• Eat Your Books

  2003 James Beard Award Winner

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Salad of limas, green beans, and chickpeas with lemon and parsley

  • Recluse on February 01, 2012

    I love the variety of bright colors and fun shapes in this, but would prefer a more assertive seasoning. On the other hand, the recipe as is would probably be perfect for children or picky eaters. I also steamed the green beans and frozen lima beans simultaneously, since they had the same steaming time and I saw no reason not to. It worked fine. Overall, this recipe is cheap, easy, and nourishing, so I'll be sure to try again with different/more seasoning.

• Southwestern-style three-potato salad

  • nutrica6 on September 07, 2025

    This had a nice spice to it (I kept the seeds in the pepper and used a chipotle pepper instead of the juice). The dressing is delicious and easy to make.

• Roasted red pepper soup with a cilantro-jalapeño swirl

  • finnsmom64 on October 27, 2019

    Love the beans in this, added lots of creaminess without the cream. Miso added depth of flavor and the lemon rounded everything out. Did make the cilantro jalapeno swirl but great without it.

• Cilantro-jalapeño swirl

  • finnsmom64 on October 27, 2019

    Doubled the cilantro and added olive oil. Left seeds in peppers for added heat. Nice addition to roasted pepper soup.

• African groundnut soup

  • jdiedrichs on February 16, 2026

    I doubled the vegetables and added some crushed red pepper flakes. Very good!

• Tofu cream of fresh herbs and new potato soup

  • imaluckyducky on June 14, 2013

    This soup freezes well if you reheat on the stove top and add some water or stock as it heats through. This was one of the first things I made for a bunch of meat-eating friends, and they couldn't tell that the "cream" was tofu! The fresh herbs really make this dish sing, so don't skimp on them.

• Artichoke and lima bean ragoût in lemon-garlic sauce

  • Nancith on May 17, 2025

    Absolutely delicious! Love the luscious lemony-garlicky flavor! I used mostly lima beans but threw in some edamame that needed using as well; otherwise, made per recipe. This was a main for me & a side for hubby to accompany his sausage. There is enough left over for another meal as well which I'm already looking forward to!

• Creamy American-style scalloped pesto potatoes

  • nutrica6 on September 11, 2025

    These are so good, the pesto really adds to it. I did add cheese as suggested for au gratin potatoes. I think next time I would slice the potatoes slightly thicker as they started to fall apart on me when I was sautéing them. I made this ahead of time and assembled it, baked it the next day.

• Gratin of fresh fennel and artichokes with feta

  • nutrica6 on February 16, 2026

    I made this with fresh artichoke, which was delicious but definitely more of a project. The end result is creamy and salty, perfect with sourdough bread. I made it in a 8x8 casserole dish instead of ramekins.

  • evec on March 07, 2026

    I halved the recipe and it was still a lot! When first made, I tasted the raw corn starch and it was good, but needed oomph. It made so much I froze the leftovers against my better judgement. Sure ‘nuff on defrosting the sauce has broken and it looked miserable. BUT with gentle heating the sauce came back together. Served over a delicious baked potato with a quick panko-garlic-parley topping. Wonderful. Good thing. I had it for lunch today and there’s STILL more!

• Spring sformati with mirepoix

  • lemoneater on July 13, 2014

    Page 298

• Beans-and-greens enchiladas

  • Waderu on December 31, 2010

    This recipe was great. I used brussel sprouts instead of cabbage, added frozen red pepper strips and only 1/2 lb spinach. Used one can low fat refried pinto beans instead of the dehydrated flakes and for the sauce I used a package of Frontera Grill enchilada sauce and half a jar of Frontera Grill roasted tomato, jalapeno and cilantro salsa. Left out the fresh cilantro and jalapeno. I will definitely be making this again.

• Dairy Hollow House skillet-sizzled buttermilk cornbread

  • Aylish on June 21, 2011

    Good cornbread. I added more salt, jalapeno, .5 cup heavy cream and a little more oil for moisture. Then brushed the top with honey and butter

  • Waderu on July 04, 2013

    Amazing - used a combo of oat flour and whole wheat flour with cornmeal.

• Ronni's skillet-sizzled Kentucky buttermilk cornbread

  • chessa on January 20, 2012

    This my favorite, go-to, classic white cornmeal cornbread! Great with honey butter.

• Angel biscuits

  • damazinah on August 04, 2017

    These are absolutely divine! A little more work than regular biscuits, but the flavor is indescribably good!

• Spice Islands banana-date-walnut bread

  • eathealthy on January 24, 2023

    used 1/2 white whole wheat and 1/2 white flour,lots of flavor may need cream cheese to be balanced. Made it for son so did not try with cream cheese

• Ethereal buttermilk-oatmeal pancakes

  • swordfern on February 05, 2017

    My batter is fairly thin - let sit for an extra 30 mins after adding in the flours but before folding in eggwhites. The resulting pancakes are fairly flat... *sigh*.

