Super Natural Cooking: Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Foods into Your Cooking

by Heidi Swanson

Using a palette of natural ingredients now widely available in supermarkets, Super Natural Cooking offers globally inspired, nutritionally packed cuisine that is both gratifying and flavorful.

Everyone knows that whole foods are much healthier than refined ingredients, but few know how to cook with them in uncomplicated, delicious ways. With her weeknight-friendly dishes, real-foodie Heidi Swanson teaches home cooks how to become confident in a whole-foods kitchen by experimenting with alternative flours, fats, grains, sweeteners, and more.

Including innovative twists on familiar dishes from polenta to chocolate chip cookies, Super Natural Cooking is the new wholesome way to eat, using real-world ingredients to get out-of-this-world results. With an inspiring introduction to nutritional superfoods, and an emphasis on whole grains, natural sweeteners, healthy oils, and colorful phytonutrient-packed ingredients, Swanson shows you how to build a whole-foods pantry with nutrition-rich ingredients like almond oil, pomegranate molasses, and mesquite flour--each explained in detail.

Features 80 recipes, a comprehensive pantry chapter, and 100 stunning full-color photos.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Health, Reference, Foodie

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

UPDATE (6/24/2013)

Mung beans: life-changing.

Heidi Swanson encourages her readers to experiment, using new things, or old things in new ways.

I grilled two really large oyster mushrooms that I had lightly coated in olive oil, salt, pepper and dried sage. Chopped them up and added them to sauteed Lacinato kale, golden beet greens, diced Medjool dates and shallots. I added some syrup that I make but you could use agave nectar instead. Then I added some already cooked mung beans that I had. Some sea salt to finish. It was a nice accompaniement for some grilled marinated lamb with a mint pesto.

UPDATE (3/26/2013)

Cookbook reviews, I hope we can all agree, should be updated from time to time. I mean, who makes every recipe right away? I promised way back when to try the 'Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers' and to get right back to you. Well, it took me this long instead. The recipe was so good, I was moved to UPDATE.

The point of this recipe is to think not 'outside the bun' but, rather, instead of the bun. The point is to make these Garbanzo patties, brown them, and then serve them like a sandwich with a filling inside. I strayed a bit, and served them open-faced, with a 'filling' of my own creation (avocado/plum tomatoes/kalamata olives/broccoli sprouts/jalapeno pepper/chopped cilantro/sea salt/pepper/lemon juice/olive oil and a finish of truffle oil) served on top. A guy could get lucky making something like this.

A chilled Dunham Cellars Chardonnay was a crisp companion.

And, everything in this is absolutely good for you, so you can live forever and actually read all the books on your 'to-read' list!

__________________________________________

New friends: Hijiki, Farro, Quinoa, Kumquats, Wheat Germ, Wheat Berry, Amaranth.

Well, I've made the acquaintance of most of these over the last ten years. Good friends, actually. Although, after a night of organic wine, I may have stepped out and done some things with Goji Berries.

So, Heidi didn't actually introduce me to these folks. But I have been a constant mouse-clicker to her 101cookbooks website. You must. You must. So I had to get this book. It came as a Father's Day present.

Between the website and the cookbook, I have yet to find a recipe which isn't fabulous. And I'm no Vegan.

I wish there were were more recipes in the book and less talking. But I am a fan of Heidi.

I made the cover recipe, the Spring Minestrone, for one of the gifters, although I tweaked a bit. Rave reviews.

Before the Summer is over, I may try the Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers and will add an amended comment.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I live with Heidi and this is completely biased, I did test many of these recipes and have definitely eaten every one at least once. For a novice cook like myself, the food is not difficult to make, is interesting, diverse and satisfying. The cumulative effect of eating from this book and the food found Heidi's site over the course of several years is I feel great and enjoy food more than ever.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book assumes, as the title indicates, that you already desire to cook natural, minimally processed, whole, healthy foods (and that you are probably vegetarian). If you're not yet sold on natural cooking, please put this book down, go read Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food and/or Food Rules) and come back when you can appreciate what this book wants to tell you [although nothing has yet convinced me to be vegetarian, but I now buy better meat]. Helpfully, this book also assumes that you do things like shop at a grocery store, because we're not all lucky enough to live near farms, CSAs or farmer's markets -- or we haven't started taking the time yet. ;) As such, the whole point of the book is to give you the information you need to start experimenting in the kitchen, as most of us are uncomfortable doing that blindly. And that is much appreciated.

The informational part of this book is relatively small; it's mostly a cookbook of recipes. That said, it's a beautifully designed cookbook, pleasant to read and with great photographs of almost all the recipes. Moreover, the exposition is easy to understand and aimed right at me (the aforementioned grocery-store-shopping Pollan disciple). Best of all, she is on her way to convincing me that cooking naturally (and with a better variety) is not only healthy but tasty.

