Epic Salads, by Jessica Prescott, presents a refreshing approach to salads making. Drawing from many culinary traditions, Prescott presents over 60 plant-based recipes that can fill many roles from snack to side dish to whole meal perfect for lunch or dinner. She uses a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and combines them with grains, legumes, and pasta to make dishes that are healthy, hearty, and delicious.
The book is divided into six sections with the first being the art of salad building where Prescott focuses on five essentials: leafy greens, body, protein, crunch and dressing. Specific suggestions are made and tips for preparing, cooking, and storage are given. Prescott notes that although she uses dairy and eggs along with legumes and tofu for protein, fish and meat could also be included.
The rest of the book is devoted to recipes divided into four groups: grains and legumes, pasta and noodles, showstopping sides, and salads for a salad party. For a light refreshing salad try Prescott’s version of Greek salad featuring nectarines, her simplified version of Indonesian gado gado. or her roasted feta and grape fattoush. The recipes using grains and legumes, like five-spice tempeh and cualiflower salad, offers earthy comfort and is good as a leftover. Make a large batch of the coriander pesto and roasted pumpkin pasta salad and take it to work for lunch the next week. Fancy up a barbecue dinner with grilled iceberg lettuce with capers. Of course, if you really like salads why not throw a salad party and start it off with burrata with broad beans and peas, whipped feta with balsamic roasted grapes, and dreamy creamy laded bean dip? The range of recipes is truly awesome!
Each recipe has an introduction with anecdotal information about the dish, serving size, list of ingredients, step by step instructions for making the dish, and tips for preparing, serving and/or storing the dish. Beautiful pictures of various dishes are scattered throughout the book but are sometimes are not easily connected to the text. Since the author lives in Australia, the unites are given in both British and American units, and word usage sometimes may seem strange. In addition, some of the ingredient that are readily available to the author may require an online purchase by an American.
If you want to expand your expertise in salad making or just try some new salads, Epic Salad is a great resource. The beautiful combinations Prescott creates, her use of herbs and condiments, and her suggestions for serving provide the basic information for learning about salad making and then going on to create personal signature salads. With Epic Salad as a guide, salad making will become a culinary adventure!
To buy Epic Salads from Amazon.com, click here.