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Sunday, July 19, 2009

* FOOD BOOK OF THE MONTH! *: Big Green Cookbook

BIG GREEN COOKBOOK; hundreds of planet-pleasing recipes and tips for
a luscious, low-carbon lifestyle (John Wiley & Sons, 2009, 386 pages,
ISBN 978-0-470-40449-2, $24.95 US, paper covers) is by Jackie Newgent,
RD, a cookbook author and freelance food nutritionist writer. Hyped as
"the one cookbook people need to reduce their carbon footprint in the
kitchen", the book provides about 200 recipes in the "sustainable
lifestyle" mode. Of course, green typefaces and colours are used
throughout, and the back cover says "this book is printed on post-
consumer waster paper with soy-based ink." So all the right buttons are
being pushed. Log rolling is by other authors of similar books. Eco-
friendly cooking begins in the home, and the usual is covered: reduce
waste, make everything from scratch, make everything SLO (seasonal,
local, and organic), shop less, low-carbon cooking, and relevant
shopping guides. To help identify the seasonality of goods, all of the
chapters are arranged by season. There are tips on every page, which is
good for the browser. There's a glossary, a guide to farmers' markets,
and a US resources list. There are also 15 menus for "green themes".
But shouldn't we be green all the time? Too bad that there are no
metric conversion tables for the avoirdupois weights and measures of
the ingredients. More details are at www.biggreencookbook.com where you
can also get a newsletter and check out her tweets on Twitter.
Audience and level of use: good sensible advice for beginners.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: strip steak on fresh
spinach; buckwheat blueberry-peach pancakes; julienne of garlic
zucchini; quinoa with eggplant and arugula; blueberry crumble bread
bars; cherry tomato, chard, and black bean salad; butternut squash orzo
with fresh sage.
The downside to this book: with "planet-pleasing party tips" there is
an element of slickness about the book.
The upside to this book: there are good details about "green" cleaning
after a party, recycling materials, and the like.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
 

 
 
 
 

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