Nov. 2--Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Cookbook (Robert Kennedy Publishing/ 2009) is a beautiful treasure, with its slick thick paper and stunning photos -- enough so to be a coffee table book. The Eat Clean diet is basically getting back to whole foods and making things from scratch, thus avoiding so many of the toxic preservatives as well as excitotoxins that food companies put in food to make them addictive. Tosca uses sea salt in her recipes, which is much more healthful than table salt. (Although she uses agave instead of sugar, its healthfulness is now questionable.) She also uses many herbs. Everything is fresh!
As the author of a raw food book, I enjoy seeing what is out there in the cooked world so I can make even more nutritious raw food versions. I found plenty of inspiration in this book. To my delight, some of the recipes are already raw!
The book contains over 150 recipes. The chapters contain recipes from the following food categories: breakfast dishes; salads, grains and pilafs; appetizers; soups & stews; recipes from foods from her garden; entrees; baked goods & treats. The final chapter contains recipes from a party menu. Among those recipes is a most delicious one for kale chips (a favorite one I make in my dehydrator instead of the oven.)
Most noteworthy is how the information is presented for each recipe. The title is at the top, and just below are the prep time, cook time and yield. Below that is a list of ingredients needed. To make it easier to skim, the food itself is in a distinct color whereas the amount (ex: "tsp," "ml") and other info (ex: "with leaves") is in black. This way you can quickly see which ingredients you need to shop for. To the right of the ingredients is a paragraph about the main food or recipe. Below that are the step by step instructions for preparation.
Finally, at the bottom is a listing of the nutritional value for one serving (usually one cup). This includes the calories; grams of protein, carbohydrates, fats, sugars; grams of fiber, trans fat, saturated fat; mg of cholesterol and sodium. Sometimes there are tips related to this dish as well. On the opposite page is a stunning colored photo of the dish. Sometimes there are small information boxes above the colored photos, telling you for example which condiments to use with the dish, how to serve it, or other information about the dish.
Scattered throughout the book are 2-page information boxes with topics such as the health benefits of using herbs in cooking, specialty oils (such as pumpkinseed or avocado oil), the magic of mushrooms, and cooking game and other lean meats. The last page has a handy conversion table of liquid or volume measurements and dry or weight measurements.
EXCLUSIVE: INTERVIEW WITH TOSCA RENO
Complete Review of The Eat-Clean DIET Cookbook by Tosca Reno
Susan Schenck is author of The Live Food Factor
