Our home is ostensibly vegan, maybe even what I would call ‘cranky vegan’. In addition to no meat, poultry, fish, and dairy, there is no processed food, sugar, added salt and rarely oils. So of course I wanted Mr. Pollan’s book to point in this direction. But of course he doesn’t, well, not really. He presents a load of information and leaves the decision making to the reader. Drats! Great read though.

This movie trailer is for Food Inc., a film that is a must see … all my favourite food folks show up here. We got it from Rogers so I’m sure it is found in your favourite video store too.

Two other amazing books that Mr. Pollan has written and copies sit on our bookshelf are:

When Stillwater the bear moves into the neighborhood, the stories he tells to three siblings teach them to look at the world in new ways.

Not only are the stories within the story wonderful, the illustrations are lovely and evoke a sense of peacefulness that I don’t often see in books. So if you see this great book in the children’s literature area of your local bookstore, or even find it in your public library, stop and have a read, I’m quite sure you will agree the 10 minutes were well spent.

This book review is found in the 2005-2006 Winter edition of Vegetarian Living (re-published here with permission)

On or Off the Mark By Mark Warren Reinhardt

The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment. By Jill Nussinow.
(Vegetarian Connection Press, $19.95.)

Jill Nussinow is a Registered Dietician living in California, and the self-styled ‘Veggie Queen’. For good reason. Her new cookbook, The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, is chock full of creative recipes and helpful advice on how to prepare and serve the healthiest of all foods – vegetables.

It’s no secret that Americans don’t eat enough vegetables. The new USDA food pyramid just released this year tells us what quantities of various vegetable groups we should be eating based on our sex, age and activity level. But according to Ms. Nussinow, only 25% of Americans eat those recommended amounts. What’s to be done? Well, books like this one that feature vegetables as the stars of the dinner plate, rather than mere supporting-cast members can certainly help.

The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, offers more than 100 recipes for vegetable dishes, soups, salads and even some veggie burgers and pasta dishes. Recipes range from the elegantly simple, such as Wilted Lemon Spinach, to exotic and unusual creations like Squash Custard and Stuffed Swiss Chard. Mostly, though, this book stays close-to-home, with easily obtainable ingredients and classic preparation methods. (I didn’t see any mention of microwave ovens, but a whole chapter is devoted to pressure-cooking.) All recipes are meat, egg, and dairyfree, and can easily be made vegan (you’ll only have to substitute agave nectar for honey in a couple of the recipes). I didn’t have any problems with the recipes I tried, and the results were uniformly delicious.

One thing I especially like about The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, is its organization. Large sections of the book are arranged to feature available fresh vegetables for each of the four seasons. This makes it easy, for example, to scan the recipes for what might be in-season before heading off to the market. Why aren’t more cookbooks arranged this way? And for people like me who like to curl up with a good cookbook outside the kitchen, Ms. Nussinow has included a number of sidebars offering helpful preparation tips and personal stories that make the reading fun.

The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, stays true to its subject matter, and doesn’t try to be all things to all cooks. That’s good. There are plenty of other places vegetarians can go for bread and dessert recipes. What this book does, and does well, is give us some great recipes for the kinds of dishes that should form the foundation of our vegetarian/vegan diets. This isn’t the only recipe book you’ll want in your vegetarian kitchen, but it may be one of those that you’ll use most often. And the next time you hear someone comment, “I know I should eat more vegetables, but I just don’t know how to fix them” this should be the first book you hand them.