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A review by lisbet
The CSA Cookbook: No-Waste Recipes for Cooking Your Way Through a Community Supported Agriculture Box, Farmers' Market, or Backyard Bounty by Linda Ly
4.0
An easy-to-read cookbook that will make you rethink which parts of a plant you consider edible and which you consider waste. There's a generous amount of photos (close to one photo per recipe) and none of the recipes look too difficult and most call for familiar "other" ingredients, even if the vegetable ingredients might seem unfamiliar..
This book is ideal for anyone interested in producing less food waste, increasing their creativity in the kitchen, or lowering their food bill. It's one of those books that will permanently change your way of thinking about something. Once you get an idea of the types of recipes that are suited for using up scraps (pesto, salsa, hummus, stir fry, and quick pickle recipes feature heavily), you will be able to think up new combinations and possibilities on your own. For example, the author includes a chart with three columns to help readers come up with their own combinations for pesto (a green, a cheese, a nut).
What kept this book from being a 5-star book for me, was two-fold. First, I wish the author had discussed items that shouldn't be eaten. Even if the worst thing that can happen is stomach distress if you eat a large amount of a certain green, for example, I think it should at least be addressed. Second, there were a lot (a lot!) of pesto recipes - to the point where I think the book could have been subtitled "If in Doubt, Make Pesto."
Recipes that caught my interest: Tomato Leaf Pesto (p.35), Chard Stalk Hummus (p.67), Fennel Frond and Ginger Pesto (p.110), Carrot Top Salsa (p.145), Savory Sweet Potato Hummus (p.165), Spicy Stir-fried Sweet Potato Leaves (p. 168), Watermelon Rind and Jalapeño Pickles (p.174), Stir-fried Watermelon Rind (p.179), Nasturtium Pesto (p.208), and Pickled Nasturtium Pods (p.210).
This book is ideal for anyone interested in producing less food waste, increasing their creativity in the kitchen, or lowering their food bill. It's one of those books that will permanently change your way of thinking about something. Once you get an idea of the types of recipes that are suited for using up scraps (pesto, salsa, hummus, stir fry, and quick pickle recipes feature heavily), you will be able to think up new combinations and possibilities on your own. For example, the author includes a chart with three columns to help readers come up with their own combinations for pesto (a green, a cheese, a nut).
What kept this book from being a 5-star book for me, was two-fold. First, I wish the author had discussed items that shouldn't be eaten. Even if the worst thing that can happen is stomach distress if you eat a large amount of a certain green, for example, I think it should at least be addressed. Second, there were a lot (a lot!) of pesto recipes - to the point where I think the book could have been subtitled "If in Doubt, Make Pesto."
Recipes that caught my interest: Tomato Leaf Pesto (p.35), Chard Stalk Hummus (p.67), Fennel Frond and Ginger Pesto (p.110), Carrot Top Salsa (p.145), Savory Sweet Potato Hummus (p.165), Spicy Stir-fried Sweet Potato Leaves (p. 168), Watermelon Rind and Jalapeño Pickles (p.174), Stir-fried Watermelon Rind (p.179), Nasturtium Pesto (p.208), and Pickled Nasturtium Pods (p.210).