Guess who won this amazing cookbook in a contest? You’re right. It was me! All I had to do was tweet my #1 vegan New Year’s resolution for 2013. I can’t remember what I tweeted but, if you are interested in my resolutions, check out my article entitled Tweaking My Vegan Diet For The New Year.
Anyway, the day I won this cookbook was a very lucky day indeed! As some of you may know, I am a cookbook junkie despite the fact that I have been using the same five cookbooks over and over again for many years. Unfortunately, all of my favorite vegan cookbooks will have to be put on the back burner to make room for Kris Carr’s masterpiece Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I don’t know where to begin to describe this phenomenal book. Let me start by saying that, aesthetically, the book is a work of art. Take a peek at the inside cover…
Gorgeous! Right? This book is not lacking in any way. And did I mention the beautiful photos? Well, now I did; they are really beautiful! If I could only recommend one vegan cookbook, to date, it would be Crazy Sexy Kitchen. Ms. Carr authored this book with her longtime friend, Chef Chad Sarno. As a wonderful added bonus, some of the top vegan chefs in the country have contributed recipes. There are too many to name here, but the impressive line-up includes chefs from some very popular vegan restaurants.
The beginning of the book provides a wealth of information concerning all aspects of following a plant-based diet and answers any possible question which one could think of in this regard. On a practical level, you will learn how to stock your kitchen with tools and other cooking staples and how to hone in on your knife skills. The recipe section comes next, and what a section it is!
This is probably the most comprehensive and impressive compilation of recipes I have ever seen in a vegan cookbook. You can find recipes for just about everything, including juices and smoothies, breakfast items, soups and stews, sandwiches and wraps, appetizers, salads, main meals, sides, dressings, marinades, condiments, snacks, desserts and everything in between! The recipes range from extremely simple to extravagant.
In the last section of the book, Ms. Carr puts together combinations of her recipes to provide you with menu plans. She has done just about everything with this book except pop out of it and cook the meals for you!
Crazy Sexy Kitchen has soooooo many amazing looking recipes that I had trouble deciding which one to make first. The Walnut Falafel, French Toast with Amaretto Creme and Mango and Coconut Millet looked interesting to me, as did the Curried Cashews. Since I absolutely love Chef AJ’s Hail To The Kale Salad, I ultimately decided to expand my kale repertoire and make Kris’s Crazy Sexy Kale Salad. As I always say, a girl can’t have too many shoes or too many kale salad recipes!
The Crazy Sexy Kale Salad was so easy to make and so delicious! It is sure to be my new “go-to” salad. These are the only ingredients you will need to make it…
Simple, right? Making this salad merely involves pulling the leaves off the stems from one bunch of kale, combining some simple ingredients, and briefly massaging the kale with your hands to cream the avocado.
Then you could serve this delicious salad…
CRAZY SEXY KALE SALAD
Serves 2 to 3
Ingredients:
1 bunch kale, any variety, shredded by hand
1 cup diced bell peppers, red, yellow, or orange
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 1/2 avocados, pit removed and chopped
2 tablespoons flax oil
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Sea salt, to taste
Pinch of cayenne, to taste
Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Massage and mix with your hands to “wilt” the kale and cream the avocado (this should only take a minute or two). Serve and enjoy!
I hope you love this Crazy Sexy Kale Salad as much as I did! It is certain to keep you strong and healthy (and sexy, of course!)
Debby
xoxoxo
“As I always say, a girl can’t have too many shoes or too many kale salad recipes!” Ha! So true! I’ve been eyeing Kris Carr’s book for the longest time. How lucky that you won a copy! After weeks of waiting, I finally got a copy from my local library, where there’s been a long waiting list for it. (I’m thrilled that people are so interested in vegan cookbooks, but the impatient person in me was having a tough time waiting.) I flipped through it last night before bed, and there are so many tasty things I want to make. The hearts of palm crab cakes are calling my name for sure!
Yes, those hearts of palm crab cakes caught my eye too! However, I always seem to head for the most basic and simple recipes first whenever I get a new cookbook. This particular cookbook is excellent and covers such a wide range of recipes from appetizers to desserts and everything in between!
What do you think of concerns about raw cruciferous vegetables having a negative affect on the
thyroid gland, by slowing it down??? Kale is, of course, a cruciferous veggie…
Something I’ve heard for years, but find many references to raw cruciferous veggies on vegan
websites…and other non-vegan sites too…
Linda
I don’t want to hold myself out as a doctor, because I’m not a doctor. However, I think that raw cruciferous vegetables are a huge step up from the standard American diet. I am not a raw foodist, but I enjoy raw kale salads a couple of times a week, and I believe that they are healthful. I also love cooked kale and other cruciferous veggies cooked. I try not to concentrate on such highly publicized negative reports about whole vegetables, because I think they confuse the issue. Common sense tells me that raw kale salads a few times a week is great. Look at Kris Carr! This is her recipe, and she was diagnosed with terminal cancer over 10 years ago. She is still here to write a book with this recipe!!!!