Customer Reviews

The Eat Well Cookbook: Dairy-Free and Gluten-Free Recipes for Food Lovers

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After you are finished giggling about the authors' last names, you might speculate that this cookbook has the potential to be, well boring. Just the phrase "eat well" conjures up an image of a block of tofu and maybe a big, empty hole where we would find foods we love to eat.

Get beyond all that negativity, my friends! The recipes from "The Eat Well Cookbook" are delicious; you won't feel as if you're substituting healthy for delicious. Case in point: "Butterfly lamb with roasted red vegetables & warm mint sauce". How about "Greek-style roast chicken with avgolemono sauce"? These recipes are very elegant and full of flavor. You can choose to make healthy dinners with meat -- not always present in "healthy" cookbooks. Trying to incorporate more meatless meals to your culinary repertoire? Try my favorite in this collection, "Moroccan lentil soup". This soup ends my search for the delicious spicy lentil soup that I enjoy at a local Moroccan restaurant (since the owner resolutely refuses to part with the recipe).

Though the front cover proclaims "lose weight and feel fabulous", this cookbook addresses other important health issues such as food sensitivities and allergies, how to live well and feel great, and of course, ways to reduce weight. To me, it all comes down to the question: Are the recipes in "The Eat Well Cookbook " delicious? Though I have not tried all the recipes, out of the two dozen or so I've tried, I am impressed with the up-front, well melded flavors of the recipes. You will not feel as if you're eating just to get healthy.

There are two more reasons I have made room for this cookbook on my shelf. The recipes are dairy-free and gluten-free. Now keep reading, please! First of all, I have no allergies or sensitivities to either dairy or gluten products, and I am not on a dairy-free/gluten-free diet. But like many other health-conscious people, lately I have heard about the positive effects of reducing (if not completely removing) gluten and/or dairy products from our everyday diet. There is some scientific evidence indicating that removing dairy and gluten products is beneficial for people with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, or ulcerative colitis. A friend of mine who has multiple sclerosis has experienced increases in strength and dexterity of her extremities, which is what got me thinking that possibly the general population can benefit from cutting down on dairy and gluten products. I have not eliminated these products completely from my diet, but I am enjoying the delicious recipes from this cookbook and reducing the overall amount of dairy and gluten in my family's diet. I'm betting that further scientific studies in the coming years will bear out the wisdom of reducing these products, at least to some degree, in our daily diet. "The Eat Well Cookbook" is such a great place to begin this journey.

This is a terrific addition to my collection of over 100 cookbooks. The book is authored and published in Australia, so naturally features local (Asian) and immigrant (Mediterranean) influences/ingredients. I've only made a few recipes so far, all of which were excellent, and I'm tempted by many more. I highly recommend the Aromatic Beef Soup with Star Anise (pg 48), Chicken Laksa with Rice Noodles (pg 90) and, most recently attempted, Sweet Potato Frittata with Walnut and Herb Salsa (pg 124). I substituted pistachios for walnuts, and this salsa is absolutely sensational - intensely flavoured and a beautiful complement to the frittata, which doesn't actually 'need' the salsa - it tastes great as it is. The recipes are dairy and gluten free. I'm not - I bought the book on the basis of a great review in a NZ/Aus. food magazine, and after a good browse (pages are available online). I thought it might make catering for friends with food intolerances easier - but I'll be using this book a lot regardless of who I have over to dinner and highly recommend it. Bravo to the authors.

This book looks like it has really delicious recipes. And it would be great if I was single with lots of money, and lots of time to cook. But many of the ingredients are specialty. Which means they are expensive and would require me to drive to a large city to find. I am looking for recipes that I can prepare for my two children (one on a dairy-free diet, and one on a gluten-free diet). They need plain, good food, prepared from inexpensive readily available ingredients. And I need recipes which are gluten-free AND dairy-free which this book does have, just not the ones I am looking for.

The information offered in the beginning about eating gluten and dairy - free was informative. The recipes from the authors are not relative to the produce and products easily available to my local. Unfortunately I am sorry I purchased the book.