Tuesday's green book: Big Green Cookbook (and a giveaway!)

Today is the second day of our green book review and this time we're in the kitchen, where the table is full with interesting dishes like avant garde arugula salad and veggie studded sticky quinoa and one big cooking book in the middle.

Our book this week is:
Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle

Author: Jackie Newgent

Jackie Newgent is a registered dietitian, eco-cuisine expert, and cookbook author and writes for Glamour, Weight Watchers Magazine, Woman’s Day, and other health publications. In the May 2008 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, she was one of seven food experts featured. She has been a repeat guest expert on Emeril Lagasse’s TV show “Emeril Green” on Planet Green (Discovery) Channel.

She has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America, NBCs Later Today, CBS’s Up to the Minute, Food Network’s Follow that Food and Lifetime’s Lifetime Live as well as on the radio including NPR, CNN Radio Network, and WOR. She’s also a cooking instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York. She’s the author of the award-winning The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook. Her websites are: biggreencookbook.com and jackienewgent.com. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Publisher: Wiley

Published on: April 2009

What this book is about? (from the book's website)
You can now reduce your carbon footprint deliciously … with green cuisine. Big Green Cookbook by Jackie Newgent, RD (Wiley), is like a hybrid … the “Prius” of cookbooks. And there’s something in it for everyone—whether a little green or already completely eco-conscientious.

Chockablock with plant-based recipes, informative sidebars, and useful tips with every recipe, Big Green Cookbook is a comprehensive climate-conscious cookbook that’s ideal for both culinary novices and experiences cooks. In it, Jackie shows how to cleverly maximize flavor in real meals that minimize environmental impact.

The book contains 200 simple and environmentally-friendly recipes for fresh, delicious, all-natural food, with a chapter for every season plus a year-round-recipes chapter, including succulent dishes such as Gingery Red Grapefruit Shrimp Salad, Eco-Beer-Battered Red Onion Rounds, Cool Thai Peanut Soba Noodles, Breaded Organic Chicken Paillard with Fresh Mango Relish, Garlicky Spinach Flatbread Pizzette, Pan-Seared Alaskan Wild Salmon with Papaya Sauce, Buckwheat Blueberry-Peach Pancakes, Navel Orange Mojito, Hot Fuji Apple Sundae, and Chocolate Fudge Brownies with Starfruit.

Why you should get it?
If you love to cook and want to stay eco-friendly while cooking this book is a no-brainer.

But even if you don't like cooking and really want to stay at the kitchen as little as possible, but at the same time you care about your health and don't want to feed yourself with junk food forever, this is the book for you.

I love cooking and so I was very happy to learn about this book. What I like mostly about this book that it is a great fit for everyone - busy mothers will find easy recipes they can prepare really quickly, locavores will find many ideas dishes they can make of local foods, and both vegetarians and carnivores will find plenty of creative ideas that will suit their preferences.

I love the focus of the book on seasonal food (the book is divided by the seasons of the year), as eating by season is not only an important step to reduce the carbon footprint of our food, but also makes it much more tasty as there's nothing like fresh food.

The book presents a list of green cooking rules, which are the cornerstones of the recipes of the book, including the 4Rs (reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle), buy locally when logical, enjoy fresh foods naturally and simply prepared, be an energy-wise cook, prepare plant-based meals. And of course have fun, which is an important motto of the book.

And this book is really fun, filled not only with recipes, but also with tips (little green cooking tips such as "finger licking is proper eco-friendly etiquette!") and my favorite "use it, don't lose it" ideas like how to reuse marinade in a safe way, or what to do when you have extra cream cheese but no plans to smear it on a bagel..).

Finally, this lovely book walks the talk and is printed on 100% post-consumer de-inked fiber without chlorine, which is very important given the fact it's really a big book with 386 pages.

What others think about the book?
"The Big Green Cookbook shows you how deliciously easy it can be to reduce your carbon 'food' print. It's the perfect tool for anyone who wants to eat well and treat the earth right." - Ellie Krieger, host of Food Network's Healthy Appetite and author of The Food You Crave

"Big Green Cookbook is THE step-by-step guide for greening your kitchen and your cuisine. Packed with easy tips and fantastic recipes based on the best of the season, Jackie Newgent shows America how tasty green cuisine can be, and why it's so critical to our planet." - Kate Geagan, MS, RD, author of Go Green Get Lean

You can get more information about the book and some great recipes on its website - www.biggreencookbook.com

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

We're giving away our review copy of the book, courtesy of the book's publicist, and of course a tree will be planted for the copy!

How you can win? please add a comment below with an answer the following question: what is your favorite dish? Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, May 19, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on our website's green resources section.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!