The Healthy Hedonist: More Than 200 Delectable Flexitarian Recipes for Relaxed Daily Feasts

How would you like to prepare and savor a delicious meal that's also nourishing and healthful? In The Healthy Hedonist, chef, teacher, and cookbook author Myra Kornfeld offers home cooks more than two hundred mouthwatering flexitarian recipes designed to satisfy all kinds of appetites — without leaving you feeling stuffed and guilty afterward!

So, what is a flexitarian? A flexitarian is anyone interested in eating healthy, primarily vegetarian cuisine without cutting meat and fish entirely from his or her diet. The Healthy Hedonist is the ideal cookbook for people with a variety of eating habits: the recipes are readily adapted to suit vegetarians, omnivores, and everyone in between.

The emphasis here is on real food: fresh, natural, and, of course, delicious ingredients are used to create unique and healthful meals. Aside from soups, appetizers, salads, chicken and fish dishes, vegetarian entrees, grains, and vegetables, there are tempting recipes for pizza, alternative burgers, and naturally sweetened desserts. You can indulge yourself and feel virtuous at the same time with delectable fare such as:

• Portobello Mushroom Tapenade
• Wilted Spinach Salad with Orange-Curry Dressing
• Crispy Thai Wontons
• Potato Salad with Caramelized Onions
• Roast Chicken with Maple Glaze
• Coconut Green Beans with Mustard Seeds
• Lacquered Carrots with Coriander Gazpacho Salad with Tomato Vinaigrette
• Red Snapper Provencale
• Marrakesh Minestrone with Cilantro Puree
• Tamarind Chickpeas
• Asparagus, Leek, and Barley Risotto
• Barbeque Spice — Rubbed Tofu
• Seared Sesame-Crusted Tuna
• Zucchini Latkes
• Salmon Medallions with Lime-Mustard Teriyaki
• Citrus Compote Supreme
• Roasted Peaches with Caramel Sauce
• Chocolate Lovers' Brownies
• Pomegranate-Pear Cornmeal Tart

Throughout the book are plenty of helpful suggestions for substituting ingredients to suit your taste or dietary preference and for cooking for large groups or smaller gatherings, along with preparation tips and menu ideas. In addition, easy-to-follow illustrations guide you toward creating superb meals sure to appeal to every palate. For any and all food lovers, The Healthy Hedonist is the healthy, scrumptious way to enjoy sensational feasts every day.

"It's not uncommon for people to call themselves vegetarian, only to say that they sometimes eat fish and maybe poultry. What they're probably really interested in is a healthful, well-rounded diet, making them 'flexitarians,' a growing group that Kornfeld (The Voluptuous Vegan) addresses in this winning cookbook. Pseudo-meat products (like tofu) are used sparingly, and dishes that do have them, such as Wilted Arugula with Braised Tempeh, Mango, and Red Onion, with its delightful intersections of salty and sweet, may conquer even their sworn enemies. Vegetarian offerings dominate, but there's a whole chapter on fish and chicken, which are generally simply prepared but then transformed by more complex sauces, as in the elegant Black Bass in Leek-Saffron-Tomato Broth. Kornfeld's instructions are fairly detailed, and helpful drawings illustrate some of the more difficult techniques, but many recipes can still demand time and patience. Cooks who are willing to put in the effort because they agree with Kornfeld about the need to get past fad diets and eat fresh, 'unfussy' food will be thrilled with the possibilities this book provides for pleasing a variety of people and their different eating habits. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Myra Kornfeld is the author of The Voluptuous Vegan. She writes regularly for Vegetarian Times and has contributed recipes and articles to Natural Health and Organic Style. A veteran restaurant chef and private cook, she is an instructor at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York City as well as at Sur La Table.