Plant You Scrappy Cooking: a Cookbook Review

 

Cover Design by Amanda Kain (cover copyright © 2024)

Plant You scrappy cooking:140+ Plant-Based Zero-Waste Recipes That Are Good for You, Your Wallet, and the Planet, by Carleigh Bodrug is an eye-catching hardcover cookbook.

From the colorful photo of Carleigh and delicious looking front cover fruit and veggie display to the very end where pages suggest ways to grow your own vegetables from scraps and how to freeze odds and ends for future use, it's chock full of food tips, ideas, and meal prep information. Each page is filled with hacks designed to help home cooks make the most of the food they already have in their fridge and pantry.

Recipes are whole food plant-based, and easy enough for a novice cook to follow along. Each recipe also has beautiful color illustrations, featuring small thumbprint sized pictures of the ingredients, making it quick and simple to see what ingredients to use at a glance. It also makes the book more appealing, as you can flip through the pages and choose recipes with ingredients you enjoy.

Carleigh focuses on sustainable vegan recipes that help us use produce, nuts, seeds, grains, and beans and legumes before they go bad. She also includes a number of recipes that include stuff we’d normally throw away, like onion peels and lemon peels.

 

Another neat feature of this cookbook is it offers ideas for ingredient substitutions, allowing us to save money and use more of the ingredients we have on hand.

Even though I have been making vegan dishes for over forty years, I discovered new planet friendly drink recipes, “Pineapple Skin Tea” and “DIY Ginger Ale” that I liked, but never even imagined making before I read this book.

 

Carleigh divides the recipes into categories and some of the catchy titles are Scrappy Sunrise (breakfast foods), Souperb Soups, Sustainable Sammies, Wraps & Salads, Dressings, Dips & Saucy Things, and Preserves, Powders, Ferments & Other Fun Stuff.

Use the book to look up yummy dinner ideas including “Super Loaded Harvest Bowl,” “Firecracker Tofu with Coconut Rice,” and “Cuppa Joe Chili.” Also check out a recipe called “Luscious Lemon Dressing” and “(Almost) the Whole Can Hummus” too.

People in the United States consumed the most beef in the world last year, yet many people are unaware or ignore animal products' environmental impact. Beef production results in massive amounts of waste, deforestation of the world, worsening of water and air quality, and species extinction. This cookbook shows us alternative recipes that are earth-friendly, cuts down on waste, and are satisfying for our whole family.

The hardcover book is substantial ( 384 pages), with cover design by Amanda Kain (cover copyright and book copyright © 2024). Look for this book at Hachette Book Group both in a hardcover and eBook format (288pages).

Carleigh Bodrug is a NYT bestselling cookbook author, food blogger at Plantyou.com, and social media influencer. Along with producing weekly cooking videos and creating recipes, Carleigh also runs a digital meal planner and hosts a podcast called PlantPod. Her approach is centered on "scrappy cooking" to reduce food waste, and a desire to make healthy and delicious plant-based meals accessible to everyone. 

 

Before you leave get additional ideas and tips about food prep, plant-based recipes, and eco-friendly living at Colors4Health.com. Find links to blog posts below, and see what I mean. 

Amazing Garlic Facts and Recipes for Garlicky Sautéed Spinach

Key Reasons to Eat Mindfully with Tips to Succeed

Food-waste-not-want-not-checklist

Please comment below.

In what ways have you already learned to make conscious decisions about what you eat and how you spend time, energy, and resources to get the best quality food you can afford?

Do you think you'd like to own this cookbook? I checked it out from the public library for a test run, and am so glad I did. Borrowing it from the library is free, and helped me determine to purchase the ebook, because it's a keeper. 

 

Did you learn anything new from the post, or want to report about other plant-based recipes? Please share in the comments section below.

I love to get feedback, questions, and input from my readers, but will not be able to publish those comments that contain links. Thanks for understanding.

Thanks for visiting! If you like what you see, please share on social media with a link back to this post. Don't forget to visit Carleigh's blog, and comment there too.  

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This book review has been shared at The Sunday Salon