Spice Up Your Life: The Flexitarian Way

By Bindu Grandhi

Too often we are forced to sacrifice taste for healthier fare. With these low-fat recipes rich with savory spices, bland health food is a thing of the past. Focusing primarily on fruits, grains, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1599552736
• ISBN13: 9781599552736
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Cedar Fort
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Awesome cookbook full of healthy recipes

As a mom of 4, I am always looking for ways to cook more healthy meals for my family. I was excited to find a section in this book that teaches me what the health benefits of certain foods are. When feeding certain meals to my children, I like to know the benefits behind the meal and be able to let them know too! This recipe book is a great addition for those of you that collect recipe books like me!

Great Indian food, and a way to boost your intake of the superfood spice found in curry!

Who doesn't love Indian food? To show you how much I love Indian food, I even married an Indian man--my first husband--who was a great Indian cuisine chef on the side. He taught me how to make aloo gobi and matar paneer. (Isn't it really the case that the way to a woman's heart is through her stomach? Isn't she the one that is wined and dined?) When I went raw 7.5 years ago, Indian fare is what I missed the most. So I finally figured out a few simple tricks to make raw versions of my favorite ethnic food. The diet is based on flexitarianism, which the author explains "is a primarily plant-based diet composed of grains, vegetables, and fruits, which also occasionally includes protein from lean meat, fish, poultry, or diary. This diet is low in saturated fat and high in fiber...Studies show that people using this approach generally weigh less and reduce their risk of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and prostate and breast cancer." The recipes are whole-food, made the traditional way from scratch, using light olive oil, fresh produce and Indian spices. Modern research has shown the benefits of turmeric, which is found in curry and garam masala. Tumeric is anti-inflammatory and has been shown to reduce the incidence of Alzheimer's, cancer, arthritis, and many other diseases. The chapters are divided as follows: appetizers, side dishes, and chutneys, sauces, dips and raitas; breads; vegetarian dishes; chicken dishes; seafood dishes; drinks; and desserts. Some of the dishes I look forward to making raw versions of include the lassi drinks, chai, smoothies, cauliflower and brussels sprout curry, broccoli and carrots with coconut, chickpeas and spinach, mint chutney, seasoned kale, pumpkin soup, broccoli soup, spiced carrot and sweet onion, cashew curry sauce, coleslaw tempered with coconut, and many, many more!

Yum!

The book is inspired by Indian flavours, so if you love Indian food like we do, you will love the flavours - turmeric, garam masala, cumin, cardamom and coconut make appearances. If you are new to these flavours, get ready to fall in love! We find the flavours to be rich, exotic and interesting, never overpowering. This cookbook is a proponent of a 'flexitarian' diet - which just means that "it focuses primarily on grains, fruits, and vegetables, with proteins such as seafood and poultry mixed in sparingly." (So it's not just for vegetarians like me; there are lots of recipes inside to satisfy any family's needs.) This way of eating is good for your health - low in saturated fat, high in fiber, which can help you maintain a healthy weight and reduce your risk of hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and prostate and breast cancer. There are loads of vegetarian recipes in here, along with chicken and seafood recipes. So for anyone, it's a great go-to book for dinner, whether it's quick weeknight cooking that you're looking for, or something to impress guests on the weekend. The very day I got the book in my mailbox, I flipped through and immediately found a recipe to make for dinner that night. I had all the ingredients already, and it looked easy and delicious. I was not disappointed! I made the Rice Pilaf with Red Lentils. Yum! My husband loved it, too. I found the rice and lentils cooked up quickly in my rice cooker (although you don't need one, I love mine) while I prepared the rest of the meal. It was truly a 25-minute meal, filling, delicious and perfect for a weeknight supper. Overall the book has delicious, easy recipes with ingredients that are not hard to find. Many recipes are 20 minutes and under to make. I'm very happy with my copy! The only thing I could wish for is pictures of the meals - but you don't need the eye candy to appreciate the taste.

I needed to spice up my life!

I love this cookbook and feel all the great spices really added to the great taste of these meals. This is a must have cookbook!

You'll find tasty AND healthy recipes in this cookbook

More and more Americans are looking for healthy, yet tasty, ways to prepare their family's meals. Unfortunately, it can be quite a challenge to offer more than the same old salads and other standard low fat, low sodium, fare while keeping family members interested. Enter Bindu Grandhi and her new cookbook, Spice Up Your Life: The Flexitarian Way. The author, in her introduction, recalls spending her summers in India, learning to cook at her grandmother's side. Grandhi's grandmother refused to use anything but the freshest ingredients, and used a variety of fruits and vegetables in her cooking which Grandhi has carried forth into her cooking. She has, in addition, added "flexitarianism" to her food preparation, explaining that this term means "...a primarily plant-based diet composed of grains, vegetables, and fruits, which also occasionally includes protein from lean meat, fish, poultry, or dairy. This diet is low in saturated fat and high in fiber..." I tested several recipes from Spice Up Your Life and found them all to be tasty and fairly easy to prepare. Preparation times varied from 5 to 10 minutes (mostly for side dishes and sauces) to 20 or 25 minutes for main courses. Cooking times were surprisingly short, averaging 15 to 20 minutes. When using this cookbook, be sure to read through the recipe completely before starting. Many meals require a sauce which is found on a different page and you'll find yourself flipping back and forth between the two pages. This certainly isn't uncommon for a cookbook but you may find it is easiest if the sauce is prepared first. The recipes offer a variety of tastes, many of which are not commonly found in the typical American dinner. From coconut to ginger and turmeric, your taste buds will enjoy the experience. In addition to testing these recipes with a family more familiar with hamburgers and hotdogs, we also had a friend, a native of India, who is familiar with the various regional offerings of his country, and is a fabulous cook, try out several recipes. He reports that these meals are not typical Indian fare which tend to be heavy on coriander and curry (and fairly spicy), but instead offer a more delicate taste, reminiscent of European fare. He even decided to test one recipe from this cookbook, Chicken with Spiced Cashew and Almond Sauce, for a large dinner party. The meal was a big hit and drew positive comments from all his guests. Quill says: You'll spice up your cooking and eat healthier with this new cookbook!