Book Reviews
WHOLESOME HARVEST: COOKING WITH THE NEW FOUR FOOD GROUPS GRAINS, BEANS, FRUITS, AND VEGETABLES
By Carol Gelles
It's a joy to find a new cookbook filled with creative, unique vegetarian recipes. Recently I've been fortunate to have two such books arrive in my mailbox.
The first, Wholesome Harvest: Cooking with the New Four Food Groups - Grains, Beans, Fruits, and Vegetables, by Carol Gelles, features 200 recipes utilizing some common and not-so-common foods. Along with recipes incorporating items such as green beans and brown rice, Gelles also presents recipes using jicama and couscous. Each recipe includes information on the amount of calories, protein, fat, fiber, cholesterol, and sodium. Most recipes are quite low in fat. The many vegan recipes are clearly marked (although a few do contain honey). The book also has a nice section on general cooking tips for grains and beans, as well as a thorough index.
I tried making Senegal Stew, a spicy vegetable stew made with a little peanut butter which is served over millet. I also made Jambalaya Rice and Beans (a New Orleans-style dish) and Three-Grain Bread which was moist and delicious. All the recipes turned out well and the directions were easy to follow.
Wholesome Harvest: Cooking with the New Four Food Groups - Grains, Beans, Fruits, and Vegetables - ISBN 0-316-30735-1 ($19.95) is published by Little, Brown & Company.
Reviewed by Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D.
SIMPLY HEAVENLY! THE MONASTERY VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK
By Abbot George Burke
The second book to brighten up my week was Simply Heavenly! The Monastery Vegetarian Cookbook. It has over 1,000 vegan recipes which were developed by Abbot George Burke, from the Holy Protection Orthodox Monastery.
A number of recipes use gluten to make products that taste like beef, pork, chicken, turkey, shrimp, etc. Don't be put off, however, if you're not interested in foods that resemble meat. The book has so many recipes for pasta, beans, vegetables, soups, and other dishes that it could easily be the basis for a lifetime of vegetarian cooking. Abbot Burke has done his best to reduce the fat in his recipes. Some still appear to be high in fat because they use deep frying as a cooking method. Other recipes could easily be part of even the lowest fat diet.
Two drawbacks about this book are that it does not give the number of servings for each recipe (the beginner would have trouble knowing whether a recipe would feed 2 or 20; in many cases even the size of pan to use is not given) and the index could be better organized. In addition there are a few typos and some instructions are rather vague. Despite these flaws, this is a book which I'll use over and over again.
Simply Heavenly! The Monastery Vegetarian Cookbook - ISBN 0-932104-00-2 ($19.95) is published by Saint George Press.
Reviewed by Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D.
VERY VEGETARIAN - AN AGE OLD DIET COMES OF AGE VIDEO AND SLIDE SHOW
By Morningstar Farms
Very Vegetarian - An Age Old Diet Comes of Age, is a 20-minute presentation by Morningstar Farms. It is available as slides with an accompanying cassette tape and as a video. Types of vegetarians, reasons for choosing a vegetarian diet, nutritional adequacy, and environmental issues are among the topics covered. There is a brief plug for Morningstar Farms products at the end but this is relatively non-obtrusive. The presentation provides credible information which could be useful in educating the public about vegetarianism.
The video consists of a series of still shots with narration; more action would have made this production more interesting but would have, of course, added to the cost.
Reviewed by Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D.
