Near & Far
Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel [A Cookbook]
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Known for combining natural foods recipes with evocative, artful photography, New York Times bestselling author Heidi Swanson circled the globe to create this mouthwatering assortment of 120 vegetarian dishes. In this deeply personal collection drawn from her well-worn recipe journals, Heidi describes the fragrance of flatbreads hot off a Marrakech griddle, soba noodles and feather-light tempura in Tokyo, and the taste of wild-picked greens from the Puglian coast. Recipes such as Fennel Stew, Carrot & Sake Salad, Watermelon Radish Soup, Brown Butter Tortelli, and Saffron Tagine use healthy, whole foods ingredients and approachable techniques, and photographs taken in Morocco, Japan, Italy, France, and India, as well as back home in Heidi’s kitchen, reveal the places both near and far that inspire her warm, nourishing cooking.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Swanson (Super Natural Cooking) offers a unique but uneven collection of vegetarian recipes inspired by Northern California, where she resides, and the diverse locales she's visited, including Morocco, Japan, and Italy. All recipes, she states, are rooted in place, incorporating the culture of the cuisine as well as common local ingredients and techniques. She starts with San Francisco and Northern California, showcasing lackluster offerings such as cucumber salad, yellow wax beans, and shredded tofu stir-fry. Fortunately, the majority of her overseas offerings are much more appetizing. Morocco's saffron tagine, yellow couscous, and roasted winter squash exude a variety of rich flavors. Her chapter on Japan is superb, especially nori granola, turmeric miso soup, sake-glazed mushrooms, and watermelon radish soup. Surprisingly, Italy disappoints, with radicchio salad, brown butter tortelli, and biscottini safe but unremarkable choices. France fares only slightly better with olives with grapefruit juice, wine-washed arugula, three types of tartines, and lettuce hearts with melted brown butter. India provides Swanson with an opportunity to shine once again with saag paneer, aloo bhaji, rasam, and makhaniya lassi. She concludes with a hodgepodge chapter on accompaniments, including brown rice, fresh ginger juice, whey, and labneh. Diverse but unbalanced, this collection vacillates from the unusual to the mundane, offering cooks occasional culinary gems amidst the humdrum.