• Old-fashioned, all-day, baked beans, Boston (Mountain)-style

  • wlmich on February 10, 2017

    I make these often. Far better than baked beans from a can. My entire family gobbles them down when I bring them on our annual camping trip.

  • sayeater on October 05, 2023

    This is the best homemade baked bean recipe I've tried yet. I'll be honest, I grew up eating Bush's vegetarian baked beans from a can and loved them, so that's my ingrained palate preference. As I get older those have become a bit too syrupy sweet for me but this recipe hits all the right notes without being cloying AND with the benefit of those long cooked onions in it! I'm still vegetarian so I used her suggestion of subbing 2 T butter for the salt pork to give the extra richness and mouthfeel. I debated on adding a bit of liquid smoke but decided to stick to a recipe (for once). Used Rancho Gordo Cranberry beans in this and used the slow cook function on my instant pot to follow her slow cooker variation. There was still a lot of liquid so I used the saute function to cook down to a reasonable amount. Will definitely make these again and maybe even try baking in my outdoor oven that has a woodsmoke function. The fam enjoyed these as well, they have not been fans of past attempts.

• Casserole of slow-cooked calypso beans with orange and onion

  • wlmich on February 10, 2017

    One of my favorites in this hefty tome. Flavor is reminiscent of baked beans, but with lovely orange notes. Excellent for lunch the next day.

• Traditional Asian-style marinade for tofu

  • imaluckyducky on January 16, 2020

    5 stars! Classic flavor profile, easy-to-find ingredients with substitutions, and creates a robustly-flavored tofu that is excellent baked and thrown into stir-fries.

• Traditional Asian-style "crisping" marinade and method for oven-baked tofu

  • Nancith on June 23, 2015

    Nice flavor & chewy texture for this baked tofu, but, boy, did it stick to the pan even with the recommended double coating of non-stick spray.! Need to figure out a way to prevent that for future preparation.

• Double garlicked stir-fry with white beans, for ravioli

  • Nancith on June 09, 2023

    Nice dinner with this, relatively quick to prepare. Unfortunately no broccoli rabe at grocery, so subbed bitterest greens I could find which were turnip greens. Also didn't have roasted garlic handy, so I threw in some granulated garlic along with the caramelized garlic called for. Very satisfying & filling!

• Blue moon mashed or smashed potatoes

  • Nancith on August 18, 2015

    Wow, over-the-top richness in these mashed potatoes, with buttermilk, half & half, butter, Neufchatel cheese & blue cheese added in! Didn't leave the skins on as suggested, nor did I have time to run the dish under the broiler as suggested, but will try next time.. This would be a great dish for company.

• Roasty-toasty potatoes, carrots, and onions

  • Waderu on October 17, 2010

    I liked the parboiling - didn't use two pots. Did the carrots, then the potatoes. I cut everything up beforehand too. Used an asian chili oil and at 3 minutes added the soy blended with some fresh ginger and garlic salt.

• Giant eggplant-stuffed portobello caps

  • agfloyd on January 27, 2017

    The recipe calls for two ingredients not indexed here: Pickapeppa sauce and textured vegetable protein (TVP).

• Pasta with hearty greens and beans

  • jdiedrichs on March 15, 2026

    Perfect way to use up leftover beans and kale from an earlier recipe. Delicious!

• Golden curried cabbage, chickpeas, and couscous

  • Hawley on January 15, 2014

    Liked it and would make again, but found it to be a bit dry. Next time I will add more seasonings and use less couscous.

• Farmer's omelet

  • nutrica6 on September 07, 2025

    I like how moist and flavorful these are. The addition of potatoes is great, but you do have to plan ahead and cook them. I made two egg omelets and it worked pretty well.

• Spaghetti pancake

  • Hawley on January 19, 2014

    Good use of leftover spaghetti. A green salad with tart dressing would go well. Mine didn't get super brown. Too much spaghetti (I didn't measure what I had leftover) or not a long enough cooking time? Not sure.

• Cupboard enchilada sauce

  • Couture911 on November 07, 2012

    An easy way to make decent enchilada sauce in a pinch.

• Chicken-style gravy

  • lemoneater on November 24, 2013

    Nyeast = nutritional yeast

• Peach pie in an oatmeal-almond crust

  • Nancith on July 01, 2017

    The peach filling and the streusel topping tasted very nice, but the crust was a disappointment. It was meant to be a crispy-crunchy texture, but remained quite soft except for the edges; don't know if this was because the pastry was a bit too moist, or because I used a glass pie plate rather than metal, or both. I ended up throwing in a few (unpeeled) apricots since my peaches were insufficient.

  • nutrica6 on September 07, 2025

    This tastes nutty and sweet. The crust did stay relatively soft, and I would leave it in the oven for a couple more minutes next time during the pre-bake. Using fresh peaches is fairly labor intensive, but makes a big difference in the end result.