Super Natural Cooking: Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Foods Into Your Cooking [A Cookbook]

by Heidi Swanson

Book Overview

Using a palette of natural ingredients now widely available in supermarkets, Super Natural Cooking offers globally inspired, nutritionally packed cuisine that is both gratifying and flavorful.

Everyone knows that whole foods are much healthier than refined ingredients, but few know how to cook with them in uncomplicated, delicious ways. With her weeknight-friendly dishes, real-foodie Heidi Swanson teaches home cooks how to become...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587612755
• ISBN13: 9781587612756
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Super and natural

"Super Natural Cooking" is an exciting and tasty introduction the world of whole foods. The book has an unusual arrangement. Rather than lumping appetizers, entrees, soups, salads, and desserts into sections - the book is rather arranged like a course on natural foods cooking. The book begins with instructions for building a natural foods pantry - what foods to include and what to avoid, including flours, oils, sweeteners, spices and seasonings. Then she moves on to whole grains, beginning first with information about the different types of grains (helpful because many may be unfamiliar), she then moves on to recipes. There are baked goods like Seed-Crusted Amaranth Biscuits and Espresso Banana Muffins; soups like Toasted Wheat Germ Soup and Creamy Wild Rice Soup. The Spring Minestrone with Brown Rice made with fresh asparagus and snap peas has been a regular for us on Fridays when I get my box of produce from the local CSA. We also loved the Risotto-Style Barley made with crème fraiche and lemon zest. Next, Swanson encourages us to "Cook by Color." This section is all about fruits and vegetables - brimming with essential phytonutrients (don't worry if you're not sure what they are, it's explained in the book.) Recipes include Baked Purple Hedgehog Potatoes (your kids will love these), Red Indian Carrot Soup, Curried Tofu Scramble, and Crema de Guacamole with Crunch Topopos. If those foods weren't healthy enough, the next section teaches you to "Know Your Superfoods:" alliums, cruciferous vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, sea vegetables, sprouts, tea, and yogurt. Dishes include Beluga Lentil Crostini, Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers, and Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts. My family absolutely loved the Creamy Cauliflower Soup. Of course even natural foods eaters love their desserts and there a plenty of good ones here as Swanson presents a section on natural sweeteners. There are recipes for Thin Mint Cookies, Spiced Caramel Corn and Ginger-Amaranth Shortbread. The Dairyless Chocolate Mousse is so rich and decadent, no one will believe it was made with tofu. The biggest hit of the desserts for us - I've already made it several times - was the Raspberry Curd Swirl Cake. My gosh, it was good. I couldn't find Raspberry Curd at Trader Joe's so I used Lemon Curd and it was wonderful. Really, really great. Whether you are already into natural foods like I am (but there were ingredients here I've never tried like wild rice flour, teff and farro) or completely lost in a natural foods store but want to know more, this book will work for you. The recipes are very "normal" and nonthreatening - like chocolate chip cookies with a bit of mesquite flour millet-fried "rice." In other words, comfortable favorites with a little twist. Swanson does an excellent job of explaining the ingredients (and offering substitutions if you are unable to find some of the more uncommon ones). This books is vegetarian - many recipes use dairy products but there are

The best possible introduction to ultra-natural foods!

There are plenty of new products coming out to meet the demand of folks now eager to try the natural food movement, but it's hard to know how to use them well. Amaranth flour, buckwheat flour, brown rice syrup? Simply trying to substitute them into your favorite recipes rarely works--you need to know how to use them to their own best advantage, and that takes time, effort, and plenty of practice to work out. Luckily, Heidi Swanson decided to start that process for us. "Super Natural Cooking" is packed with information on how to best store, handle, and use all of the wonderful ingredients you'll find. You'll find out which all-natural sweeteners have a surprisingly low glycemic index, making them appropriate for diabetics and those worried about their blood sugar or carbohydrate intake. You'll learn how much of those exotic flours you can substitute, which recipe-types they work best in, and how to make sure their different characteristics don't cause your recipes to fail. The recipes from this book more than prove Ms. Swanson's skill in the creative kitchen. One of the surest signs I've found of a brilliant cook over the years is the ability to take a few, often mild ingredients and turn them into something that is more than the sum of its parts--a wholly new and complex flavor. This she does easily with such recipes as a luscious fig spread that includes a bit of honey, lemon juice and black pepper. Then there's a curry noodle pot that yields new tastes in every delicious bite. I feared the seed-topped amaranth biscuits would be unduly heavy after feeling the texture of the dough, but they came out tender and wonderful, with an elusively delicious flavor I can only attribute to the amaranth flour. Each recipe came out perfectly without any alteration on our part; the directions were simple, clear, and without error. The book even makes a beautiful gift, as it's filled with Ms. Swanson's own food photography--and believe me, these photographs will make you hungry!

Grateful Mother of 2 Boys

We ate meat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Due to some dietary changes we decided to become vegetarian. I have a 2 and 4 year old boy, and a hearty eating husband. We were starving for the first couple of days until I found Heidi's book. The recipes we have tried are delicious! We could never be happier and have not looked back to meat since. In fact my family loves my cooking better (thank you heidi!), and my very particular and vegetable hating 4 year old is chowing on almost everything I put in front of him. In fact I had to take a picture of him eating the Garbonzo burgers stuffed with avocados and yellow peppers to send to my parents because I know they wouldn't believe their eyes. All I could say is thank you, thank you, thank you for this wonderful cookbook!

Beautiful reference of recipes and food knowledge

Heidi's new book, "Super Natural Cooking", is luscious. She didn't have to make it this beautiful. But she did. I love the warm paper and the sturdy construction. It took me a few minutes to grasp that there's a dust-jacket on this paperback book. How cool. Luxuriously textured with rich color photos (love the dahlias, the Christmas stockings and the tattoo), and dotted with charming graphics, you realize the book is a treasure before you even get to the recipes... I feel the book has so much to teach me; expedient, because I am anxious to learn about whole grains, natural sweeteners and alternative oils. Along with her talent for photos and food; I love the way Heidi speaks to us. Intelligent. Amusing. Never dull. Allowing no personal bias as a fan of her web-site, I am charmed and excited by this book on it's own merit. Because I have cooked from her first cookbook, I know the recipes will work and impress. In my collection of three hundred or so cookbooks, this is a stand-out.