Eco Read | It's All Good
IT'S BEEN A LONG WHILE SINCE WE'VE FEATURED AN ECO READ PICK AND I'M HAPPY TO BE BRINGING YOU ANOTHER EDITION! After receiving this book, Gwyneth Paltrow's new release IT’S ALL GOOD: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look and Feel Great, I spent a good long while simply admiring the photography. A long time fan of the fabulously talented Ditte Isager, her photographs are stunning. Simple, clean and full of beautiful texture, you'll enjoy simply browsing the pages before you even step foot in the kitchen. When you get to actually deciding what to try first, you'll have your work cut out for you as choosing will be difficult—it all looks great. That said, each recipe is relatively simple and easy, but you'll need to stock your pantry with a few staples first, things you might not have on hand such as quinoa flakes (but if you're committed to learning to cook with less gluten, for example, you'll use these types of ingredients more and more). The book even helps you take it a step further, by introducing recipes that adhere to Elimination Diets, or are vegan (not to worry, there's a whole chapter on fish and meat too), without sacrificing flavour in the least. There's even a chapter on kid friendly food to help your little ones adopt healthy eating habits from the start.
With each recipe, you'll be chopping a plethora of fresh ingredients and learning to cook with what's local, and in season. In my home, cooking isn't a necessity, it's a way of life. We are constantly looking for ways to more easily and effectively incorporate fresh local foods into our cooking, so much so that it has now become second nature; we get excited about finding new local producers, and have made a hobby out of foraging for wild foods. What I loved best about Gwyneth's book is that it too embraces the same lifestyle approach to eating, and encourages that same farm to table connection. You can very easily imagine leisurely trips to the Sunday market and going home to cook something from this book. So far I've only had the chance to prepare a few recipes, but my favourite so far has been the Lentils with Mustard and Tomatoes (although you can see my book darts in these photos, I'm in the process of bookmarking many others to try). It's a delightful, easy to prepare, and vegetarian salad that showcases protein-packed lentils and cancer-fighting tomatoes. It's perfect as a side, or as a light meal, especially in summer when the tomatoes will be fresh off the vine, hopefully from your very own kitchen garden. Read on below for the recipe (pictured in the third image from the bottom)!
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LENTIL SALAD WITH MUSTARD + TOMATOES
Just perfect. Lentils are high in protein, and this simple preparation is wonderful as a side or as a lunch main dish (you could even slip A Poached Egg on top; see page 278).
Serves 4
- 1 cup lentils (preferably the dark-green French variety called du Puy)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon coarse seeded mustard
- Juice of ½ juicy lemon
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Coarse sea salt
- 1 small red onion, finely diced
- 1 cup halved yellow cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup roughly chopped Italian parsley
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the lentils, turn the heat to medium, and cook just until the lentils are cooked through, about 20 minutes. Drain the lentils, place them in a large mixing bowl, and set them aside.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the mustards, lemon, vinegar, olive oil, and a large pinch of salt. Add the vinaigrette to the lentils along with the onion, tomatoes, and parsley. Season the salad to taste with salt and more lemon or olive oil if you like. This salad is best if it’s allowed to sit for at least ½ hour and served at room temperature.
*Excerpted from the book IT’S ALL GOOD: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look and Feel Great by Gwyneth Paltrow (with Julia Turshen), photographs by Ditte Isager. Copyright © 2013 by Gwyneth Paltrow. Reprinted with permission of Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.