The introduction and first chapter are exposition. They're an overview of flours, oils and fats, sweeteners and spices with which you might not be familiar and reasons to try them, plus a few brief explanations about why you shouldn't eat, respectively, all-purpose white flour, canola oil or anything hydrogenated, and refined white sugar. (Spices are all positive, just in there to remind you that you have so many more options than table salt and black pepper.)

The rest of the book is divided into recipes by concept (grains/flour, cook by color, superfood, and natural sweeteners). Each concept and each recipe have an introduction and explanation, and tempting photos to make you hungry. Recipes include such tempting titles as Coconut Panna Cotta with Berry Coulis, Seven-Way Steel-Cut Oats, and all-natural Thin Mint Cookies. I docked her one star for not giving nutritional information for the recipes to those who want to keep track of calories, but handy online recipe analyzers [e.g., http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/reci...] mitigate that somewhat (and maybe also for being vegetarian, although nothing says you couldn't add meat to any of these).

Overall, it's a great starter book for those of us who want to and know we should eat better, but haven't forayed into the wider world much yet.

[Susan Howson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cookbook is really inspiring and informative; it really makes you reexamine what you're eating and seeing how much of it you could make into food that actually benefits your body. Something about the way it's organized irks me though - it's not really a leaf-through kind of book and there aren't that many recipes. Also, Heidi gives good advice for slowly substituting natural sweeteners and leaveners etc. into your cooking instead of the gross, gross white flour and sugar that we're used to, but then all of the recipes seem very specific. I'm not great at improvising, and I sort of wish she'd include directions for making her recipes different ways, depending on what's available (not all of us live in San Francisco).

UPDATE THREE YEARS LATER: I'm obsessed with this book. I know more about stuff now, and therefore don't find it quite as intimidating. Good thing, too, because the recipes are actually really straightforward and easy. I'm leaning towards the macrobiotic lifestyle, and a lot of these recipes fit right in. The sushi bowl is my favorite, but other standouts are: millet fried "rice," quinoa with sauteed mushrooms, barley risotto, spring vegetable minestrone, mesquite chocolate chip cookies, and definitely the DIY power bars. Finally found acai puree, and can't wait to try the power pops!

[maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have only one cookbook in your house, this should be the one. The recipes are fulfilling in every sense of the word; beautiful to look at, wonderful to eat, splendidly friendly to prepare, and the food leaves you nourished and satisfied.There are acouple of ingredients that are tricky to find if you don't have access to cosmopolitian culinary shops, but with a little creativity there is always a fix. Great graphics, after all what is a cookbook without visual flair? This book stays front and center on my kitchen counter. Love this cookbook.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook is by the blogger behind 101 Cookbooks which is one of my absolute favorites. I have received so many really good recipes from 101 that I just had to have this cookbook.

The recipes have won over even the most hard-core nonveggie, non-organic, non-anything-healthy people in my life. Every meal cooked from these recipes is greeted with: Oh my goodness. This is really good. I need this recipe. Is there more?

Need I say more?

Only that you will like the blog and this cookbook. The way she writes is personal and you feel like you're hearing from a close friend. When she calls it 101 that's exactly what it is. You get the basics, the meanings, the explanations. She is no food snob with feelings of superiority over all us lesser mortals. Anyone can dive into her cuisine. You can tell she gets real joy from food and the ingredients that go into them. Where they come from, how they got to her. It ignites in myself a desire to push the edge in my own cooking and get outside of my comfort zone.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, I am unable to add stars.
Here: *****

I love Heidi Swanson and have been a huge fan of her blog, 101 Cookbooks, for many years. This cookbook is for those of us who would, if presented with the opportunity to make either chocolate chip cookies, or mesquite chocolate chip cookies, would claim territory over the mesquite chocolate chip cookies without batting an eye (I made 'em, I loved 'em). I don't use this cookbook everyday--I use it on weekends after cleaning the kitchen, which upon being rendered spotless, immediately demands another cooking adventure.

Some other recipes: Teff-kissed spice loaves, quinoa and corn flour crepes with chili de arbol sauce, chocolate mousse made with tofu (I know, I know, but it was soooooo good, so surprising!), garlic scape soup...

