Customer Reviews

Delights of the Garden

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This un-cookbook includes several basic recipes to get you started...great for someone just beginning to explore a raw foods diet. Once you taste those, you'll want to jump into the more complex recipes, many of which are combinations of the simpler ones. My favorite is the Kenyan Quiche (veggie tuna made from carrots, sweet corn salad, and seaweed "noodles" mixed together in a sesame-raisin crust). The uncooked soups are wonderful, blending veggies with heated water for warmth. I recommend a good blender or food processor for easy creation of these tasty meals. One basic recipe used throughout the book is kush, made from cracked wheat bulgar, which is not a whole, raw grain. I make my own mixture of raw grains (wheat, rye, quinoa, amaranth) and soak them for 24 hours, then substitute it for the wheat bulgar. It has a different consistency, but tasty all the same.

This is a wonderful book. It has appetizers, entrees, and of course desserts from Imar's Delights of the Garden Restaurants. My favorite, because it is simple and tastes great, it the basic Kush. It is basically soaked cracked bulgur wheat with seasoning and veggies, but the flavor is fantastic. The desserts are easy and taste great. For those concerned with fat intake, the recipes do not have a calorie tables and some do use oils. If you are vegan, some of the recipes call for honey, but you can substitute maple syrup to taste. I highly recommend this un-cook book. Included in the front matter is a well written discussion on nutrition and in the back is an essential nutrient appendix. One last note, make sure you have a good food processor for some of the dishes. We busted our cheap Regal belt-driven processor and bought a nice little Cuisinart direct-drive. Enjoy

This is a great book for those making a gradual transition into eating raw foods. Recipes are easy to prepare and tasty, there's no raw carrot and water soup here.
Thanks Mr. Hutchins

Not terribly original or even interesting. Many recipes utilize a dish called Kush made from soaked bulgur wheat. As a raw vegan it is well known that bulgur wheat is not raw but is, in fact, oven dried or roasted in its preparatory process. Wheat tends to also be something that raw foodists generally avoid for its mucus forming properties.

Outside of the recipes including Kush, there are also a few recipes using things like soy milk and tofu, neither of which is raw.

My biggest caveat however, is not the use of non-raw ingredients but the fact that the book appears to have no clear audience. For the complete newbie to raw foods there is an all but useless informational section in the front of the book. For the seasoned raw foodist, these are recipes that we've likely either seen before or created on our own in some fashion. Likewise, I do have to mention the complete lack of photography in the book. When I pick up a recipe book I expect to see at least a few pictures of the food throughout. However, in Delights of the Garden there is not one single food picture, not even on the cover.

I give it two stars for the mere handful of recipes that appear to be both appetizing and unique, particularly the use of banana chips to make a nut-free pie crust which is not something I've encountered before.

I didn't realize how significant this book is until I didn't have it. Thanks for publishing this book Imar. More than anything in D.C. I miss Delights.

This book is out of print so must be gotten used. It is well worth it. Lots of information about what a certain vitamin or mineral does for your body and which fruits and vegetables have them. The recipes are great. If you're preparing for 2 then halve it and you'll still have leftovers.

If you're looking for simple recipes that don't require a dehydrator, this is it! These raw recipes are easy to prepare. They taste great and several didn't require equipment such as blenders and processors, (which I did not own as a newcomer to raw foods). The ingredients are easy to find at your local grocery store, which helps if you have a busy or active lifestyle ...or children. Speaking of kids, my children also enjoyed sampling and eating the foods created using these healthy recipes. The recipes are quick, easy, affordable and good. There are soups, salads, appetizers, sauces, desserts and drinks.

Delights of the Garden in Atlanta was my all time favorite restaurant. Delights of the Garden is a book explaining the preparation of unbelievably delicious raw vegetable vegan dishes served in the Delights of the Garden Restaurants. Health will surely improve measurably with this cuisine. Now Imar Hutchins teaches us how to make these wonderful delights right at home! Nothing compares with the exquisite flavor of the Scrumptious Strawberry-Blueberry Pie; or the Kush, or the Nutmeat, or the Veggie Tuna, or...all of the delicacies in this book. My favorite is the amazing Moussaka Marinara. The Delights of the Garden Sampler cannot be beat! I used to buy take-out for a lunch at work to look forward to. We could all benefit from more restaurants everywhere serving this kind of food. It tastes better than any junk food. I would be thrilled to see more Delights of the Garden Restaurants everywhere.

Though the book claims to be about food that is preparedwithout heat, one of the primary ingred ients is "kush",which is made out of cracked wheat bulgur - cooked! Other than that, I think it is great. END