Saturday, February 9, 2013

Green book review: The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen by Talya Lutzker

Today we'd like to introduce you with another great green book published by Book Publishing Co. This book takes place in the kitchen and is a great way to help get you through snow storms, like the one we have right now on the East Coast! If you don't have it with you right now, get it in time for the next storm :)

Our book for today is The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen Finding Harmony Through Food By Talya Lutzker.

What this book is about?

The Ayurveda Vegan Kitchen offers people the opportunity to follow an Ayuvedic diet without the use animal products. Ayurveda is a holistic healing system developed in ancient India to increase an understanding of the human body, mind, and spirit. It organizes the elements of ether, air, fire, water, and earth into three body types, or doshas. Although each person is unique, one of these doshas will predominate their constitution and will need to be balanced on a regular basis. 

Dairy products are important foods in traditional Ayurveda; however, for every milk-based food that Ayurvedic healers revere, there is an equally effective whole-food, vegan alternative. Following the same nutritional principles as traditional Ayurveda, Talya created over 120 delicious recipes that provide healing flavors and harmony to the mind and spirit. Easy-to-follow symbols on each recipe page show how the unique chemistry of that recipe can be used to balance the body'’s constitution. 

Since a healthy digestive system is at the core of ayurvedic medicine, these recipes will keep you on track and in good health.

Our review:

The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen was a very new idea for me as a reader. Although I am not much of a meat person, I am a milk, cheese, and honey person. With that in mind, I still found the book to be packed full of information. It also has an outline that is very descriptive, helpful, as well as surprisingly insightful. The Ayurvedic system is about bringing balance to yourself, both your mind and your body through your diet. It explains the “Dosha” and then provides recipes to fit your personal needs. The author did a good job of keeping the informative side of the book fun and interesting and not overwhelming and boring. I give high praise in that regard as that is not an easy feat. 

As to the recipes, I obviously didn’t get to go through the entire book and try them all out. Instead I picked three that looked like they would work for me. The recipes themselves were very easy to follow, making the meal easy to prepare if you have the right ingredients. However, that could be a real issue for some people depending on your city and where you live. Thankfully I happen to have an organic market literally right next door. Again however, even with a full grocery full of organic and whole foods, I still had trouble finding some of the items I needed.

The recipes themselves, cooked up nicely, and looked great, even if I do say so myself. The taste, two of the three were actually pretty good. One though, was absolute gak. That is not to say the recipe is bad, but apparently I am not a mung bean fan. Who knew?

All in all I would recommend this book for anyone that is interested in the Ayurvedic system. It’s easy to read and follow, includes loads of great information, along with informative recipes that are easy to prepare from what I was able to try.


You can purchase the book on Amazon.com


Yours,