Wild About Greens: 125 Delectable Vegan Recipes for Kale, Collards, Arugula, Bok Choy, and other Leafy Veggies Everyone Loves [Hardcover]

Nava Atlas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2012

Celebrated vegan and vegetarian cookbook author Nava Atlas serves up a comprehensive collection of scrumptious recipes, all featuring ultra-healthy, super-nutritious leafy greens.

Kale, collards, spinach, Asian greens, and many more leafy greens are a breeze to grow and prepare--and these 125 recipes showcase the most commonly used varieties in a wide selection of flavorful dishes. Nava's up-to-the-minute ideas range from using sturdy collard greens as wrappers for savory fillings to making luscious dips from arugula and watercress. There's even a section on green juices and smoothies that make it easier than ever to incorporate the most nutritious foods on earth into delicious everyday fare that everyone can enjoy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Greens are a side dish no more! Inspired by an overabundance of chard in her kitchen garden, Atlas created a full menu of over 100 internationally inspired dishes and dips starring cruciferous greens. A handy introduction includes the names, health properties, and flavors of all featured greens, as well as tips on buying, preparing, freezing, and dehydrating. Author of ten vegan and vegetarian cookbooks--including Vegan Holiday Kitchen and Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet--and the creator of vegkitchen.com, Atlas is known for time-saving recipes with simple ingredient lists; featuring recipes calling for about six to ten ingredients each, her latest book does not disappoint. VERDICT Full of enticing, healthy recipes like Kale Chips and Collard-Wrapped Yellow Rice and Black Bean Enchiladas, this cookbook will attract vegans, vegetarians, foodies, and adventurous dieters." -- Library Journal

 

"Ms. Atlas is that rarest of creatures, a sensible, non-preachy vegan with a sense of humor. . .you'll find plenty of useful information in this highly readable collection of 125 recipes featuring leafy green vegetables--17 categories in all, from arugula to watercress. There a several standouts, including Sauteed Sweet and Citrusy Beets With Their Greens. In a chapter about matching greens to beans, grains and pastas, Ms. Atlas presents Hoisin-Glazed Bok Choy With Tofu and Soba Noodles, as satisfying as any meat or poultry stir fry. . . . you don't have to be a committed vegetarian to enjoy Ms. Atlas's flavorful, easy-to-follow recipes." --Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Nava Atlas has written ten previous bestselling cookbooks including Vegan Holiday Kitchen (Sterling 2011). She has long been considered an expert in meat-free holiday fare, which is the most popular area of her website, VegKitchen.com. Nava is also a visual artist, whose work has been shown nationally in museums, galleries, and alternative art spaces, and is part of numerous museum and university collections.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (June 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402785887
• ISBN-13: 978-1402785887
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Vegetables

More About the Author

Nava Atlas is the author and illustrator of many vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, most recently Wild About Greens, Vegan Holiday Kitchen, Vegan Express, and Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons. Her earlier books include Vegetarian Family Cookbook and The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet.

In addition to cookbooks, Nava also produces visual nonfiction books including The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life (2011; http://www.literaryladiesguide.com), exploring first-person narratives on the writing lives of twelve classic women authors, and commenting on the universal relevance of their experiences to all women who love to write. Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife (2009) is a satiric look at contemporary marriage and motherhood through the lens of a faux 1950s cookbook.

Nava is also an active fine artist specializing in limited edition artist's books and text-driven objects. Her work is shown and collected by museums and universities across the U.S. You can see her work at http://navaatlasart.com. Her home is in the Hudson Valley region of New York State, where she lives with her husband and two sons.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great book from Nava Atlas May 22, 2012

By Paige P

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wild About Greens is the latest from Nava Atlas, a prolific author of fantastic cookbooks. You don't need to be vegan (I'm not) to appreciate the detailed descriptions of each green and the delicious recipes. As one who frequently goes to the grocery store or farmers market and buys lovely and unfamiliar greens, this book is a real gift. I bought Russian kale at the market on Sunday, and found a great recipe for a vegetable stew which I made and enjoyed for lunch today. This is a must-have for cooks who want to work more greens into all aspects of their cooking repetoires (smoothies to stews). Excellent resource, with versatile recipes that include useful variations.

