So how could I...or better yet...should I stock my pantry? I've discovered Heidi Swanson's marvelous recipe blog on Amazon...after stumbling upon her new Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking which is a cookbook garnering some appetizing reviews! In Ch. 1 Build a Natural Foods Pantry of her book she begins:
"This chapter aims to set you up with something other than the standard powder-white pantry. It's a whole new (and at the same time old) way of thinking about cooking from scratch.
When cookbooks repeatedly call for the familiar cast of cheap, refined, basic ingredients, people forget how to use anything else [or never learn how to use anything else...that would be me!]. The ingredients they seldom use fall out of favor, and they lose confidence in experimenting with new ones [that would be me as well]. Many of the ingredients that have fallen out of favor with the home cook are whole grains, and whole-grain flours, natural sweeteners, and minimally processed fats."
She goes on to say:
"The ingredients outlined here are going to be your building blocks--your go-to pantry of culinary fats, flavors, and flours. This doesn't mean that you have to take what you are currently using and throw it out, it just means that the next time you head to the store you will be armed with the information (and hopefully inspiration) to choose differently."
Obviously I haven't bought the book yet but I've found plenty of inspiration just in the first few pages. This first chapter alone looks excellent for me at my stage of things...that is in attempting to stock from scratch in order to cook from scratch. And this would also mean cooking with things from the garden and with wholesome local items that are hardly processed...or not processed at all. You can still Click to Look Inside Heidi's book right now on Amazon (you can also click on the photo at the bottom of this blog), so you might want to take a peek at what she outlines.
The more I find out about Heidi Swanson, the more intriguing she becomes. She's started 101 Cookbooks.com she states as an attempt a few years ago to use the many recipes she already had on hand...as opposed to succumbing to the overwhelming temptation to buy the latest cookbook on the market. She's also an amazing food photographer providing all the photography herself. We don't have to buy her book, though, in order to treat ourselves to the massive abundance of recipes and her scrumptious photos that accompany them...she already has tons available online! I would be inclined to get the cookbook however, just based on this review by Cathe Olsen in regard to the manner in which Heidi formats this particular book. Evidently it's not just the standard cookbook fare as Cathe points out:
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Super and natural, May 27, 2008 By Cathe Olson "natural foods cookbook author" (In the kitchen) - See all my reviews
"Super Natural Cooking" is an exciting and tasty introduction [to] 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. [as to the pantry, this is the section that really gets me excited!]
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 some great vegan recipes as well.
Review as seen on www.vegfamily.com by Cathe Olson (and here's Cathe's Blog)
So if you've tried any of Heidi's recipes...or have gotten her cookbook, please let me know what you think! I'd love to find out if this is worth raving about or not! And I'll be practicing on some of her recipes from her blog and let you know if they taste as beautiful as they look! : D