Salads Are More Than Leaves – by Elena Silcock

There’s a lot of value in this one already before we even get to the recipes, as she outlines first the foundations of a good salad, how to “build” it, how to mix-and-match as appropriate, and how to make substitutions are appropriate for dietary restrictions or availability of ingredients.

The recipes themselves are organized not by time of day as many recipe books go for, and of course they are all salads, so the “type of meal” approach doesn’t really work either. How does she categorize them instead?

Her classifications are: fresh, fruity, hot ‘n’ spicy, spiced by not spicy, wintery, grilled, creamy, cheesy.

As one might expect from a book of salads, the recipes are very plants-forward, though not always vegan or even vegetarian. Again, substitutions are suggested where appropriate, though.

In terms of healthiness, while the author mentions that making things healthy was not her top concern, it is nevertheless good to see that the recipes are mostly very healthy anyway—also something one might have expected of a book of salads, but it bears mentioning in any case.

Are they salads to get excited about? Well, one person’s excitement is another person’s Tuesday, but there sure is a lot of flavor in here, and the author, a chef by the way, also certainly knows what she’s doing with textures. What’s enjoyable is subjective, but it’s got this reviewer all fired-up for a salad dinner tonight.

Bottom line: if you’d like to eat more salad but find yourself rotating through the same three or so basic salads, this book will expand your repertoire exponentially (literally, because as well as there being a lot of diverse recipes here, each comes with suggestions for modifications, and of course there’s the section on mix-and-match tips and tricks to build your own).

Click here to check out Salads Are More Than Leaves, and get excited about salads!