Book Review: The Blender Girl: 100 Gluten-Free and Vegan Recipes
Tess Masters
The Blender Girl: 100 Gluten-Free and Vegan Recipes
2014, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California
Tess Masters, aka the Blender Girl, knows blending a smoothie is a quick way to get your veggies on. But The Blender Girl is much more than a vibrant cookbook for whirling up liquid health drinks. The plant based blender-inspired recipes for meals, snacks and desserts are tasty, gluten-free and vegan. Certainly, a blender can be a modest purchase. But for the Blender Girl a high speed $400 blender isn't extravagant, it's a healthy lifestyle investment. She uses it more than she drives her car. As for the recipes, you can't go wrong combining nutrition and deliciousness. Toss some almond milk, apples and spices into the blender and in under a minute you have Apple Pie in a Glass. For those who know sea vegetables are dense with vitamins and alkalizing minerals but are still leery of munching on them, hjiki and dried arane mix with other "socially acceptable" veggies in Citrus Sea Salad. To quell digestive distress The Blender Girl is a nut, seed and grain-soaking advocate. Her motto, "Be a soaker, not a bloater!" Though it does take a little preplanning, soaking yields nutritional benefits for not a lot of hands-on time. Soaked foods are also easier for your blender to handle so: soak, don't choke.
Gail Lord is a freelance writer living in Massachusetts. Please send book review copies to 51 North Street, Grafton, MA 01519 or email socbookreviewer@gmail.com.
