Kristina’s Bookshelf
Greener Diets:
A new cookbook offers creative ways
to prepare healthy greens.
I feel so lucky to live in a place where beautiful, leafy green vegetables—curly kales, paddle-leaved collards, spicy red-tinged mustards, firm cabbages, dark-green stemmed broccoli—are available year-round and can be grown easily in backyard gardens. Springtime brings to the local markets an even greater variety of delicate, tender spring produce, like nettles and asparagus. A cookbook filled with recipes for preparing greens in creative, flavorful ways almost always attracts my interest, especially a collection that includes tips for preparing produce to maximize bioavailability of vitamins and minerals.
Eat More Greens:
The Most Inventive Recipes to Help You Eat More Greens
by Zita Steyn
(Quadrille Publishing, 2017)
London-based nutritionist Zita Steyn wrote this cookbook for clients and friends who wanted to know how they could incorporate more greens (including sea greens) into their diets. Like many cookbook authors advocating less refined sugar, fewer empty carbohydrates, and more nutrient-density, Steyn works from beliefs that grew out of personal experience: Her mother learned to treat and manage symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome with a diet rich in dark, nutrient-dense greens. The recipes are simple, but Steyn uses intriguing combinations of herbs, spices, and fruits to give depth and complexity to her dishes. For instance, her Nettle and Dandelion Infusion is flavored with peppermint leaves, fennel seeds, and rose petals. A very pretty green gazpacho is finished with ice cubes made of edible herb flowers, cucumber, and lime juice. Fava beans are flavored with a golden raisin and pistachio crumble and tarragon mayonnaise. Headnotes to each recipe offer preparation tips and other details, together with close-up photographs of finished dishes. Overall, the book offers an attractive and creative collection of delicious, easy-to-prepare greens-intensive dishes.
Edible East Bay’s book editor Kristina Sepetys is eager to share her ideas and book recommendations with our readers.