The Lemonade Cookbook: Southern California Comfort Food from L.A.'s Favorite Modern Cafeteria

by Alan Jackson, JoAnn Cianciulli

The Lemonade Cookbook takes the bold flavors, imaginative dishes, and southern California lifestyle that have made the brand an instant hit and captures them in a fresh, beautifully-designed, full-color book. Like Los Angeles, Lemonade's cuisine is carefully blended with variety. L.A. is agents and movie grips, surfers and yoga moms, students and celebrities, and a wide mix of different culinary traditions. At Lemonade the marketplace salads, unique sandwiches, and slow-simmered stews taste as though every culture stirred a bit into the pot—for example, the skirt steak with grilled onions and piquillo peppers with its smoky depth, pairs perfectly with the snappy salad of Chinese long beans, plums, and scallion vinaigrette.

A comfortable place where locals and visitors enjoy a rotating daily spread of deliciousness, the recipes, more than 120 in all, stress simple cooking preparation with a global taste, and are a perfect fit for today's on-the-go lifestyles and perceptive palates. And, of course, it wouldn't be L.A. without the amazing desserts—from banana mascarpone layer cake to caramel fleur de sel macaroons to peanut butter milk chocolate cookies, there are recipes for treats galore, plus ten different recipes for delicious flavors of lemonade. The Lemonade Southern California Comfort Food from L.A.'s Favorite Modern Cafeteria speaks to all cooks who want to make sophisticated highly-urban "comfort food" with ease.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Health, Food, Reference, Nonfiction, Food and Drink

259 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2013

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cookbook with recipes from the restaurant Lemonade. Salads, sides, braises, sandwiches, desserts and lemonades.

I thought I reviewed this one last year. I borrowed this cookbook from my sister-in-law and tried out many of the recipes all year long. While not all were winners, many were. The recipes were fancy but not too challenging. They use fresh ingredients and have a lot of flavor. Interestingly, I did not care for the lemonade recipes I tried (except for the apple/jalapeño lemonade, which I thought to be different and tasty), but the salad recipes, especially, were keepers.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so happy to have this cookbook. when I worked at Napster walking down the street to get lemonade for lunch was one of the bright times of the week. now I'm waiting for the studio city location to open up so I can have it again. but now I can make all the things I love so much! I've found so many great recipes I can make with items from my winter garden. I can't wait to try the braised duck legs. and I have about 4 things I want to make for thanksgiving from this book! thank you so much for publishing it and sharing your secrets Alan. I could easily be a vegetarian at least a few times a week eating your food. and, hey, if you ever need to get rid of some figs please let me know since I live right down the street from Sherman oaks :-) sorry for any typos I'm writing this from a tablet.

[Donna Thorland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an unhappy past with restaurant cookbooks. Sometimes their recipes lie (I'm looking at you Lithuanian Coffee Cake in Claire's Corner Copia Cookbook: 225 Homestyle Vegetarian Recipes from Claire's Family to Yours), but these are the real deal.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another cookbook I have been reading and using over the past few weeks. It has some interesting recipes and a retro California feel. It needs a few more pictures to be perfect, but the ones that are there are excellent. I wouldn't mind trying this restaurant in person. An East Coast expansion on the Jersey Shore would probably be profitable.

[anai · Rating 3 out of 5]

i was a big fan of the dessert & lemonade section:)

[Kati · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this cookbook as a GoodReads First-Reads win. This cookbook has beautiful pictures of the recipes included, the cover itself is an incredible cerulean blue and the whole book has a nice heft to it. I haven't yet had the chance to make any of the recipes, but there are so many lovely recipes included that I look forward to trying out on my family, including "Beet, Pickled Red Onion, Hazelnut Vinaigrette" Salad; the "Avocado, Cherry Tomato, Pine Nut salad with Lime Vinaigrette"; the "Kohlrabi, Granny Smith Apple, Chive salad w/ Sesame oil"; the "Olive Oil-Braised Lima Beans with lemon & Parmesan"; the "Bay Shrimp, Cannelini Bean, Shallot & Cayenne"; trying "Lemonade's" 'Buttermilk-Baked Chicken" by itself and probably in the sandwich they recommend serving it in later on in the book..... So many good recipes, I hope I can get my hubby, who's the pickiest eater in my family, to try some of these and agree to add them to our menu rotation.

