Peter Rabbit's Natural Foods Cookbook

by Arnold Dobrin, Beatrix Potter (Illustrator)

Includes recipes for sandwiches, soups, salads, and desserts with hints on cooking techniques and handling kitchen equipment.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Childrens

112 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Miranda Reads (back from hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I hope you will find that the foods you make have the simple goodness that I - and so many others - associate with Peter Rabbit and other Potter characters."

This is a lovely tie-in with the Peter Rabbit series -- full of scrumptious recipes and gorgeous illustrations!

The cookbook starts with Breakfast and Breads, then Sandwiches, Vegetables, Salads, Soups, Desserts and some helpful hints with regards to boiling, cooking, and other cooking methods for common foods in this cookbook.

Breakfast and Breads - This section contains pancakes, scrambled eggs, banana-nut loaf, hot rice breakfast treat (a dried fruit porridge made using leftover rice), granola, and wheat germ muffins.

Sandwiches - Here we have recipes to make homemade peanut butter, peanut butter sandwiches, cream or cottage cheese sandwiches (cream cheese or cottage cheese with various fruits on bread), and vegetable sandwiches.

Vegetables -- This section contains: tomato-cheese pie, orange-honey carrots, green beans and mushrooms, scrumptious pureed beets, and lemon-mint peas.

Salads -- Recipes include: spinach salad, super tomato salad, carrot-raisin salad, tomatoes stuffed with cottage cheese, bean salad, and cucumber salad.

Soups -- These delicious soups include hearty vegetable soup, corn chowder, potato soup and tomato soup.

Desserts -- Here we learn how to make homemade applesauce, smooth apple cream (applesauce folded with whipped cream), spicy raisin dessert (raisins boiled with other fruit and spices, then thickened with cornstarch. Served with walnuts and with whipped cream), fresh blueberry cobbler, carrot cookies, nutty frozen bananas, granola cookies and Christmas fudgy pudding cake.

This lovely cookbook was published in the late 1970s and is (I think) the first Peter Rabbit cookbook (or at least the earliest one I could find - if you know of any earlier ones, let me know!).

Right off the bat, I really like how this book is accompanied by Beatrix Potter's original illustrations and the cookbook feels very sturdily made considering this is over 50 years old!

I did like how the recipes are 'assigned' a character but unfortunately there isn't an explanation for why recipe A belongs to character B. Some seem to have an obvious connection - such as Squirrel Nutkin's Banana-Nut Loaf or The Flopsy Bunnies' Vegetable Sandwiches.

But others recipes and characters seem put together at random, like Alder-Rat Squeaker's Homemade Peanut Butter or Tom Kitten's homemade apple sauce.

The recipes themselves range from very ordinary (Timmy Willie's Sunny Sunday Scrambled Eggs) to unusual (Tabitha Twitchit's Spicy Raisin Dessert) and range from simple to complex. Nothing like making homemade phyllo dough, but there's some that require a lot of chopping and simmering.

I do appreciate how this book mostly avoids the moral quandary of including meat-based recipes in a world full of anthropomorphic animals.

There's a few soups that include chicken broth or chicken bouillon cubes but that could just be because this book is 50 years old and the vegetarian version of those items might not have been in wide-use back then.

That being said, I did really enjoy this book. I loved the artwork and the connection to the various characters from Beatrix Potter's world. Such a fun addition to my collection!!

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[Lauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book since my 9th birthday but never read through it until just recently. As it turns out, it is a completely vegetarian (not vegan) cookbook. I've only made the potato soup (I veganized it) but it is delicious and the book has beautiful illustrations.

[Ashlee Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a sweet book. Full of Beatrix Potter's original, in-color illustrations, the recipes all sound scrumptious, and many are simple enough that you can involve your children in the process. Recipes include things like Squirrel Nutkin's Banana-Nut Loaf, The Flopsy Bunnies' Vegetable Sandwiches, Mr. Jeremy Fisher's Cucumber Salad, and Tabitha Twitchit's Spicy Raisin Dessert. Adorable!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potter's illustrations complement the collection of light recipes featured here. I believe this was published in the 1970's so, being a natural foods cookbook it of course has the cursory recipe for granola along with a host of other items befitting breakfasts, ladies lunches, and afternoon teas.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great way to get your kids to eat their veggies when you serve them 'Little Black Rabbit's Orange-Honey Carrots' or Old Mr. Bouncer's Lemon-Mint Peas.' Almost every page is adorned with illustrations by Beatrix Potter-- a great little book even if you're not a kid.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was trying to find the Beatrix Potter cookbook I used as a kid (which had, among lots of other things, a recipe for peppermints). This wasn't it, but it was still quite adorable. I especially appreciated so many food-related Potter illustrations being gathered in one place.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so fun and an excellent cookbook for anyone who is a fan of cute fluffy animals, veggies, soups, salads and sandwiches. Also thrown in are breakfast options. I rented it from the library but also want a copy of my own. I tried a couple recipes and they were great.

[jennifer]

chaya - winter 2011

[Vikrams]

Good