Simply Ancient Grains - Maria Speck

(From the publisher)

The award-winning author of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, Maria Speck makes cooking with ancient grains faster, more intuitive, and easier than ever before in this collection of recipes, most of which are gluten-free. From black rice to red quinoa to golden Kamut berries, ancient grains are showing up on restaurant menus and store shelves in abundance. Yet in home kitchens, many fear that whole grains are too difficult and time-consuming to prepare. In Simply Ancient Grains, Maria makes cooking with these fascinating and nourishing staples easy and accessible with sumptuous recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Her family-friendly dishes are Mediterranean-inspired and delicious, such as Spicy Honey and Habanero Shrimp with Cherry Couscous; Farro Salad with Roasted Eggplant, Caramelized Onion, and Pine Nuts; and Red Rice Shakshuka with Feta Cheese. Maria’s tips and simplified approach take whole grain cooking to the next level by amplifying the flavor and enduring beauty of these nutritious grains.

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My Review

Quality/Design...........................4.5/5
Recipes....................................3.5/5
Ease of Use...............................4.2/5
Pictures...................................4.0/5
Ingredient Availability.................2.7/5
Overall....................................4.1/5

I was very excited to receive this cookbook because I've heard a lot of hype about ancient grains recently. I was also delighted to discover that Speck talks individually about each grain (and pseudograin) at the beginning of the book also including yields and cook times. It certainly was an educational experience for me. Being a vegetarian, I was also pleasantly surprised to find that almost all the recipes were vegetarian or had options to make them vegetarian.
Although, I would have preferred more of them, the pictures that were there were vivid and tantalizing. Honestly, there were quite a lot of pictures; I would just prefer a picture on every page. Quick meals versus more labor intensive meals were divided into different sections and each chapter had a two-page snippet of various aspects of home cooking from the author's own experience.
This is definitely a niche cookbook, but if you are wanting to learn about cooking with ancient grains, this cookbook is an invaluable resource.



I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
Maria Speck Bio

Welcome to Recipes Reviewed! I have been a foodie ever since I was born; that is to say, I've always loved food and, inexplicably, am frequently attracted to gourmet combinations rather than plainer foods. However, I believe one can make almost any food gourmet by simply injecting a tiny bit of love. I also like to see how other chef's insert love into their recipes by perusing their cookbooks. Blogging for Books has graciously agreed to send me the cookbooks I choose in exchange for an honest review. I will gladly share my opinions, however, I will also implement a more objective star rating based on several factors I believe important to any cookbook. Be looking for my first review on cooking with ancient grains in the next few weeks.