I decide which veggies to grow based on cookbooks like this.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of my favorite cookbook finds ever, for a variety of reasons. First--it's beautiful. The graphic design and photography are gorgeous. Second--it's split up in a different, but more logical way--for example, recipes by food color, nutrition, etc., rather than by meat, bread, etc. Third--the recipes are all easy, relatively cheap, healthy, and awesome. One of the best soba noodle recipes I've ever made. This is the way I try to cook all the time at home, but perfected. Swanson gives very helpful nutritional/instructional information that was new to me, and I read a lot of nutrition books and cookbooks (for example, detailed differences between natural sweeteners and whole-grain flours). She is obviously passionate about health, but also just about eating. Woman after my own heart. This is another cookbook I checked out at the library but will be purchasing. It was horrible to have to return it.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading a lot about healthier foods and whole foods, and have been looking for a good cookbook to give me ideas on meals I can make. The book that I REALLY want I cannot get from our library, so I have book looking into others and this is the first one I tried. I really like that the author of this gave lots of information on healthy foods and what they're good for. I think this book may be better suited for a more experiences cook, someone that already has a good amount of knowledge of food and how to cook well. I am not that person. I also felt like the recipes were to overwhelming to even attempt. There were so many ingredient I'd never even heard of, I never even tried one of them cause they were too intimidating for me. Maybe if I had a lot of time and money I would have used some, but I don't have either, and I have 4 picky eaters, and I don't think they would eat her recipes. But again, good info on the best fruits, veges, grains, natural sweetners, etc.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even if you never cook a single recipe from this book, it' worth owning. If not for the info on natural grains and flours and sweeteners, then for the sheer beauty of the book. It's the kind of cookbook you keep on your nightstand next to your novel du jour. The kind that inspires you to spend half a day at the farmer's market, and the other half in your kitchen, celebrating beautiful, natural, colorful foods.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the concept, but the recipes didn't strike me as anything special. Also, while the layout of the book is quite striking, I wish there were more photos of the dishes. There are many absolutely useless photos of the author's earrings or her friend's tattoos, but who cares about that in a cookbook? Show us the food!

She gives some useful info on less commonly used grains and other overlooked ingredients, but nothing you couldn't also find on any number of websites.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of easy healthy recipes and beautiful pictures.

I have not followed a single one of the recipes word for word, so I can not comment in that regard. But, I find this book great for motivation and direction when I'm not feeling particularly inspired to cook healthy foods or I had a new ingredient I wanted to incorporate into a basic dish.

[Laurla2]

meh. it was ok. its not a bad book, it just wasn't what i was looking for.

i liked the sections where it talks about the different types of flours, grains, and sweeteners.

i do wish there was even more information than what they gave as i found it very interesting.
the pictures pissed me off. pages and pages of unrelated things (a two full pages picture of a man standing in front of a blurry building for example) that could have been pictures of the recipes. i'm thinking they tried to be all artsy fartsy and i'm just too practical, too demanding of function over form to appreciate that.

some of the recipes looked interesting, but as someone who has no experience using any kind of flour other than white and wheat, nor any other sweetener than regular old sugar, i'd have to buy a lot of new ingredients all at once to try most of the recipes. i think i prefer to start smaller, try only one new thing at a time.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that this book assumes that you want to cook healthy - she doesn't lecture you, or bog you down with how she came to cook this way.

The book is broken down into 5 fairly basic healthy eating principles - eat the rainbow, use natural sweeteners, etc that are not intimidating at all. She has some very different, good salads ( like the split green bean one), and the ginger-amaranth shortbread was also great. I liked her explanations and notes, and found them to be helpful.

If you're looking to cook more healthfully, this is a good book to check out. It's got a broad range of food, most of which is fairly easy to prepare. While I don't see myself cooking this way all the time, there are a lot of good ideas in here and some really creative, healthy recipes.

[BookBec · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way more tofu than I want to eat.
Also, what's with all the photos of body parts? A neck here, an ear there, a butt walking out of the frame ... I would so much rather have food pictures in a cookbook!

[Jill Rusin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully photographed.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed cooking her recipes. Simple, beautiful and nutritious recipes.

[Virginia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. I really liked the vegetable section, but the rest was not for me.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ordinarily like Swanson, but I didn't care at all for this cookbook. Too many ingredients are too hard to get.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The red quinoa walnut cookie recipe is good.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author has a blog called 101 Cookbooks that I stumbled upon one day. She posts simple vegetarian recipes, mostly using in season produce from the farmers' market. Now, she lives in San Francisco, which makes me insanely jealous because the local food scene there is amazing...apricots, pomegranates, almonds, oranges...Makes a WI girl just drool thinking about all the goodies at the market there. I would call her style of cooking 'California Cuisine', light, healthy, fresh meals.

After reading her blog for awhile, I wanted to check out her cookbook, which so far has a lot of great recipes. I cooked one the other night that will become part of my rotation. I highly recommend her blog: http://www.101cookbooks.com/ One of my favorite parts is that she interviews other cooks and foodies and asks them to list their favorite cookbooks.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've tried several more recipes from this book, all to great success. However, in none of the cases did I follow the recipe exactly, substituting chicken broth for vegetable and chicken for tofu, green curry paste for red, linguine for udon. But all of the dishes were delicious, and her ideas are inspiring. This is going on my "to buy" list.
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So far I'm loving this cookbook. The design is beautiful, the recipes are approachable, and her philosophy isn't dogmatic, like a lot of whole foods books can be. I planned this week's menu almost entirely from this book, and there are still more recipes I want to try. I made the carrot soup yesterday and really liked it. Ok, so I added a lot of ginger and a little curry and liked it a lot better, but it was a good foundation for improvisation.

