April 23, 2012

The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen Cookbook- Review & Recipe

April 23, 2012

The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen , Glorious Meals Pure & Simple by Lévana Kirschenbaum is simply this- Awesome.

I have been through this cookbook from to cover and cannot find anything I don’t like about it. I’ll give you a run down on the book –

First impression flipping through this cookbook I was almost overwhelmed by some recipes and their ingredients list. Don’t let this fool you though and don’t skip this because of that you’d end up missing the amazing things throughout this book. Once I sat down to really read through it I was really happy with it.  Nearly every recipe comes with variations. There’s lists of substitutions for ingredients, if you don’t have them on hand or simply happen to just feel wild and want to switch things up. I absolutely love that this cookbook includes the variations. One recipe may have up to ten (or more!) suggestions on how to cook it. Even the bread section has variations, and you all know how much I love bread!

The author, Lévana Kirschenbaum, has put together a wonderful book full of simple, healthy and delicious recipes.

In addition to her native Moroccan cuisine, Lévana recipes include Indian, Italian, French and Chinese cuisine. The book includes three comprehensive indexes:
• A General Index, with more than 350 recipes
• A Gluten-free index, with natural and delicious gluten-free adaptations of more than 250 dishes
• A Passover index, with more than 250 Passover-friendly recipes

There’s something for everyone in here, from snacks, drinks, desserts, soups simple salads and more. The pictures are beautiful and the recipes are simple very well written and leave you mouth watering.

I have made a couple things form the cookbook one of them including –

Arborio Risotto with Spinach and Asparagus. It was amazing. I loved the tastes, and of course it has an entire page following it with different variations on how to cook this one recipe.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cups baby spinach
1 dozen thin asparagus, tough ends discarded. Cut into sections.
1 cup frozen or fresh green peas
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion chopped up
4 medium shallots chopped
2 cups arborio rice
Pinch of saffron
2 cups champagne , dry wine or sake (inexpensive champagne) I used white wine
4 cups hot water
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Directions – 
Heat oil in a wide heavy skillet. Ad the spinach, asparagus and peas sauteing just a minute or two until the leaves are wilted. Reserve. 
In the same skillet heat the oil and add the onion and shallots. saute until translucent. Add the arborio and saute about 2 more minutes. Reduce the temperature to medium adding saffron, wine and stir just until most the liquid is absorbed. Add hot water one cup at a time, adding in the next cup only when the first one has been absorbed. Total rice cooking time should be about 20 minutes. When rice is tender stir in the reserved vegetable mixture along with salt pepper and parsley. Heat through 2-3 minutes. The mixture will be cream. Serve hot. 
The variations are simple, change up the greens, or add different kinds in there. Keep it a vegetable dish or add in some smoked turkey even diced chicken. It was my first Risotto and the directions were easy to follow to bring out a wonderful dish.
 You do not want to miss this cookbook! There’s even menu plan suggestions, easy to follow directions and never ending ideas flowing through this book. Check out Levana Cooks website where you can pick up your own copy of The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen: Glorious Meals Pure & Simple   , 
Check out the second Recipe I posted from The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen- Unstuffed Cabbage 

**Disclosure- I received the products mentioned above , in order to write an honest review. No monetary compensation was received for this post. I did not have to write a positive review, Any and all opinions are and will always be my own.*  

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