Customer Reviews

The Hippy Gourmet's Quick and Simple Cookbook for Healthy Eating

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

 

 

I haven't had the pleasure of viewing the PBS show, The Hippy Gourmet, where host Bruce Brennan travels the globe sampling local, healthy cuisines. However, I greatly enjoyed reading through this very approachable and entertaining cookbook, The Hippy Gourmet's Quick and Simple Guide for Healthful Eating, written by Brennan and producer James Ehrlich.

A wide variety of recipes are included encouraging the use of natural and organic foods, most ingredients which are easy to pick up at your farmer's market, grocery store, or natural foods store. Chapters cover everything from breakfast, to munchies, to grain and bean dishes, to desserts, and everything in between.

Scattered throughout the cookbook are informational tidbits on less well-known ingredients, such as mochi or hemp, various cooking techniques (including the simplicity of using a solar oven), and entertaining stories of the author's travels.

I've already eyed a few recipes to try soon, such as "Extra-Special Oatmeal," which broils a topping of fruit, nuts and brown sugar on an oatmeal base (yum!), and "Summer Squash and Tomato Gratin." I'm also going to investigate those solar ovens. Living in South Florida, where it's hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement 90% of the year, it seems like a perfect thing to have. Think of it ... I could bake even when the power goes out after a hurricane!

Armchair Interviews says: The Hippy Gourmet's Cookbook will be an entertaining, healthful, and appreciated addition to any cook's library.

I like this cookbook because it's not just step by step instructions. The recipe's give you suggestions on things to add, subtract, substitutions. It really teaches more how to cook instead of how to follow a recipe. Plus, the food is really good!

I got The Hippy Gourmet's for my birthday which appeared to be the best gift. I love this cookbook. Easy and delicious recipes make me fell like I am eating in 5 star restaurant. And it's such a pleasure that I actually can cook it myself. It's inspired me to buy some cookware and sharp my knives--so my kitchen is now like real house-wife room. It's so much fun! Totally 5 stars book! I am going to cook the asparagus soup today again--so yummy! Rock, yeee.

The Hippy Gourmet's Quick and Simple Cookbook for Healthy Eating EVERYTHING that my husband made from this book has come out exactly how described. My husband gets upset when the book is missplaced and he cannot find the book for the next meal. Highly recommend this one-ONLY complaint: he uses too many pots!

No doubt: the recipes are varied, healthy, and some are very interesting! But the charm of this book is more than interesting recipes. It also provides a way to look into the author's wholesome lifestyle and philosophy, and it's a great guide to help you live a "greener" lifestyle.

Excellent cookbook with some different and unique recipes. The vegetarian section is great. The only thing it is missing are some color pictures.

I recently (I'm talking about 5 months ago) became vegetarian and after two months of rice and beans I was beginning to get real tired of vegetarianism until I found this book. It's amazing. Recipes are really good and it is a whole new experience to cook them. It actually makes me want to get home and try new options, I'm all hooked up with this thing and I've been twitting and chatting a lot about any new discovery I make.

Besides, it has a quite useful index ordered by food. Thus, last week I has some leftovers of artichokes I did not know what to do with and all I had to do was to look for artichokes in the index and I got a fantastic recipe.

Another thing about the book that works extremely well for me (but not necessarily for Americans or Europeans) is that I live in Dominican Republic and the book includes many recipes using vegetables that it considers "exotic" but for me are kind of the thing you see every day sold by the mini market in front of your house.

The greatest thing about the book, however, is that it gives you several possibilities to do the same dish so you don't feel constrained by a recipe but you kind of use it as an starting point or point of reference to make your own version. That's what I do, at least. However, though that certainly works for me I don't think the book may look to friendly to someone who doesn't know their way around a kitchen:

The book does not explain every step in detail and since it does not have any pictures you somehow have to have a great imagination to know how the dish is supposedly to be done (Actually, I have made quite a dozen of dishes I'm not really sure if they are any closer to whatever the chef made in first place but that taste great nonetheless). Things get specially tricky when the author refers to a lot of vegetables that are not exactly common (like "spaghetti squash", which I thing I know what it is but may perfectly not be what I think it is).

I've seen his show several times and decided to buy the book. I've made two of the recipes so far, but they are great!! I have many other recipes bookmarked to try. His Bean Soup with Mango and Tempeh is unbelievably yummy - I doubled the recipe and am so glad I did. It was the first time I tried cooking tempeh and my daughter tells me she hates tempeh, so I proceeded with caution, but she loved the soup and requested it in her lunchbox today. (Even after I told her it contained tempeh, which I had cut into a fairly small dice to camouflage.)

My kids also loved his "Aspargrass Salad", which is basically cooked asparagus (I steamed it) and dressed with an Asian style dressing - you let it sit to absorb the flavors. My kids actually fight over this one so I've made it twice.

There are many other recipes I'm eager to try, such as the Curried Cauliflower and the Curried Sweet Potatoes. I do wish he'd leave out the fish recipes, as I am mostly vegan. It renders this rather slim volume less worthy to me, which is why I gave it 4 stars, instead of 5. If you love fish, it will be more useful for you.

I bought this book based on a salmon recipe I saw on TV. Probably the only recipe I'll use. Almost all recipes are tree hugger, bark & twigs type recipes. Lots of ingredients that can only be found in specialty food store.

As a vegetarian I was very disappointed to find that fish is on the menu, to me the word pescatarian is meaningless, it turns out to be just a euphemism for eater of dead animal, there is no warning about the euphemism, so be warned. If you like to eat dead animals please ignore this.