We'll see how the other recipes turn out.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I really love this cookbook. It has some amazing recipes in it, but more importantly it gives information on substituting flours and oils. Gives nutrient information and a helpful guide to put healthful choices in your pantry. Avoid canola oil, which changes nutrient content when heated, use flaxseed oil, almond oil or many, many others. Keep whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour because you can substitute it for all purpose flour (which has almost zero nutrients)and gain nutrients in your dishes.
She also lists companies and places to obtain whole foods. Since they are difficult to find in our area, and very expensive when you do find them, this is very helpful.
I also really enjoy how she explains things, giving a good visual for each chapter and helping me to relate to eating more whole foods.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

As opposed to a traditional cookbook with a slew of recipes, this cookbook is primarily focused on how to integrate and substitute in whole and comparatively less common ingredients for their heavily processed and ubiquitous counterparts. It suggests mixing in nontraditional grains and fats, as well as exploring the inclusion of a handful of ayurvedic spices, traditional herbal remedies, etc. This cookbook brings a core number of solid recipes to bear for the curious cook, or for the person stuck in the bulk food aisles staring at quinoa, trying to figure out how to make it work.

While this wasn't what I had expected (a suuuper comprehensive natural foods cookbook), it makes an excellent resource when partnered with Swanson's Super Natural Every Day.

[Joy Weese Moll · Rating 3 out of 5]

The passages describing ingredients were really useful. The descriptions included both health benefits and how the ingredient could be used. That's the kind of information I want to become a more creative cook.

Although I get her objection to canola oil, we've worked way too hard to lower our saturated fats to go back to butter for baking and higher temperature sauteeing now.

The recipes seemed fussy to me right now -- every one had either a new ingredient (which was okay since that was the point of the book) or a new technique. I think I'll check this out again when I've played with some of the ingredients more.

[Andrea Avalon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book about some of the more common healthy food staples and how to use them in tasty recipes. What I found special about the book was its fusion palette. I really enjoy using tastes from all over the world and Swanson consistently employs the more easily available nonstandard american spices and flavor techniques in her recipes; a kitchen expanding treat. She has a great teff wedge recipe, very polenta like but without the mega-agra-corp corn and an easy homemade power bar recipe! The only reason I couldn't give this book five stars was that her recipes were so good, I wanted her to include even more.

[Theryn Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Super Natural Cooking, readers of Heidi's blog, 101 Cookbooks , get more of what they've come to expect: her photography, the way she puts each recipe in context (what inspired it or how it came about or who it was made for), and of course her recipes, which are frequented by salads, soups, bowls of grains and veggies—and baked goods, esp. cookies!

I think the target audience for Super Natural Cooking would be people who are already cooking, but who want to incorporate a wider variety of ingredients (fresh / unprocessed / whole foods) into their repertoire.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the adventurous cook (and artsy paper lover- lots of gorgeous colorful prints on thick paper) who wants to try baking with whole-grain flours (mesquite, amaranth, quinoa), branch out to natural sugars, and add more whole foods to homemade meals. I liked the Crunchy Apple and Cabbage Salad (enjoyed it for a few days without getting tired of it!), and hope soon to try the Wheat Berry Salad with Citrus, toasted Pine Nuts, Feta and Spinach. (I have a feeling the Sweet Potato Spoon Bread and the Thin Mint Cookies will become treasured recipes). Over time I suspect I'll try more of Ms. Swanson's creations- can't wait to try her healthful soups this winter.

[Stephanie Bostic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of 101 Cookbooks, so I went to buy it and was a little sad when I ended up not doing so. (Although I sat in the bookstore and read much of it. Did not intend to do that.) Somehow, it seemed like the recipes she chose to include were the ones that did not appeal to me.

First, too many involved gluten (can't have) or simply ingredients I don't like. Second, the tone of the book seemed much preachier than her blog. Finally, the beautifully simple or elegant recipes were less present that I would have hoped.

Caveat: I have not made any recipes from the book, for the above reasons.

[Dayna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have made a few recipes from both this cookbook and Super Natural Every Day. Honestly, without them in front of me I can't remember which recipes were from which cookbook...but they have all been good, so that's saying something. I'm not sure I have made any of these recipes as written though. I have substituted an ingredient here or there, but I don't think that makes a big difference when it comes to Heidi's recipes, because her cooking style is very much "use what's on hand." She gives suggestions for alternatives in many of the recipes. Which I happen to love. I also love the focus on whole natural foods, which was why I picked up these cookbooks in the first place.