Title: 100% Real: 100 Insanely Good Recipes for Clean Food Made Fresh
Author: Sam Talbot
Publication: April 4, 2017
Publisher: Oxmoor House
Genre: Cookbooks, Food and Wine
Pages: 256
SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
Celebrated chef and healthy-living expert Sam Talbot shows us how to make wildly delicious, nourishing food–using healthy, wholesome ingredients.
Bursting with 100 whole-food recipes and down-to-earth advice about clean eating, this cookbook proves that eating 100% real food is an enjoyable choice you can make every day. Chef Sam Talbot’s nourishing dishes are overflowing with natural flavor and free of processed ingredients, questionable additives, sweeteners, or preservatives.
Packed with vibrant personality and more than 150 photos, this cookbook is a real-world guide to un-junking what we feed ourselves and our children. Sam explains how to find seasonal ingredients and offers tips on stocking your pantry with game changing ingredients, like coconut oil and chickpea flour.
Forget fat-free, zero trans-fat, and the like–the hottest new food claim is not needing a claim at all. Eat. Real. Food. Simple as that!
REVIEW:
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**
When my editor suggested I request this book to review I jumped at the chance. I knew that it would be a great cookbook just from the description, but I didn’t know that it would be quite so amazing. Every recipe is clean and filled with fresh ingredients. This cookbook blew me away.
After flipping through it, I wanted to cook every recipe in this book. I managed to narrow it down to a few. The ones I will tell you about were huge hits with everyone that ate them. Starters: I did the Warm Camembert Cheese as an appetizer for a Mother’s Day get-together. It was absolutely heavenly. I did substitute in Brie instead which the author recommends as a fill in. It was the perfect melding of sweet from the strawberries the slight tang of the onions mixed with the tartness of the white wine. I did reduce the spice he calls for because there were small children and people who do not tolerate spicy. I could have added a bit more as it turns out since the warm gooey cheese and the sweetness of the berries mask the heat more than I thought it would. Next up, I did the Avocado Toad-in-A-Hole with Baked Ham and Salsa Verde. This was delicious. It completely changes the way avocados taste. It makes them creamier and more delectable. I made a triple batch of the salsa verde and there wasn’t a single bite left. We devoured it with chips after we finished the toad in a hole. This recipe was good but the ratio of avocado to other toppings made it a bit overwhelming. I did scoop out the avocado like he suggested. The only thing I didn’t do was cut the bottom off. I kitchen hacked and turned my muffin pans upside down and settled them in the little indentations. While I would make this again, I would probably take more avocado out than what he calls for. Third, I made Black Bean, Poblano, and Fried Egg Tostadas. I should have tripled this recipe. It was AMAZING. I was a little concerned about all the coconut oil he uses to cook this dish in. I needn’t worry. It was a brief smell of coconut then it went away and left no lingering taste on the food. When I served them I also left the Poblano pepper off my children’s plates. Which was fine it just meant more for my husband and me. Lastly, I made the Cold Soba Noodles with Roasted Tomato Oil, Kalamata Olives, and Shaved Parmesan. Confession: The recipe called for anchovies and I left them out. Partly because I forgot to pick them up at the store when I was shopping and partly because I do not like fish. Again, it was a huge hit. My children could not get enough of the dish. They even fought over who got the last little bits of the olive and tomato topping. The only thing I would change about the recipe is the amount of soba noodles that are called for. I had a huge amount left over that we ate for a few days after. Otherwise, this recipe is quick easy and pretty healthy.
I cannot tell you how much I loved this cookbook. So much so that I have already ordered a copy for myself and cannot wait to make more of the recipes. I might even be getting it for Christmas gifts for some people. Not only is this book about healthy eating it is also written by a Type 1 Diabetic so the recipes are tailored to be diabetic appropriate. I know that there are a ton of cookbooks tailored for diabetes but this one has healthy food for those people that want to clean up what they eat. While this book does contain fresh raw food it does contain more expensive extras, like coconut oil, arrowroot flour, etc. Most of this stuff, however, is sold in larger quantities so a purchase would last longer than a single use. I am already plotting my next meal using this book.
STAR RATING: 5/5
100% Real by Sam Talbot is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and may be available at a bookstore near you. Also make sure to add it to your To Read list on Goodreads.
