Review: Inspiralized: Turn Vegetables into Healthy, Creative, Satisfying Meals by Ali Maffucci

Synopsis: On her wildly popular blog, Inspiralized, Ali Maffucci is revolutionizing healthy eating. Whether you’re low-carb, gluten-free, Paleo, or raw, you don’t have to give up the foods you love. Inspiralized shows you how to transform more than 20 vegetables and fruits into delicious meals that look and taste just like your favorite indulgent originals. Zucchini turns into pesto spaghetti; jicama becomes shoestring fries; sweet potatoes lay the foundation for fried rice; plantains transform into “tortillas” for huevos rancheros. Ali’s recipes for breakfast, snacks, appetizers, sandwiches, soups, salads, casseroles, rices, pastas, and even desserts are easy to follow, hard to mess up, healthful, and completely fresh and flavorful. Best of all, she tells you how to customize them for whatever vegetables you have on hand and whatever your personal goal may be—losing weight, following a healthier lifestyle, or simply making easy meals at home. Here, too, are tons of technical tips and tricks; nutritional information for each dish and every vegetable you can possibly spiralize; and advice for spiralizing whether you’re feeding just yourself, your family, or even a crowd. So bring on a hearty appetite and a sense of adventure—you’re ready to make the most of this secret weapon for healthy cooking. (from the online description)

Review: This book is from the popular blog of the same name. It's intended for use with the machine sold on her website. I didn't buy that machine. I bought a simpler one for a lot less money. But she addresses that in the beginning so the book can be used with other machines. The main benefit of this book is the how-to for making proper "noodles" from the veggies. Having tried it before reading her methods, I can say that her method works way better! Mine were soggy or crunchy in all the wrong ways. Her method produced yummy, noodle-like dishes. As for the recipes - only about 1/3 of them are actually recipes that require spirialized veggies. The others are make-overs of popular recipes or ones she has add veggies in a spirialized form when you could use veggies in chopped or shredded form. The recipes, however, are still tasty and worth the price (I paid $11.99) so that is okay. My only other complaint is that not all the recipes have pictures, which I prefer. But the book has a clean layout, easy to read instructions, and lots of supplementary information, like cooking times for multiple veggies and cooking techniques and tools. This is a technique and recipe collection I will be using regularly.

Bookmarks: 7 of 10

Awards: None

ISBN: 978-0-8041-8683-4
Year Published: 2015
Date Finished: 1-6-2016
Pages: 224