Book Review: Eat To Live Cookbook

Eat To Live is a book that Jess read when she first became vegan. It also is the book that her mom read that set her on her vegan-ish journey (she is 95% vegan). So, they were both really excited about the Eat To Live Cookbook coming out. Jess grabbed it off of the shelf the first time she saw it. With a $30 price tag, she probably should have looked through the book a bit more before buying it (her own admission).

The book starts off with a brief introduction to the "nutratarian" way of eating. It's basically a summary of the original Eat To Live book without all of the scientific details. Jess really enjoyed reading this. She felt that it was easy to understand and that it paints a clearer picture to the layman than Eat to Live does. Dr. Furman suggests eating a whole foods, plant based diet with a large amount of leafy greens. He does allow small amounts of dairy and meat, but advises that they be used as condiments rather than the main dish. There is a separate and small section of recipes that include these items at the back of the book. Jess and I, of course, payed this section no mind.

When it comes to the heart of the book (the recipes), the handful that we tried were hit-and-miss. They seem to suffer from the same malady that plagues most cookbooks published by doctors and nutritionists rather than chefs and connoisseurs; the recipes place all emphasis on being healthful and occasionally forget about what qualities are required to make a delicious dish. In addition, some of the recipes are bewilderingly non-traditional. Don't get me wrong, I love to be experimental and try new things, but some of the serving suggestions in the Eat To Live Cookbook were just a bit too much. How about serving Spaghetti Squash Primavera over shredded lettuce? We tried it out of curiosity. You should not. I will say, though, that the lettuce at least added some texture to the primavera which was mushy and texture-free when cooked as the book directed.

There were recipes that we enjoyed quite a bit. "Cheesy" Kale Soup has earned a spot in our favorite recipe binder, in fact. The great recipe to lackluster recipe ratio was just too low for our liking, though, and along with the expensive nature of a lot of the recipes (cashew butter and Mediterranean pine nuts are priced at a premium!) we couldn't continue with the cookbook as long as we had planned.

We would have loved to suggest purchasing the Eat To Live Cookbook as we would love to suggest all of the vegan books and cookbooks out there, but unfortunately we cannot. There are other cookbooks available that offer more delicious food while being just as healthy. The original Eat To Live is great and one of the formative books to Jess's veganism, so if you're looking for some vegan reading and don't absolutely need the new recipes go ahead and pick that up instead.