Book Review: Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

Super Natural Cooking is written by photographer and blogger Heidi Swanson, author of two of my favorite food websites: 101 Cookbooks and Mighty Foods, and it's not only written in a down-to-earth and easy to read style, but it's full of delicious-looking photos - a win-win combination in my opinion.

As my regular readers would be aware, I am trying to move away from using highly refined food products in my kitchen such as white sugar, to using more whole foods and less refined ingredients; as such I found this book a terrific read. Indeed, this passage from Heidi's first chapter had me completely hooked:

"When cookbooks repeatedly call for the familiar cast of cheap, refined, basic ingredients, people forget how to use anything else. The ingredients they seldom use fall out of favor, and they lose confidence in experimenting with new ones. Many of the ingredients that have fallen out of favor with the home cook are whole grains and whole-grain flours, natural sweeteners, and minimally processed fats."

That paragraph pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment; I've taught myself to cook the basics from scratch and now I want to take it a step further, but feel hampered by the sheer volume of white flour and white sugar in the recipes I find and my lack of experience in using new-to-me ingredients.

The subtitle of the book is "Five ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into your Cooking" and the book is thus divided into five chapters; Building a Natural Foods Pantry, Explore a Wide Range of Grains, Cook by Colour, Know Your Superfoods and Use Natural Sweeteners, and is interspersed with recipes and serving suggestions for the foods she discusses. The chapters include so many ingredients I've never even heard, of but it's wonderful to realise that there is a whole world of alternatives to white flour and white sugar out there, just waiting to be found.

My main criticism of the book - as an Aussie - is that the focus of the book is (not surprisingly) US-centric; I've found that a few of the foods Heidi discusses are either difficult to find in Australia or are quite expensive because they have been imported (which doesn't do much for my 'food miles' either). I am intrigued by a good number of the recipes but - in all honesty - find some of them a little intimidating as I am relatively new to cooking.

Having said that though, there are enough very simple recipes (particularly sweets and snacks) in the book to start me experimenting. After all, when I first starting cooking I would never have dreamed of making up my own recipe because I'd never given much consideration to what flavours go well together (other than tomatoes, garlic and basil!), but now I can throw together a quiche based on ingredients picked fresh from my garden minutes before, knowing that I can substitute silverbeet or kale or greens for spinach for example. I'm hoping that my initial experiments with Heidi's ingredient lists will lead me to a similar ability to substitute with (more locally available) whole foods and grains.

Overall the book has - literally - given me some serious food for thought as well as providing some delicious inspiration in our move towards a less processed diet.

Well worth the read.