If you are the kind who assembles salads for a quick and easy side dish, you will be sorely disappointed in Salad Days. Amy Pennington collected a large number of excellent salad recipes in nine broad categories from breakfast salads through fruit salads to cooling salads, but most of these are elaborate, even time-consuming preparations but the results are superb. The recipes are fresh, innovative and an invitation to the cook. Each recipe is illustrated by a nice professional photo to show you what you expect to serve. Make sure you read the recipes through before attempting one as many require early preparation (like soaking and cooking legumes, slow baking of beets and so on).

“Salads, by nature, are healthy and clean…”

The layout is excellent with cook’s convenience in mind, instructions equally good and so are the instructive and interesting head-notes. You should have no difficulty finding ingredients. Pennington likes pure scratch cooking—not much opening cans or using prepared ingredients: this will add to kitchen time yet contributes to great food quality. She includes many useful insets like Homegrown Sprouts, Anatomy of a Grain Bowl, To Peel or not to Peel. Chapter headings list recipes for another convenience. An excellent salad book.

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