A Modern Way to Eat {review}

A Modern Way to Eat is a gorgeous celebration of vegetarian dishes, but more than that, A Modern Way to Eat is a primer for creating your own recipes, layer by layer.

What drew me to the book, besides the stunning bookbinding and paper that’s the signature of Ten Speed Press books, is the way Anna Jones explains, in easy-to-follow steps, how to create your own recipe.

To start, she details how she puts together a recipe, which includes these steps:

• Pick an ingredient (kale is her example, but you could sub in any ingredient, from asparagus to chicken)
• Determine how to cook it (blanch, roast, etc.)
• Pick a supporting element (a grain or supporting vegetable)
• Add an accent, such as avocado or feta
• Add a flavor, like garlic or cheese
• Select an herb
• Add some crunch (nuts or seeds)
• And season to finish (salt, lemon)

She applies this method to soups and salads, giving the reader countless ways to think about how to create a dish, from scratch, on their own, using what’s on hand, in season and according to the chef’s whim.

The recipes themselves are easy to follow, with homey headnotes and ingredient lists set to the side so you can prepare your mise en place before reading through the recipe (for more on mise en place, check out this feature from NPR). The book is light on photographs, but those that are included are lush and aspirational.

A Modern Way to Eat is an updated tome on vegetarian cooking, and would be right at home next to The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links meaning I may receive compensation if you use those links. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Blogging with Books for review; all opinions are my own.