The Blooming Platter Cookbook:
A Harvest of Seasonal Vegan Recipes 
Betsy’s first book is a celebration of the seasons, featuring a wide range of accessible and elegant vegan recipes for the home cook. Spanning regional American favorites and global cuisines, these 175 recipes and 8 pages of color photos feature all the essential goodness that fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs bring to your table, all year ‘round.
Available on Amazon.
Cheers and thank you for your support!
What’s “The Platter”?
The Blooming Platter offers a growing collection of recipes for creative appetizers, beverages, snacks, soups, salads, sides and entrees with a tendency toward ethnic fusion dishes, lightened-up comfort foods and updated classics with a twist. A baker since childhood, I also include a burgeoning selection of dessert recipes that will tempt even the staunchest dairy-lover. Here's to compassionate plant-based cooking and eating!
~Betsy DiJulio
About Betsy DiJulio
When Betsy—an award-winning art teacher and practicing artist—is not teaching, making art, reading, writing, or walking her new dogs, Patsy and Urban, she can often be found in downward dog on her yoga mat.
And after that? A little food, a little more wine, and a lot of communing with friends, family, and students (well, no wine for her students).
In addition to authoring The Blooming Platter Cookbook, Betsy is a regular contributor, columnist, or featured writer for:
- SchoolArts
- Coastal Virginia Magazine
- VEER
- The Virginian-Pilot
- Alimentum
Look for the occasional link here on her website.
Besides art and cooking, Betsy admits to being a little obsessed with:
-Anything eco- or animal-friendly
-Artisanal and small business ventures
-Day hiking
-Consignment fashion
-Design in its many forms, especially interiors and landscapes
Did someone say mid-century modern?
Blooming Blogroll
Yield: 12 bundles (approximately 4 servings)
May 31, 2009 at 11:18 pm
This looks so elegant, and sounds pretty easy! Thanks! I think I’ll try them out on the kids – but wouldn’t these be great party fare also?
June 1, 2009 at 6:03 am
You are more than welcome. They really are fun to make and eat. Please let me know if your kids like them (we don’t have children) and I’ll add a “kid friendly” label. My husband loved them which is kind of like a kid when it comes to vegetables. 🙂 I definitely agree about “party food.” In fact, I’m having a party Wednesday night and had already set the menu, but when I made these last night, I started reconsidering.
June 2, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Oh yum…I will be there! Your amazing menus are ever the oooo la la…but add in puff pastry…who knew. Can it actually be vegan AND good for you too???
Your fotos are so fabulous…next you can be a food stylist…you’re already everything else. 🙂
June 2, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Ha! No one said anything about puff pastry being exactly good for you, but it is vegan and little tiny strips wrapped around green beans can only be but so bad. You are too kind about the photos. I feel kind of apologetic about them, but I’m certainly learning a lot about lighting, mostly that I need a better set-up. I’m at the mercy of the weather and the time of day. Sometimes, it seems that I photograph everything within an inch of it’s life to get one good shot. My appreciation for the food photographers I’ve worked with over the years is renewed for sure!
June 13, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I just made these! They're so beautiful! I used what I had which happened to be asparagus and I adore red pepper so I threw that in there too. They're colorful and fabulous. I hope all the meat-eaters at the party tonight like them as much as I do. This is a great idea. you are so creative!
June 13, 2009 at 11:26 pm
You're the creative one! Sounds beautiful. Please let me know how they "go down." I'd love to add your adaptations to the actual recipe, so did you saute the red pepper strips at all or just add them raw to the lightly sauteed asparagus bundles? Thanks for sharing!
June 14, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Me? Creative? You flatter me 🙂
I took them to the cookout (where I knew no one)and they flew off the platter! I had lots of questions and compliments on them. Pretty food is a good conversation starter, ya know?
I roasted the asparagus first in a light balsamic vin reduction and olive oil with S&P until bright green and a little underdone. I cut the red pepper strips and left raw. I wrapped up the buddles just like you did (which was tricky! thank goodness you showed me how to work with puff pastry) and then baked for 15 mins.
They were fantatsic! I have a photo if you'd like it. Also, can I link to your blog? Would you mind the extra traffic? Thanks again for all the inspiration and amazing recipes!
June 15, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Absolutely, you! And thanks for sharing your enthusiasm. (I want you to try the fish tacos and let me know what you think. You're a good taste tester.)
So glad the bundles were a hit. Please email me the photo and I'll post with directions. If you don't mind, please also email any more details if you think necessary. You can send in a recipe format if you want or I'll just write a short narrative.
And, YES!, please link to my blog. It's all about traffic.
Oh, and I'm so thrilled: The Virginian-Pilot has invited me to write a monthly vegan food column in the Wednesday "Flavor" section called "The Veggie Table." (They will link to my blog and I'll link to pilotonline.) The VP continues to be so supportive of meatless/dairy-less cooking as a significant aspect of the overall food scene. We are so fortunate!
Please send any requests for me to honor in the column. (It was one of your requests that provided the impetus for the Vegan Buffalo Wings that ran in the VP for Super Bowl Sunday!) We want to appeal democratically to vegan and vegetarian readers as well as anyone seeking tasty, easy and fun meat- and dairy-free options.