The Conscious Kitchen, by Alexandra Zissu. Clarkson Potter, $13.99.
Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic, by Anna Getty. Chronicle Books, $24.95.
The growing interest in "going green" and making environmentally conscious choices has spread to the world of food books. A stack of new books tries to supply eco-friendly answers for the kitchen and offer a roadmap for buying, cooking and eating in a more environmentally astute way.
Here are two of the recent "green" releases.
The Conscious Kitchen provides a concise primer on navigating the "avalanche" of green choices in the food marketplace. Author Alexandra Zissu packs the slim, easy-to-use volume with practical information. And though she offers a handful of recipes from such eco-gurus as Michael Pollan, Deborah Madison and Dan Barber, this is a guidebook, not a cookbook.
From convenience stores to farmers markets, the author guides readers on making eco-friendly decisions, and even supplies wallet-sized sliding scales of best to worst options for everything from fruit to meat to wine.
Zissu covers appliances, pots and pans, dealing with waste, and vetting your storage containers for toxins with a straightforward, non-judgmental tone that makes it all seem doable. Do what you can, she suggests, and don't wory about what you can't. The Conscious Kitchen is an indispensable book for anyone looking to eat and cook more sustainably.
Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic joins attractive recipes with gorgeous photography and easily implemented advice. Author Getty is the great-granddaughter of J. Paul Getty who has thrown herself into eco-friendly causes.
In her first cookbook, Getty discusses reducing waste in your kitchen and pesticides in the earth, and offers small steps everyone can take, like buying local produce and filling the dishwasher completely before running it.
Many of the 100 or so recipes promise big flavor with minimal effort and waste. Double lemon chicken breasts use the fruit's zest and juice, and reduce cooking time by pounding the meat thin. Cold sesame soba noodle salad turns off the oven and contrasts the rich, nutty flavors of sesame oil and tahini with the fresh crunch of cucumber.
Other recipes include roasted tomato and goat cheese toasts, saffron cauliflower soup, mini-strawberry rhubarb crumbles and blueberry crisp with brown-sugar sour cream.
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