Summer Sustainable Cookbook Roundup
I’m a cookbook junkie. I’ve got about a hundred cookbooks stacked (un)evenly on the bookshelf, and another five or ten rotating cookbooks on my coffee table—a visible signal I leave for myself that “these are the books I need to read.” Some people read novels or poetry before bed. I tuck in with a dog-eared cookbook and a copy of the latest Saveur under the pillow. This month, I’ve got these sustainable food books on my must-read roster. I know, that just leads to another three waiting patiently on my coffee table, but hey—a girl’s gotta have goals, right?
Give Them Something Better,Sarah Frain & Stephanie Howard
Give Them Something Better, a plant-based cookbook focusing on health and disease prevention, hits bookstores this summer season. The 174-page vegan cookbook was created by real-life wives and mothers Sarah Frain and Stephanie Howard, who wrote the book as a means of giving families healthy alternatives to traditional comfort recipes. The cookbook provides recipes for vegan versions of American classics from breakfast to dessert, from biscuits and gravy to mint fudge and cupcakes. In addition, readers are provided with practical bonuses not usually found in cookbooks. Families and mothers will appreciate the chapter on menu planning, grocery shopping and even sample meal plans. Bonus: It’s backed by the nation’s leading nutrition experts and medical professionals, with a foreword written by Neal Barnard, MD, the President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
(Disclaimer: Kimberley worked on this project as a recipe editor, so of course she thinks the book is great! But seriously, you should know that she worked on this cookbook as the editor because it’s a projects she believes in, and no compensation of any kind was received for the mention of it here.)
Forty Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering, Alice Waters
The locavore queen Alice Waters needs little introduction; she’s been dishing out only the finest of sustainable cuisine since the early 1970s. Her latest book is beyond recipes. In Forty Years of Chez Panisse, Waters takes us down the road of the legendary restaurant from its beginnings in Berkeley, CA all the way to the many food professionals who have helped pave its path towards worldwide sustainable stardom. Lovers of food culture will appreciate this beautiful book and its in-depth interviews with farmers, fishmongers, winemakers, writers and sheer foodie friends.
Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen, Heidi Swanson
Followers of Heidi Swanson’s crazy-popular blog 101 Cookbooks are thrilled that the meatless no-frills cook has released another cookbook. In the latest one, Swanson introduces readers to basic cooking skills many know but few have mastered: Poaching an egg, boiling rice and baked oatmeal. Her simplistic yet beautifully presented style so characteristic of her blog (many of her recipes have about 5 or less ingredients) really comes through in this book, as her aim is to make meatless cooking as intuitive as, well, boiling rice.
Image: ginnerobot
