Salad Freak: Recipes to Feed a Healthy Obsession

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Recipes are meh-it feels like the author went more towards niche/hard to source ingredients rather than doing anything revolutionary to the salad genre. What about people who want to eat more veg on a budget? This author either doesn't care or is tone-deaf enough to not realize the inaccessibility. Let me start by saying this is a spectacularly beautiful cookbook. The photography and design are gorgeous and just invites you to get in the kitchen and start preparing. I'm eager to make a few recipes and I love how it's organized by season -- great for when you're preparing for a trip to the fresh market. I also appreciate the author's approach of food preparation being a ritual, a sort of meditation that reminds you that you're caring for your body because these ingredients taste good, not because they're "good for you." I'm always hesitant with anything salad related to see how fatphobic it is and I was pleased to read how this salad book focuses on the lovely ingredients and flavors, nothing else.

Salad Game, According to America’s Favorite How to Up Your Salad Game, According to America’s Favorite

In her first cookbook, our friend tosses salads together in a whole new way: They're irresistible, exciting, and delicious any time of day.”— Martha Stewart Living While I’m excited to try some of the recipes, this book’s overall rigidity really turned me off. I loved the seasonal approach, kitchen tool/pantry recommendations and creative flavor combos, but a lot of the ingredients are inaccessible and inflexible. Expenses aside, where does one even find “adolescent” arugula, loquats, or specific varieties of edible flower? An Ode to the Horniest Sitcom Parents, the Belchers and the Wilkersons By Clare Martin April 11, 2023 | 10:40amIn a cast-iron skillet, heat one tablespoon or so of olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add your chard stems. Cook until they begin to get tender, about three minutes. Add the chard leaves, and cook until wilted but not too much, still green but softened, about two minutes. Squeeze the juice from the zested lemon into the pan, stir the greens around a bit, and then remove them with tongs and set aside. Don’t wait for the stars to align—find the perfect drink for your astrological sign with the Mixology of Astrology, by Allure magazine’s go-to astrologer, Aliza Kelly Faragher. RF: We’re also sharing another recipe of yours that isn’t in the book, but would be great for Passover, Natural Wine Charoset. Can you tell me about that one? Strip the leaves of two bunches of Swiss chard from their stems, and tear the leaves into bite-size pieces. Chop the stems into half-inch pieces.

Salad Freak: 3 fresh and colourful recipes to help you eat Salad Freak: 3 fresh and colourful recipes to help you eat

In summary the cookbook does not contain recipes with ingredients many people can readily get their hands on or likely afford! The "What to Have on Hand, Always" is not your typical list of pantry items. Roasted pumpkin seed oil, toasted walnut oil, pomegranate molasses, yuzu kosho, saffron, za'atar- these are not easy to find items. Not to mention the cost of keeping the 10 recommended cheeses and over a dozen seeds and nuts on hand. Many of the ingredients are not readily found in our local grocery stores - puntarelle (chicory), endive and radicchio can be grown here but there is not the demand to keep them on the shelves. (I live in a city of over 100,000 people so we are not talking just one local grocery store). Perhaps if I lived in a different part of the continent, closer to where the cook book author resides, the recipes would be more relevant. UPDATE: I took full advantage of paraíso mango season to make the Martha's mango and mozz salad and Y'ALL IT WAS DELICIOUS. I added a touch more honey to the vinegarette because I used a larger lemon. As Borat would say: great success! The roasted cauliflower with almonds, anchovies, and herb recipe was what is making me throw this book out, mainly the dressing which I thought I would like (I like anchovies! I like dates! But together I found it to be disgusting!). I'm not even finishing the recipe - typing this while I have the cauliflower roasting in the oven but am 100% going to repurpose it to a completely different meal. I haven't made enough recipes to speak to the overall food quality. I do love that this is dedicated to salads, because I cannot get enough of different kinds of salads! My dream is to hire a salad chef.

Praise

I was excited to start this book because I was hoping for some exciting takes and ideas about eating salads/vegetables more. However, while there are definitely some interesting and inspiring salads in the book, on the whole it is very un-approachable. As a side note, I wish cookbooks would state their values & biases up front. For example, do you think saturated fat is healthy or unhealthy? Do you have concerns with GMOs or food miles? Who is the intended audience (both in terms of cost & hunting down unusual ingredients)? If an author says, "Put coconut oil in everything, I only go to farmer's markets & co-ops, and I don't care where food is from" then I'll know to avoid the author.