Book Review: Salad of the Day

Georgeanne Brennan has authored a new cookbook in 2012, Salad of the Day, 365 Recipes for Every Day of the Year. The chapters are laid out to follow the calendar year, with a large 2 page calendar spread at the beginning of each chapter giving a once glance view of the entire month’s recipes. In the subsequent pages of each chapter, Georgeanne provides the detailed recipes, including thoughtful comments. There are also many full page pictures of salads throughout the book.

I picked up this cookbook at Williams Sonoma in the beginning of April and have been cooking from it ever since. I love the organization of the recipes and I love that Georgeanne strives to highlight seasonal ingredients as we progress through the calendar year of recipes. I’ve made at least a dozen of her salads so far and I haven’t found one dud in the bunch yet! There are warm salads such as her Grilled Salmon, Potato, and Asparagus salad sprinkled throughout the cookbook and the cold salads are by no means traditional – every salad has a creative twist either in ingredients or presentation. The past two weeks have found me shopping for wheat berries, quinoa, pea shoots, green mangos, and more. Definitely not pedestrian.

I first heard of Georgeanne Brennan from my mother-in-law who has always wanted to take cooking lessons from Ms. Brennan out at her cooking studio and home in California. Unfortunately the weekend classes seem to fill within a day of being posted to her website and I’ve not been quick enough to snag reservations for us. Given how fantastic this cookbook is, I’m really keen to soak up some of her creative wisdom face to face now so I’ll be watching her website for openings in her classes a little more closely.

I think this cookbook would prove useful for just about everyone, including vegetarians and vegans. Granted it’s not strictly vegetarian but most of the salads are vegetarian or vegan and with simple adaptations they all can be. Brennan’s cookbook would also be great for those who want to eat healthier and incorporate greens and whole grains but have trouble coming up with ideas on how to do so, and more importantly how to do so deliciously. 365 different and delicious salads all at the ready and organized around seasonal ingredients. You really can’t do any better than that.

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