UK Handmade Magazine Autumn 2017

There are a lot of gluten-free and vegan recipe books around right now, which is fantastic if you choose to eat this way. Until recently, it was very hard to find recipes to cater for this lifestyle.

However, if you look at enough of these books, the recipes can appear repetitive. The Perfect Blend uses innovative taste combinations to enliven classic recipes and introduces some new ways (to me at least) of combining ingredients. Tess brings a unique touch in the addition of optional health ‘boosters’, which can be used to enhance the health benefits and change the taste of the recipes.

I noticed in the back blurb that the author has signed a deal with Kitchen Aid (the type of blender featured prominently on the front cover), but don’t be put off if you don’t own one like this. I’ve made the recipes using both my cheap ‘stick’ blender and food processor, with success. My understanding is that the more powerful blenders will make your creams, sauces and dips etc., smoother in a shorter amount of time. I’ve been happy to have a few lumps and bumps of deliciousness in mine, although I must admit that, at the time of writing, I am awaiting delivery of a more powerful blender. This may have been inspired a teensy bit by the recipes in this book, which happened to coincide with the slow decline of the power of my (admittedly old) stick blender. I’ve got my eye on those cheesecake recipes!

So, there is a lot more to this recipe book than first meets the eye. If you’ve been finding some gluten-free and vegan recipes a bit bland and are searching for new and innovative recipes to try, then I would recommend The Perfect Blend. I’m sure that even people who don’t follow a strictly gluten-free or vegan diet, will find a lot to like in these recipes.

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