As promised, I have finally finished reading The Kind Diet (Alicia Silverstone) and thought you might enjoy hearing a little about it, in case you are interested in her book or in moving to more plant-based nutrition.

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The PROS:

The book is beautiful

Right off the bat you can tell that she cares how her message is presented.  The paper is thick and sturdy.  It has a very nice, easy-to-read layout with full-color photos throughout.  If you decide that you want to purchase this book, be sure to get the actual book and not the Kindle version.  You’ll really be missing out if you do.

The message comes through in a friendly way

One of my favorite quotes from this book is:

“When you make this journey in your own way, there’s no such thing as failure.”

That seems to sum up her attitude throughout the book.  I was welcomed in by her conversational writing style and felt like a friend was educating me on a topic for which she has a lot of passion.

She offers many facts and informational sidebars, without coming across as overly “preachy” about a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.

It is applicable to various levels of eating styles

She divides it into three eating plans of  Flirting, Vegan and Superhero.  People who are Flirting are learning about the lifestyle and aiming to cut down on their animal-product consumption (but not necessarily intending to go veggie) and she gives you a long list of ‘transitional’ foods that will help you switch out some of your favorites with something similar as you are getting started.  Her Vegan section includes rich and flavorful foods to show that you can still have things like cupcakes and tacos while enjoying a vegan lifestyle.  She also takes it one step further into what she calls the Superhero plan, where one learns to let their palate begin to appreciate the natural essence of vegan foods without many added spice or condiments.

I was pleasantly surprised to catch myself going “Huh… I didn’t know that” as I read along.  I learned a few new things, which is I appreciate. For example, I’d already been looking for miso that was NOT powdered and learned she recommends BARLEY miso (aged for at least two years).  Supposedly that has the highest level of “medicinal properties” when compared to other types of miso.  Additionally she taught me that you never want to add miso to the water or broth when it’s boiling or it can kill the enzymes so you want to add it at the end of cooking and simmer it for 2-3 minutes.

Chewing and digestion are important points in this book

And you know that makes me happy, because I am a stickler for wanting peeps to CHEW THEIR FOOD!  Myself included, because it’s easy to forget.  But good digestion starts in the mouth and I was tickled to see that Alicia touched on this a few times.

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The Not-So-PROS
(I didn’t want to call them full-fledged “CONS”)

Many recipes call for Exotic Ingredients

She does have quite a few ingredients listed throughout that won’t be found at a ‘regular’ grocery store, so if you intend to use the book for recipes, hopefully you have a specialty healthfood store nearby.  Our local Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocer does now carry Umeboshi Plums (salt plums) and I just found them the other night.

Overuse of Two Obnoxious Words

“Yummy” and “sexy” were used all too often throughout.  I don’t really think of my food as sexy.  And I know foods needs to taste good and be yummy.   But those two words appeared a lot more than they needed to and it started to become distracting to me.

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Recipe Tests:

Azuki Beans with Kabocha Squash:

This recipe was chosen from the Superhero recipe section of the book, so that means not a lot of spice action.  And to be honest you could tell.  As I had not yet found a Kabocha Squash at the time of making this recipe I subbed in Butternut (which the recipe mentioned would be fine.)

I made my beans from SCRATCH instead of relying on canned for probably the first time ever – and even soaked them with some Kombu seaweed as per the recipe:

It made a very hearty dish that provided me with plenty of easily reheatable lunches to-go for the week.  But I did have to add a few pinches of sea salt and nutritional yeast for some flavor each day because apparently I have not yet earned a Superhero’s taste buds.

Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts:

Again, I had to make a substitution because the pine nuts at Whole Foods were ridiculously expensive.  So MSP and I looked at each and said, “Who needs pine nuts??” and decided to use some sunflower seeds that we had on hand instead.  Wow was this dish aromatic.  I LOVE to use fresh basil in recipes – it smells amazing in the kitchen.  Because this was also a Superhero recipe, it too was a little bland so we had so give it some S&P the first night.  But the leftovers were REALLY flavorful because the basil had time to infuse with the rest of the dish.  So my tip would be to make this the day before you want to eat it.

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Overall I have to say I really loved this book.  I want to go have tea with Alicia – she seems very fun to be around!  She is so passionate about animals and health that it’s hard not to get excited along with her.  This will be a book that will have a place in my kitchen, that I will refer to often, and will be all marked up with sticky notes.

Alicia has started a website (The Kind Life) which includes her blog as well.  I noticed yesterday she posted one of her recipes from the book, Radicchio Pizza with Truffle Oil, for you pizza lovers out there.

It retails for $29.99 but Amazon.com sells it for almost half that at $17.54.  I’ve added it to the FitFeat Faves Store, so if you want to check it out you can click HERE.

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Have you read “The Kind Diet”?  If so, what were YOUR thoughts? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.

Hope you are having a SUPER Saturday, friends!

– Shari B. =)

Tags: Alicia Silverstone, azuki bean, kabocha squash, The Kind Diet, umeboshi plum, vegan, Vegetarian