[Gin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this cookbook thru the First Read as a winner. I feel like a winner with this cookbook. It is a beautiful cookbook, well laid out and filled with wonderful recipes. In cold and snowy eastern Washington it was a cookbook that had me dreaming of spring and summer. When the cookbook came it was immediately fulled with sticky tabs of the receipts to try. So far we have made over 10 recipes and every one has been a winner. We even made the Peach Ginger Lemonade even though its 10 degrees outside. It was great, a taste of summer in a glass and easy to make. My husband is will to try some of vegetables recipes if fixed the Lemonade way. It is worth the money buy this cookbook just for the new ways to do vegetables. There so many other types of recipes to choose from that are just as wonderful. Well worth the money to buy this cookbook.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an attractively laid-out cookbook with some mouthwatering, unusual recipes. Although not every recipe has an accompanying photograph, the included photographs are very good. The recipes are written with very good directions. I am anxious to try the Caramel-Butterscotch Pudding, the Chicken Basque, Olives, and Artichokes, the Blue Lake Green Beans, Shaved Parmesan, and Caesar Dressing, the Holiday Turkey, Gruyere and Cranberry Relish Sandwich, the Kiwi and Strawberry Lemonade, and especially Olive Oil Braised Lima Beans with Lemon and Parmesan. Overall, a great addition to my cookbook collection with many unexpected flavor combinations.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've only made 4 recipes so please view my review as from a limited perspective. Where this cookbook excels is in creating a bunch of interchangeable, combine-able, and reusable lunch items. It focuses on fresh, nutritious ingredients and has beautiful photography. The reason for my mediocre rating is based on the fact that food has been just that - mediocre. I am going to continue to cook out of this book periodically and will update my review if I find that these 4 recipes were not reflective of the rest of the book.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this book through GoodReads. It is a great book.

Lemonade is a small chain of restaurants in Southern California.

This book has many 'fresh' recipes. It is approaching winter in New England so it was great to see so many ideas to make light meals with 'summery' items. There are many different vinaigrettes featured.

The are pictures on almost every page and the directions seem easy to follow.

[Mallory · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I have made three different recipes from this book so far and they were all amazing! So full of diverse flavor and with some unexpected but pleasing ingredient combinations. I look forward to cooking more items from here for both home and parties.

I won this book as part of a GoodReads Giveaway.

[Tenille · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have tried a few of these recipes and they are great. Only problem I have is that a lot of the ingredients needed are not ones I keep on hand usually. But can't wait to try more of the recipes, and next time I am in California, I would love to stop by the place and try some more. I won this freebie from Goodreads.

[Beka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great pictures and everything sounds great. The problem with recreating restaurant sandwiches and salads is that you have to do SOOOO much preparation. I'd eat most anything in the book, but I don't want to try to make it.

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love all the recipes and can not wait to try some when i have the time and all the sweets too

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book but nothing I am absolutely dying to make. The lemonade recipes at the end of the book do look amazing though (just not for winter.)

[Kelsee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lemonade in L.A. is THE place to eat. Classic comfort fare, reinvented for foodies and healthies. ;-) Excited to whip up some of our favorites, at home!

[Beth Lequeuvre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lemonade is a modern So-Cal deli that features vegetable-centric fare. Fantastic cookbook. I think there were only 3 recipes I wasn't interested in trying.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting a lemonade book. Instead this is yet another recipe list. Any decent cooking blog has more recipes anyway.

[Elizabeth (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going to the restaurant made this cookbook a must buy. Very creative and healthy recipes!

[Abbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

these recipes were not edited well. specifically ingredients prominently featured in photos are missing from recipe!