Customer Reviews

Raising the Salad Bar: Beyond Leafy Greens--Inventive Salads with Beans, Whole Grains, Pasta, Chicken, and More

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

RAISING THE SALAD BAR is one of the best cookbooks I have ever sampled. I prepared dozens of the salads, and each is more scrumptious than the next. The Wheat Berry Salad with Citrus Dressing was my favorite until my husband prepared the Baby Spinach and Strawberry Salad and the Seared Scallop Salad with Watercress and Pineapple for my birthday and both were dazzlers.

So is the Grilled Chicken Salad with Red and Yellow Peppers and Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette.

I can't understand the reviewer who said the dressings were too oily and sweet. I've never tasted such delicious salads in my life. And the dressings are over-the-top delicious.

The food critics agree. The book has received glowing reviews. Check out the review in The Seattle Times if you don't believe me.

There are more than 70 salads featured in this cookbook, and so far, the ones I've sampled are as delicious as they look in the gorgeous photographs.

I dare anyone to try the Wheat Berry Salad on p. 195 and not love it. Or any of the salads I mentioned above. Or the Jicama, Mango and Green Cabbage Slaw with Citrus Vinaigrette. Or the Cajun Shrimp and Corn Salad with Lime-Chile Dressing. Or The Seared Salmon with Baby Greens and Mango Salsa Vinaigrette. Or the Mixed Greens and Radicchio Salad with Grilled Sliced Steak. The Gremolata Dressing with greated lemon zest is a perfect complement to the steak--and certainly not sweet, but not bitter either. This reader and cook thought the Gremolate Dressing was outstanding with the steak. Certainly beats your standard Steak Sauce!

I could go on and on, but if you are a salad lover, don't just take my word for it. Buy the book and sample some of the dozens of scrumptious salads in RAISING THE SALAD BAR. I'd be surprised if you don't agree with me.

This terrific book is full of inspiration. If you are a salad eater, but find that you're stuck in a rut, this wonderfully-illustrated book will crank up your creativity. Great main dish salads and side dishes, too. And not just green salads, but potato, pasta and other grains. I especially love the section on how to make good dressings. A must - and a great gift. Enjoy!

Raising the Salad Bar has become an irreplaceable stable for me. I have a very well worn and loved copy that is invaluable. This cook book along with a pair of wooden salad tongs has become my favorite gift to give my friends.
My favorite recipes are the Wheatberry and the Chicken Salad recipes. The Fried Tomato and Lobster salad are this side of outrageous! What I like best about this book versus other cook books I have is that these recipes tend to bring out the natural goodness and flavor of the main ingredients rather then mask them w/thick and oily dressings.
The recipes are easy to read. The instructions are straightforward and the end product is always gorgeously presented.

This book contains more salads than I ever imagined. It is a pure joy to read. The format is wonderful, and the photographs are tantalizing. I loved the barley salad, although there was a little too much cumin for my taste. The bulgur salad is beautiful to see and an amazing variety of tastes and textures. I can't wait to try more of the book's fantastic entries.

This is by far the best cookbook I have used for everyday, healthy recipes. Every recipe is reasonably easy and they are all tried and true. They all work well...and for the silly reviewer who thought some were too oily or sweet??-they clearly don't follow recipes very well because I am a chef and these recipes ROCK! Thanks for a wonderful book with gorgeous photos!!

The salads are innovative and quite tasty, however, the dressings are far too sweet and in some cases too oily. I made one of the Asian dressings that contained some sesame oil so I was able to eliminate half of the called for canola oil and it was still too oily. My suggestion is to cut the sweetener at least in half and see if it is possible to cut down on the amount of oil used.

I had pretty much sworn off of buying new cookbooks because there are so many great internet sources for recipes. I still don't know what came over me the day that I bought it but I am so glad I did! I have since made many of these salads for myself and gatherings and each has ben a huge hit. Many of the recipes are interesting and a little different than the usual, I especially love the fruit and leafy greens combinations. The ingredients are easy to find and preparation is simple enough to do at the last minute. Salads aside, the dressing recipes stand out on their own. I often whip up one of these for whatever veggies I have in the fridge. Seriously, I have never been a dressing whipper-upper before but I haven't served a store bought dressing in the year that I've owned this book! My everyday dressing is the Maple Baslamic Vinaigrette.

I love to make salads for my dinners and lunches. However, I find most salad recipes in cookbooks to be boring or not substantial enough to have as a full meal. Thankfully this book was exactly what I was looking for. There is so much variety contained within it that it's hard to get bored with the recipes. The flavor combinations are so different from recipe to recipe that it's amazing to get such a spectrum of flavor all from salads and all from one cookbook. You'll find not just lettuce salads but salads centered around lentils, pasta, grains and more. They are also perfect to serve either as side dishes or at the center of the plate. I especially enjoy browsing this book because the photographs are beautiful and make you eager to try each recipe.

Best of all, the tastes of the recipes live up to expectations. They come out perfectly as written. I have had great success with every recipe I've tried thus far with my favorites being the Lemony Asparagus and Artichoke Pasta Salad and the Lentil Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette. Both were so good I could easily imagine them on a restaurant menu and found myself licking my plate clean. Given these results I cannot wait to try more recipes including Tabouli Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Parsley and Mint and Thai Quinoa Salad. The only challenge with this cookbook is deciding which salad to make next as each recipe sounds better than the last.

If you love salads and are looking for more variety than what you've found in other books this is certainly the resource for you.

This small book contains some wonderfully creative, new salad ideas. Many recipes arre accompanied by a photo - gives you something to aim for in your presentation! Who knew you could purchase a New Year's resolution?

I had purchase this book for a library collection and after seeing how great it was, I bought it for my mother-in-law.
I love this book. The recepies are easy and the salads are very good. The other good thing is that on the back, it has a section of only salad dressings. I strongly recommend this book.