Cookbook Review: Green Kitchen at Home—Quick and healthy vegetarian food for every day

The premise of Green Kitchen at Home is that recipes should be simple enough to make, deeply focused on vegetables and (usually) kid friendly. And, with stunning photography (and great taste) they will make you consider being vegetarian! The recipes are healthy, made with whole ingredients. Our favorites so far: Fridge Favorite Crepes, Turmeric Blueberry Muffins, Banana and Spinach Pancakes, Herby Green Breakfast Bowls, Shakshuka. Flatbread made great pizza dough substitutes (photo attached)—we are totally wheat-eaters, but have switched to this for Friday Pizza nights, as it get our kids extra hidden vegetables!

Pros:

1. Gorgeous photography with pictures for every recipe.
2. Versatile Meals—they understand the changing opinions of kids, and give ideas on how to adapt recipes for preferences or seasons.
3. Recipes separate wet and dry ingredients—so much easier to follow!
4. Vegan alternatives.
5. “Fridge Favorites” section is simple, covers easy recipes needed to keep as staples in your fridge. These favorites are then combined later for different recipes. Many of the favorites are also available at the grocery store (think tomato sauce, pesto, hummus, flatbread…), but homemade is always better, right?
6. “At the Weekend” section includes the harder, more complicated recipes. I appreciated this separation, as a mother of two kids…this is the section I’ll use the least often, lol.
7. No refined sugar!
8. Tools section—I love seeing what people use in their kitchen. David says every vegetarian kitchen needs: spiralizer, mandolin, steaming basket, blender, scale, food processor or immersion blender, muffin tin.
9. Shakshuka! Haven’t tried it? You should + add the homemade za’atar.

Cons:

1. Some recipes call for unconventional ingredients—we live in rural Maine, I’d probably have to drive 70 miles to find halloumi, puffed quinoa, za’atar, nigella (our online shop sells the hard to find spices, so hit us up if you can’t find them near you).
2. Recipe times do not include the time it takes to make the “Fridge Favorites,” so you really do need to plan ahead.

Tip: Read the Fridge Favorites section first, before jumping around.

Spices: To make all the recipes in this book, you will need the following spices:

• Arrowroot
• Bay Leaves
• Basil
• Cardamom
• Cayenne
• Chili (powder)
• Chili (flakes)
• Cinnamon
• Coriander (ground)
• Coriander (seed)
• Cumin (ground)
• Cumin (seed)
• Curry (leaves)
• Curry (powder)
• Dukkah (they give you the recipe to make it)
• Fennel (seed)
• Ginger
• Mustard (black seeds)
• Nigella (seed)
• Nutmeg
• Oregano
• Paprika (smoked)
• Pepper (fresh ground)
• Sea Salt
• Sesame (seed)
• Sumac
• Thyme
• Turmeric
• Za’atar (they give you the recipe to make it)

We've tried about two dozen recipes, and I look forward to more. I review cookbooks for the blog portion of our Gneiss Spice online shop. We started posting them on Amazon, as we thought it might be helpful to shoppers! Thanks for reading. Please let me know what questions you have. ~Beth

To cook these vegetarian recipes, you'll need:

Simple Chef Vegetable Spiralizer (Just got one to try out these recipes. It's super fun and the kids love it!)

Mandoline Slicer (Be careful of your fingers!)

Vegetable Steaming Basket (What an easy way to cook!)

Blender, but really a Vitamin (I finally splurged and use it everyday!!)

Kitchen Scale (Recently bought this cheap one and it's working great. No need to splurge on an expensive scale)

Food Processor or Immersion Blender (I recommend both, and use them for different jobs). 

These gluten-free rice flour crepes are awesome! Make a batch of batter and keep in your fridge for a few days.