Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source with More Than 200 Recipes for a Healthy and Sustainable You [Hardcover]

Terry Walters (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 1, 2009

More than a cookbook, Clean Food is a feast for the senses that will nourish mind, body, soul…and the planet, too. With more than 200 fresh, seasonal, and tempting vegan recipes, it will help everyone eat the way the want: close to the source.

From the White House kitchen to fast food restaurants, everyone’s discussing “the sustainable diet.” But what exactly does that mean? Terry Walters explains it all, and shows us how to eat seasonal, unprocessed, and locally-grown foods that are good for us and the environment.

Walters’s emphasizes tastes as much as ingredients in delicious recipes that include whole grains, vegetables, legumes, sea vegetables, nuts, and seeds, and range from Crispy Chickpea Fritters to Spicy Thai Tempeh with Cashews to a vegan and sugar-free Chocolate Lover’s Tart that’s absolutely luscious! Since they’re arranged from spring to winter (with a chapter for “anytime at all”), it’s easy to find the right meals for every season of the year.

Terry’s dynamic personality shines through on every page, particularly in her extensive introduction to the world of whole foods (which includes a glossary of ingredients). This is certain to be the cookbook of this and every season—the one that will help us make positive, sustainable, and yet delicious changes to the way we eat every day.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This friendly cookbook makes (mostly) vegan cooking approachable with simple recipes and straightforward descriptions of more exotic ingredients, and makes it of-the-moment by focusing on using local, seasonal ingredients. More than 230 recipes—each fits on a single page—are organized into spring, summer, fall and winter chapters and showcase the produce that should be available at a given time of year. While there's some typical vegan fare, like seitan bourguignon or scrambled tofu, many recipes play with expected ingredients in interesting ways: marinated tofu with ginger cashew dipping sauce; quinoa and black bean salad with apricot lime dressing; and spicy coconut pumpkin soup. The desserts are especially appealing, with options such as fresh fruit tart with almond crust; chocolate pecan pie; and banana coconut chocolate chip cookies. Although it's surprising that a book so focused on avoiding processed foods would feature processed ingredients in some recipes—the lemon berry cream pie calls for purchased lemon snaps; a savory deep-dish pie uses frozen pie crust—occasional shortcuts like this make the collection even more approachable. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

Walters advocates a fully vegan regimen as key to good health. For her, clean food means less processed food, more whole grains, no dairy products, and certainly no meat, but she insists that food offer plenty of appealing, assertive flavors if it is to satisfy consumers. She believes in the healthy virtues of thorough chewing, disciplined eating, and balanced living. These recipes will not surprise those comfortable in a tofu and brown-rice environment, but she contributes some useful new ideas for such dishes as Caesar salad and surprisingly rich chocolate desserts. Some of Walters’ ingredients may be difficult to obtain outside big-city organic markets, but in this age of Internet shopping, online sources are always an option. In a unique approach to book production, each of the four seasons into which the cookbook is divided appears on a different color of paper stock. --Mark Knoblauch

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Sterling Epicure; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402768141
• ISBN-13: 978-1402768149
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Terry Walters is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor who empowers individuals to make positive physiological changes through one-on-one health and nutrition counseling, whole food cooking instruction, workshops, public speaking engagements, and programs designed to support and facilitate change to a healthier life. Terry draws from extensive educational and life experiences including training from The Institute of Integrative Nutrition, The Natural Gourmet Cookery School, The Kushi Institute, and the Chopra Center.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 61 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational Recipes September 11, 2009

By Norma Lehmeierhartie VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source with More than 200 Recipes for a Healthy and Sustainable You is a winner!

I am not a vegetarian or vegan, but I eat only whole foods and little meat (and only from animals that have been allowed to freely roam.)However, I am always searching for flavorful meat-free dishes--and this book is loaded with them!

There are lots of exciting ingredients that interest me, an experienced cook and former caterer. I love the layout of the book with one recipe per page in attractive but easy to read graphics. Beautifully done!

I also love the seasonal approach to cooking. I have been cooking seasonally for quite awhile now, and there is something that just feels so good about going to my local farmer's market, and buying and preparing that food.

Last night I prepared quinoa and black bean salad with apricot lime vinaigrette and it was delicious and flavorful, as well as easy to make.

Highly recommend!

Author of Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify & Energize Your Life, Your Home & Your Planet.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Clean Food Has Changed My Relationship With Food Forever September 8, 2009

By Anne E. Falkowski

Format:Hardcover

I am a busy yoga studio owner and mother of three vegetarian children ranging in age from 13 to 2. I am always on the lookout for easy to make, simple and wholesome recipes that we will all eat. This cookbook never lets me down.

Clean Food seems to magically provide healthy and yummy recipes to prepare with ingredients on hand. I also am able to pick up any unusual or tempting vegetable in season from my local farmer's market and Clean Food will offer an easy way to prepare it. If I need a potluck dish for a party, this is the cookbook I turn to for something delicious, healthy and sure to please. Kale Tofu Lasagna is my personal favorite recipe to make right now. Last week I served it at a party with a lot of teenagers and it was gone before I got the salad on the table.

I love the way this book is laid out according to the seasons. With fall on the way, I am looking forward to Roasted Kobacha Squash with Cremini Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs. Before I owned Clean Food, I would never have purchased Kobacha because I had no idea how simple and yummy it is. Now I absolutely love to prepare our New England squashes and root vegetables that are in abundance. Before I purchased Clean Food I also knew that I should eat a wide variety of grains,root vegetables and greens but I did not because I did not understand how easy they were to prepare or how delicious they could be. This book changed all that and I feel that I am a healthier person because of it. I now love cooking and feel that the food I prepare aligns with the way I want to feel and be.

110 of 128 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Asparagus and fennel are in season in the fall? October 1, 2009

By S. Cobert

Format:Hardcover

For a book that is strongly rooted in eating "clean foods" that are fresh and in season (this book is organized according to the four seasons, after all), I would not expect to see a recipe like, "Roasted Squash with Fennel and Asparagus" in the Fall season. Yes, I do buy produce when it's out of season, but I purchased this book specifically to eat more local, fresh produce.

Also, like another reviewer mentioned, the bulk of the protein sources use in this book are tofu, tempeh, etc. She doesn't work a lot with lentils, beans, or other more unprocessed forms of protein. That was a personal downfall for me since I don't like to get all of my protein from soy.

For me, this felt like a book that was very strong in soups and side dishes but terribly weak for main course recipes. It's a book that will inevitably collect dust on the bookshelf. I could see where others with a strong interest in new vegan side dishes and/or cooking with sea vegetables might have a special place for this though.