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful and Useful Cookbook June 21, 2012

By B. Wiley

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

First off, this cookbook is downright gorgeous, just from the perspective of the book itself. The dustjacket is a nicely textured paper, as are the pages within the book itself. If you are someone who enjoys READING cookbooks, as well as using them, you'll love the aesthetics of this book. Most pages are illustrated with a pen and ink drawing of a leafy green. The full page photographs included (by the very talented food photographer Susan Voisin) are gorgeous. I wish there were more than the 8 that are included!!

In terms of function, this is a most useful book. Got a green that you've never heard of before? The first section of the book includes a description of just about every green under the sun, describing what it looks like, a pen and ink drawing of the green, a description of its taste, whether it is a green that is good raw or is better cooked, and a list of all the recipes in the book that include that green.

She talks about how to preserve greens if your garden or CSA is loading you up with more greens than you can handle at one time. She has an overview section describing the different preparation techniques for greens (steaming, wilting, sauteing, blanching, braising).

The recipes are divided into 5 chapters: Basic Preparations; Greens with Beans, Grains, Pasta, and Other Vegetables; Salads, Dressings, and Dips; Greens in Soups and Stews; and Green Juices and Smoothies.

I pretty much love greens in any way, shape, or form, but I've heard other folks who are not big leafy green eaters say that the recipes in this book made them realize that with the right recipes, any green is delicious. Nava has done a very innovative way of bringing complimentary flavors that balance with a green's taste. For example, with the rather strong, sharp flavor of mustard greens, Nava has a recipe that balances that with sweet onions and fruit. Sounds like a weird combination, but it works!! Another recipes pairs mustard greens with flavors of an Asian theme: mustard, garlic, sherry, shallots and soy sauce.

If you love greens, don't love them but think you should be eating them, or just love collecting and reading cookbooks, this new book by Nava will become one of your frequently used cookbooks!!

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious ways to add more leafy greens to your meals June 5, 2012

By PT Cruiser TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Numerous studies have shown that some of the most nutrient dense foods are leafy greens. They pack not only vitamins and minerals but they are low in calories. If you're like me, you're always searching for new ways to get more of them into your diet. Wild About Greens by Nava Atlas is a beautiful hardcover book that has 125 recipes for greens like kale, collard greens, arugula, bok choy, escarole, chard and many other leafy greens. She doesn't include lettuces and ordinary cabbages that you're probably already familiar with and use in salads, although there are a few recipes where they appear with other greens. The ones included in this book are easy to find in most supermarkets or farmer's markets but they're ones that most of us aren't accustomed to cooking with beyond a few basic things.

Some of the sections in this book are: Health Benefits of Leafy Greens, Buying and Preparation Tips, Freezing Greens and Dehydrating Greens. She then goes on to introduce several of them with descriptions and drawings of each. (This was really helpful to me. If I can see them, I know what I'm looking for in the grocery store.) Along with each description she lists, with page numbers, recipes included in the book that use that type of leafy green. I wish I would have had this book when we belonged to a organic co-op and received boxes of vegetables that often included lots of greens each week. The book would have given me a variety of ideas of what to make with each one. It also helps to have several recipes when you buy too much of the same thing at a farmer's market and need to use them up fast.

Chapter 1 is Basic Preparations of Leafy Greens
Chapter 2: Greens with Beans, Grains, Pasta & Other Vegetables
Chapter 3: Salads, Dressings & Dips
Chapter 4: Greens in Soups & Stews
Chapter 5: Green Juices & Smoothies

There are also metric conversions and an index.

I like that there are a lot of hearty recipes along with the others in this book. It's not a book that's full of only salads. Some of my favorite recipes so far are: Pasta with Greens, Chickpeas and Olives, Curried Sweet Potatoes with Chard & Chickpeas, Pasta with Asparagus, Arugula & Sun-dried Tomatoes, and Lemony Wild Rice with Greens, Pine Nuts & Raisins. The recipes are easy to follow and use ingredients that can easily be found in the grocery store.

There are simple green drawings throughout the book and an eight page color section of photos in the center of the book. The recipes are all vegan but would be a great addition to any cookbook collection. It's also a very nice quality book that would make a thoughtful gift for anyone that is looking to add more healthy greens to their meals.