More Salad is the name of this new cookbook and also a response you may hear after you offer friends and family a meal that’s based on one of the recipes. In their fifth book, the New Zealand-based Two Raw Sisters (Margo Flanagan and Rosa Power) present a stunning selection of salads. Knowing that some of us like the occasional sweet treat, they’ve included a dessert section too.
On their website, the sisters say that “there is no better sight than a table filled with big round platters layered up high with eye-catching colours, flavours, and textures”.
Their cookbook shows many different ways to combine vegetables and other ingredients to make attractive, colourful and tasty salads using local produce that is easy to find here in New Zealand. There are over 70 recipes, each in one of four categories: Raw / Fresh, Pan / Fry, Oven / Roasted, or More / Desserts.
The sisters encourage a creative approach, with ingredients swapped in and out based on “what’s in your fridge [or freezer], pantry and garden”. It’s ok, they say, to use fresh, frozen, or preserved fruit and vegetables, whatever you have on hand. The book includes lists of vegetables available during each of the four seasons. This is great information and I wish that avocados were on the list. Although they’re technically considered to be fruit, I’d still love to know when avocados are in season, as their price (and quality) goes up and down like a yo-yo. And I wonder why both ‘lettuce’ and ‘rocket’ are listed separately, although not ‘cos’ which also features in several recipes.
Simple yet descriptive recipe names focus on the main ingredients. Here are just a few examples: Ginger Peanut Black Rice; Lime, Coconut + Cashew Noodles; Asparagus + Lemon Walnut Crumble; Raspberry Brownie Pudding.
Each recipe has brief notes under the headings ‘Swap’, ‘Tip’ and ‘Delicious With’, and the sisters share lots of good ideas. For example, they recommend freezing the woody ends that have been snapped off asparagus spears, for later use in soups or stocks. They say that if lemons are unavailable or too expensive, a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar is a good substitute.
A great dressing can take a salad to the next level – and every salad recipe also has a recipe for a dressing or some other suitable topping or garnish. The book has taught me new ways to use tahini, which usually sits for ages in the back of my fridge in between batches of Baba Ganoush. For example, you can drizzle tahini over broccoli, cauliflower, or carrots, or mix it with mustard and apple cider vinegar to make a zingy dressing.
I love the layout of this book. It’s a pleasure to read as well as to use. There are enticing photos throughout – and take a peek at the endpapers, which show simple table settings and fresh flowers. There are even two butter yellow ribbon bookmarks, to make it easy to find your new favourite recipes.
Anyone wanting to up their salad intake will find plenty of inspiration in this cookbook. It will also be a terrific resource for any household that has home-delivered vegetable boxes, which sometimes include unfamiliar produce.
Reviewer: Anne Kerslake Hendricks
Allen & Unwin