butter and date caramel.

Find the recipe at: https://www.ciaprochef.com/almondbutter/alfajores

Welcome to the Almond Butter and Chocolate Master Class Series, a collaboration between the Almond Board of California, and the Culinary Institute of America. In this series, Robert Jorin, retired baking and pastry instructor from the Culinary Institute of America, and Anissa Dann, the vegan chef/owner of Wicked Good Plants, show us how they create chocolate confections using almond butter.

You will learn the inspiration and technique behind the confections they developed, including Caramelized Almond and Almond Butter Bonbons, Mexican Almond Roca infused with chili oil, Double Decker Fudge, Smoked Almond and Bourbon Peach Chocolates, and Almond Butter and Chocolate Alfajores de Maicena.

Learn more and find recipes at: https://www.ciaprochef.com/almondbutter

Indian food historian, Jonty Rajagopalan, and her friend, Rashmi share their recipe for khandvi, a beloved Gujarati snack made from chickpea flour. The process starts with creating a gluten-free chickpea flour batter, with buttermilk, ginger chili paste, and spices. Constant stirring is essential to achieve a smooth, thick consistency. After cooking, the mixture cools before being shaped on the kitchen countertop. The dough is then cut, rolled, and topped with spices to create soft, melt-in-your-mouth treats.

Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

https://www.plantforwardkitchen.org/india

Charcuterie boards are a visually stunning and versatile shared appetizer that have recently grown in popularity. They have also evolved far beyond meat and cheese boards. This beautiful vegetarian “charcuterie” board includes pastrami-cured portobello mushrooms, smoked peppered beets, smoked celeriac and wild mushroom terrine, pickled vegetables, tomato chutney, and more. You don’t need to make an entirely vegan board like this one, but adding just some of these plant-based elements to a traditional charcuterie board makes it much more plant-forward and unique for your guests.

Get the Vegan Charcuterie Board recipe here!

Get the Loaded Smashed Potatoes recipe here!

This entrée features vegetarian “scallops” made from celeriac cut into pucks, and served with a creamy saffron sauce and crisp slaw. The colorful presentation and unexpected flavors of this dish make it an exciting plant-based entrée option for your guests.

Get the Vegetarian “Scallops” of Celeriac recipe here!

This beautiful plant-based flatbread is topped with beet hummus, grilled and fried eggplant, and a tahini aioli sauce. The delicious combination of flavors on this flatbread offer a nice balance of earthy flavors and creamy textures. This flatbread can be served as an individual entree or also as a shared starter.

Get the Grilled Eggplant Flatbread recipe here!

A traditional BLT‘s perfect balance of salty, savory bacon; creamy mayo; sweet and acidic tomato; and crunchy lettuce and bread has made it a beloved sandwich. Now vegans and vegetarians don’t have to miss out! This vegan BLT is made using vegan mayonnaise, and by replacing bacon with flavorful portobello mushroom bacon.

Get the Vegan BLT recipe here!

Chef Rudy Smith, corporate chef at Unilever Food Solutions, reflects on London’s plant-forward restaurant scene. He thinks that American chefs can learn a lot about better integrating plant-forward dishes into our menus and employing a greater level of skill and technique in vegetable prep like the Brits do.

Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!

Alex Rushmer is chef and owner of Vanderlyle in Cambridge, England, a restaurant that serves a plant-forward tasting menu inspired by the seasons. He demonstrates a seasonal salad, using ingredients grown within a five-mile radius of the restaurant. The base of the salad is a plant-based saffron mayonnaise, and the ingredients that comprise the salad itself change on a daily basis. In this version, he uses wild asparagus, thumbelina cucumbers, French breakfast radishes, hakurei turnips, and fermented radicchio. He dresses the salad with a smoked hazelnut and sherry vinaigrette.

Watch the full documentary and find recipes here!