Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life Paperback – November 24, 2009

I was given this book as a gift - I don't think anybody has ever given me a cookbook before. Most of my cookbooks have been picked up second hand, and they are usually something I poke my nose into for occasional guidance. Not so much with this one. It's a book I've found in my hands in my living room (not the kitchen!) reading and enjoying while making occasional "ooh" and "ahh" sounds. Kind of strange. These are sounds I tend to make looking through travel guides and backpacking magazines. Which is kind of what this book reminds me of - something that gets me excited to see and do new things, and plan new adventures.Of course, planning a dinner is a bit easier than an expedition, but it's still exciting. The recipes are fun, exotic and from what I've managed to create - Delicious. I'm pretty far from a gourmet chef. My stove top usually looks like something has exploded on it. But even a bungling bonehead like me has been able to make some glorious meals from this book.[wow, I used the word 'glorious' and I don't feel like I'm exaggerating!]Sometimes the ingredients listed can seem a little intimidating - especially if you aren't sure what they are. But don't worry about it, go with the flow and make substitutions for things you can't find. Part of the fun has been learning about new foods I've never cooked with before.I took a stab at the "chicken paillars with tomato puree over arugula" (page 156) the other day. Oh man, it turned out so wonderful I'm not even sure what superlative to use here. I'll go with YOWZA! A word that describes the look on my girlfriend's face as we bit into this dish and sat there smiling at each other - simply amazed that We had created a dish so moist and succulent and tantalizing and - well you get the idea. It was damn good, and pretty to look at!I'll stop here. I'm a fan. Buy local, eat local is a great idea. Buy local, eat local and make it delicious is an even better idea. As I lack creativity when it comes to gifts, I'm here buying another copy. I've been using this as my default gift book this year. Thanks to a good friend who gave me this book, I'm making my other friends think I've got taste and style. Whether that is true or not, doesn't matter. I've got my own copy of Lucid Food, which means I'll have something amazing for dinner tonight.

I was really excited about this book. The concept sounds great, it looks beautiful, and I was looking forward to making some environmentally friendly recipes. However, I have only succeeded in making one recipe from this book (a cucumber and pomegranate salad), because everything else is just so incredibly impractical. Almost every recipe requires an obscure ingredient--agar-agar powder, for example, or yuba. I suppose for some of them you could try to find substitutes, but the obscure ingredient is often the "eco-friendly" one, and replacing it defeats the purpose of the cookbook. If you regularly shop at Middle Eastern and Asian markets or like to keep these odd ingredients on hand, this is the cookbook for you! Otherwise, I would give it a pass.

I've now tried several recipes from this book and been very pleasantly surprised by how delicious the results were. In an effort to expand my pallet and add variety to my diet, I've tried some things I didn't really think I liked just because they were good for me (Sateed Greens (I used kale and swiss chard) and Watercress Mashed Potatoes). I like Louisa's great suggestions for greener living (bring your own containers for leftovers when you dine out and carry your own set of utensils to use instead of disposable plastic) and I like her writing style. My one complaint is that there are a number of recipes that I will never attempt because they are just too complicated.

While there have been a number of cookbooks extolling the merits of the seasonal and local food approach recently, few will strike you as quite as appealing and thought-provoking as this first-time tome by chef and author Shafia. If it were merely a smart collection of highly original, veg-leaning (but not entirely meat-free) recipes that suggest a kind of wholesome synthesis of Persian, Eastern European, Asian and Southwestern cuisines, that would be enough. (That seems to have been enough to warrant a nomination from the IACP...) But the author's revealing opening memoir, her urgent but never proselytizing calls to better environmental ethics, and her welcome assembly of easy eco-conscious tips, makes this a "cookbook plus"; it's likewise rare that a book that looks this visually delicious actually boasts recipes that are even more so. While Ms. Shafia's pro-Farmers Market stance may make some of these dishes a bit more labor-intensive for supermarket stalwarts, anyone with access to a good, preferably organic or fair-trade produce section and a selection of fresh herbs won't find it hard to get things like "Creamy Red Kuri Squash Soup," "Rhubarb Spritzer" and "Miso Glazed Striped Bass" up and running in their own kitchen. And if things like "Banh Mi Sandwiches" and "Matzoh Brei" aren't in your food vocabulary yet, they should be: Ms. Shafia shows you how to prepare these ethnic classics using a fresh, creative spirit and back-to-basics ingredients. (It's also refreshing to find a book that clearly comes from a vegan bent, but doesn't eschew dishes with chicken and seafood.) Devoid of culinary cliches, Lucid Food suggests a very promising future for its author, and four seasons of attractive, healthful, human-friendly food for those readers lucky enough to come across it.