Vegan food its new proponents pack it with inventive flavours. Smith & Daughters: A cookbook (that happens to be vegan) is a new book of recipes by Melbourne restaurant duo SHANNON MARTINEZ and MO WYSE. TIM GRAHAM tries out a few recipes and tucks in.

It’s often said that artists do some of their most creative work when limits are imposed on them, such as a lack of time, money or other resources.Vegan chefs impose limits on themselves by avoiding the use of animal products. But, as with any talented artist, those limitations can serve as a spur to extreme creativity.

The world of contemporary vegan food is similar to the TARDIS from Doctor Who: seemingly small and uninteresting to the uninitiated who look at it from the outside, but dazzling once you enter. Those who know nothing about it often describe vegan food as bland. But in the last five to ten years there has been an explosion of creativity among vegan chefs and authors.American cook and writer Isa Chandra Moskowitz is one of the trailblazers, but the funny, foul-mouthed vulgarians at Thug Kitchen – whose mission statement is to ‘verbally abuse you into a healthier diet’ – have also played a part, along with many other bold experimentalists in the vegan vanguard.

Smith & Daughters: A cookbook is the outgrowth of the Smith & Daughters vegan restaurant in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. Shannon Martinez is the culinary genius and Mo Wyse is the front-of-house brain behind these ventures. Shannon and Mo, who sport teal and mauve hair respectively, have, like their American vegan counterparts, set out to bust the dumb myth that all vegan fare is insipid.

But don’t expect to get a lesson in healthy eating here.These ladies love their sugar and oil and are not afraid to splash it around liberally. Their emphasis is on staying cruelty free rather than purging your arterial sludge with recipes that eschew sugar, oil and salt.That said, most of the recipes are great for your health, and where they do contain any of what some consider to be the unholy trinity of sugar, oil and salt, you can omit these ingredients or substitute them with alternatives.

The recipes include Chipotle Cashew Cheese, Brazilian Slaw, and Peruvian Purple Potato and Pumpkin Salad. The book is not branded with a Latin theme, but the Spanish names of many of the dishes and the fact that Shannon recommends you stock your larder with six different types of chilli are clues to this book’s ethnic roots. The Day of the Dead knickknackery that decorates the photos – including swizzle sticks topped with tiny skulls – add to the book’s playfully spooky vibe.