Healthy Eating, Revitalized

With summer under way, most people are thinking about slimming down a bit. Yogurt and carrot sticks might be part of the plan — French food is probably not. But cookbook author Patricia Wells would beg to differ. In her new book, “Vegetable Harvest” (William Morrow, 324 pages, $34.95), Ms. Wells explores a healthier approach to la cuisine Française.“Vegetable Harvest” offers a happy marriage between traditional French cooking and healthful eating. After living in France for more than 25 years and writing 10 cookbooks, Ms. Wells has decided to look on the light side. “Rather than creating a meal around the fish, the poultry, or the meat,” she writes, “I found that I began putting the vegetables first.”That means pushing aside the rich pâtés, cream-enriched sauces, and meatcentric stews that come to mind when most of us think of French food. Instead, Ms. Wells pushes vegetables front and center, with a collection of recipes that are fresh, appealing, and (dare I say it?) very French in their elegant simplicity. Think Heirloom Tomato Broth with Tarragon, a pretty red soup made from nothing more than tomatoes, chicken stock, and fresh herbs, or steamed leeks with a mustard and caper vinaigrette. But “Vegetable Harvest” is far too French to be a vegetarian cookbook. There’s still plenty of meat and fish in the book, but Ms. Wells uses a lighter touch with the butter, cream, and oil than traditional French cooking, and offers nutritional breakdowns of every recipe. Fresh ideas take the place of unnecessary calories: dishes such as Asparagus with Gruyère and Smoked Ham, Celeriac Salad with Fresh Crabmeat, and Steamed Eggplant with Buttermilk-Thyme Dressing manage to be light and full of flavor.When it comes to dessert, Ms. Wells simply switches to fruit from vegetables, offering a lovely assortment of recipes such as Pistachio-Cherry Cake with Cherry Sorbet and Crunchy Almond-Pear Cake. In her experienced hands, even a French dessert can be virtuous. While “Vegetable Harvest” gives French food a healthy makeover, cookbook author and photographer Heidi Swanson wants to make over your pantry. In “Super Natural Cooking” (Celestial Arts, 216 pages, $20), Ms. Swanson offers five strategies (and 80 recipes) designed to help health-conscious cooks bring natural foods into their kitchens, from expanding your pantry with unrefined flours, oils, and sugars to eating more unusual grains and “superfoods.” But this is no dry manual dedicated to nutritional virtue. “Super Natural Cooking” is a gorgeously seductive book, filled with colorful, vibrant photographs of some deliciously eclectic food.Farro with Green Onion Sauce, Toasted Walnuts, and Asparagus entices reluctant eaters to try a new (and very healthy) grain. Hijiki and Edamame Salad with Creamy Miso Dressing offers a generous dose of iron and protein without a trace of meat. And Spice-Kissed Teff Loaves feature an unusual whole-grain flour that stands up to the richness of blackstrap molasses and fresh ginger. Other recipes use familiar ingredients in fresh (and very nutritious) ways, from Espresso Banana Muffins and Red Indian Carrot Soup to Big Curry Noodle Pot and Risotto-Style Barley with Citrus and Arugula. Even Ms. Swanson’s version of that vegetarian standard, tofu scramble, is bright and sophisticated, spiced with a homemade Sri Lankan curry powder.Learning about the nutritional power and great taste of all these ingredients, from goji berries to wheat berries, is a great reminder that healthy eating needn’t be about deprivation — it can be a celebration of all the nourishing food around us. La vie en rose, indeed.

Healthy Eating, Revitalized

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