Terry Hope Romero

Bestselling author of Show Up For Salad, Veganomicon, Salad Samurai, Vegan Eats World, and more!

Tag: Cookbook testing

Testers, stop by the check-in desk please!

Hello tester friends!

Please leave a comment below and let everyone know you’re ready to cook.

Tell us your user name, and if you like, general location in the world and promote your blog or FB page if you have one.

Recipe testing: Basic Equipment

As always I like to keep things equipment light. Here are a few things I recommend having. In red are what I consider essential.

-heavy, sharp chef’s knife or Santoko Japanese-style knife
-heavy duty cutting board: wood, bamboo or heavy plastic OK
big cast iron skillet, large soup stock pot, smaller saucepans and a small skillet helps
-mixing bowls, measuring cups & spoons. Pyrex liquid measure cups are perfect for measuring both hot and cold liquids.
-wire whisk, heat resistant silicon spatulas, long handled metal tongs
-baking pans, including rectangular ceramic or glass pans for roasting tofu, baking sheets

-parchment paper for fast, easy clean up with baking/roasting on pans and sheets


A few recipes will require blending and high speed chopping/pureeing. A moderately priced food processor is totally worth your while. If you can’t swing that consider investing in a hand held immersion blender, usually a little cheaper but a wizard at making creamy sauces, dips, soups, etc. And of course, the classic countertop blender does the job too.

If you have a wok, that’s pretty awesome but optional if you have a deep 12 inch skillet with a cover, either stainless steel or cast iron. If you’re considering purchasing a wok, avoid non-stick woks in favor of carbon steel flat bottom woks. You’ll need to season carbon steel (not unlike seasoning cast iron), but I’ll tell you how; and once you do it you’ll only need to rarely re-season for easy naturally non-stick cooking.

The typical size for home woks is 14 inches, but I love my little 12 inch wok which is great for smaller kitchen. Choose flat bottom woks over rounded ones that require wok rings for support; flat bottom woks work great with electric and gas ranges and require no extra parts to function.

Calling all recipe testers!

I know it’s taken me long enough, but at last I’m ready to take on a new crop of testers for my international cookbook stated for Fall 2012!

This will be a full service cookbook, from soups to salads to entrees and a few desserts too. There will be roughly 125-150 recipes to test with possibly more down the line.

Working title: Vegan Eats World

Testing will start as soon as I get enough testers, but really a if you’re reading this and it’s before January 2012 and you want to test, chances are I could still use your whisk, spatula, chef’s knife or whatever.

Recipes will be posted in a secret portion of this blog, accesible only via a password. Next week I’ll send out an email with the details of how to access the recipes. If you haven’t heard back from me in two weeks it’s only because I have enough testers for now, but I’ll keep you on standby should I need more testers later on.

Once again, thanks a billion for your help! Testers like you make great vegan cookbooks a reality!

A few things you may want to know:

-I’ll probably cap testers around 25-30, but spots will open up as testing progresses, so feel free to contact me down to road and ask if you’re interested in testing in case a spot opens up.

-Testers can test as many or few recipes as they like. Ideally I’d like about 30 recipes minimum done per tester, but ultimately it’s all about what you can or can’t do, but keep in mind this will be spread out over several months too.

-Recipes will require access to a natural foods store and ethnic markets. You may end up doing more food shopping that you’re used to, so if you’re a poor student, really strapped for cash or can’t order the occasional grocery item online this may not be the project for you.

-You ideally should have access to a kitchen with some of the basics such as a chef’s knife, assorted pans and bowls, range top and oven, food processor to name a few. And a computer, but you probably have that covered if you’re reading this now.

-Everyone who stays in touch to the the end of testing will get a thank you in the book! Dedicated testers will be eligible for a free autograph copy of the book too.

Please post any questions below if you have them!
If you want to be a recipe tester, email me at terry@veganlatina.com with [Recipe Testing] in the subject line, thankyouverymucho!

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