This is the start of something new! I am going to start reviewing cooking books. I suck at cooking. There I said it.. actually to be honest.. I just never gave cooking a chance. I tend to over think everything and make the stupidest mistakes (i.e.: one teaspoon on recipe but I somehow end up thinking it said one tablespoon and doing just that). I've had several stupid mishaps so I gave up on bothering to cook all together. However, this book was the perfect start for my (hopefully) successful home cooking career! I will be making a monthly or biweekly post with one or two salads that I made. I'm actually quite excited!
I want to start off by reviewing the book so I will be listing all the usual information for the book then getting down to the nitty gritty and oh so delicious parts!
Title: Salad Love
Author: David Bez
Publisher: Random House Canada
Publication date: March 24, 2015
Genre(s): Cooking
Source: Publisher
Format: ARC
Pages: 388
Salads take the spotlight in this visually arresting cookbook that showcases a year's worth of weekday recipes so exciting you'll want to eat salads every day.
At the request of his co-workers who were constantly admiring his lunches, David Bez started the photo-driven blog Salad Pride, embarking on a year-long challenge to create one new salad every day. The blog instantly gained popularity for its creative salads that require no special cooking skills. The cookbook Salad Love pairs his vibrant photographs with accompanying recipes arranged around seasonal produce.
In true Juhina fashion, I'll let the photos speak for my experience using the book. However some points I must make about the book and they are:
1. The book is GORGOUS! Have you not seen all the colors on JUST the cover? the inside is even prettier and structurally beautiful. I have a thing for orderly and organized layouts that are very simplistic and that is the whole format of this book.
2. Every single salad is accompanied with a photo. Thank you David Bez! I often find it very frustrating when a dessert or cook book has a recipe of something that I don't even know what it will look like. Photos, for me, are very important visual and confidence aids when I am cooking/baking. The below two salads are the ones I decided to make. Both from the SUMMER section, guess I was getting sick of all this winter! My only real complaint is the lack of serving size. I think the serving is for one person.. but is it as a full meal or a side? I had to play around with the amounts because I was cooking for five people.
3. There are SO MANY useful information and options! There are vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, and omnivore salads, as well as alternatives (turning an omnivore salad to a vegetarian one) with each salad! That is just so helpful for me because I don't eat pork but while flipping through the book every salad that has this meat usually has another alternative that I can work with! I know I know.. it would be easy to just omit the pork and add whatever.. but you need to understand.. I SUCK at cooking and have no innate cooking skills so I would be over thinking what would be a good substitute for chorizo or bacon. There are also recipes for so many dressings including all different sauces, pesto, creamy, and olive based dressings.
Now for the actual review of the salads. The book starts off with saying "This is not a cookbook" and it is true. Any pro or experienced cook would find these salads too simple, too easy for it to even be in a cookbook, however that is precisely why I love it.
This is a book that contains 260 very diverse and unique salads for people who don't generally enjoy the usual salads or don't cook much. The outcome was also very similar to what was promised both look wise and taste wise. I ended up making my first ever pesto sauce and it was delicious! Even though they are very easy to make, don't let that deceive you. All the people that tried my salad loved it and by the end of the meal, they were pretty much eaten.
Here's to many more delicious lunches with fantastic salads!
This makes me wish I ate salad!! The only salads I eat though are my mums kumara salad and pasta/ rice/ grain salads lol. You did such a good job though! They both look fantastic :D
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