Migraine Relief Recipes

Building a healthy life

Cookbook review: Cooking with Ancient Grains by Maria Baez Kijac

Cookbooks

Cooking with Ancient Grains | Cookbook review by Recipe Renovator
I asked for a copy of Cooking with Ancient Grains: 75 Delicious Recipes Quinoa, Amaranth, Chia, and Kaniwa because I thought it would be interesting to see recipes using less-common gluten-free grains. This is a great book for vegetarians because she focuses on the highest-protein grains. Most recipes are not vegan, but many could be converted. As these grains are not cereals, they are loaded with protein and complete amino acid profiles. Think of them as more seeds than grains. So some people include them in low-carb / low-grain diets as well. All these seeds are cleared for the migraine diet (although some recipes contain triggers like cheese, lemon, or figs.)

Cooking with Ancient Grains | Cookbook review by Recipe Renovator

Layout and design:

The author introduces each of the four grains native to the ancient Americas: quinoa, amaranth, kañiwa (also called baby quinoa), and chia. She covers some key ingredients, then gets right into the recipes: Breakfast & Brunch, Appetizers & Sides, Soups & Salads, Entreés, and Desserts. The design of the book includes several fonts and type in black, brown, and tan. While attractive, the type combined with the smaller size of the book overall makes some aspects less readable.
Cooking with Ancient Grains | Cookbook review by Recipe Renovator

Photography:

Most recipes feature a full-color photograph by talented food blogger and photographer Kelly Jaggers. The photos give an excellent representation of how the dishes should look at home.
Cooking with Ancient Grains | Cookbook review by Recipe Renovator

Recipes:

The recipes provide a broad range of options, such as quinoa pancakes with pecans, chia fresca drink, deviled eggs with kaniwa, cheddar cheese and quinoa soup with leeks and chia, quinoa with chicken sausage and hearts of palm, and coconut tapioca and kañiwa cake with chocolate hazelnut sauce.

What I liked about the book:

For people who are already gluten-free, this book gives you some wonderful new recipes to expand your gluten-free grain horizons.

I wasn’t so keen on:

Recipes were not coded for special diets; nutritional analysis is not provided, which would be helpful for low-sodium eaters.

Recommended for:

Anyone looking for different gluten-free recipes, vegetarians, celiacs

Not recommended for:

Migraine diet, low-sodium diet, dairy-free, vegans

A note about my cookbook reviews: In the past, I tested at least three recipes from each book, took photos, and described my experience. Due to my dietary limitations (extremely-low-sodium for my Meniere’s Disease and trigger-free foods for migraine relief), it is no longer possible for me to test the recipes and do them justice.

Required FTC disclosure: I received one copy of this book from the publisher for the giveaway on October 31st.
Here’s the book if you want to dig deeper:

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

Get monthly updates from me on new posts, special offers, and speaking engagements. Not spammy, plus you get a FREE Migraine Relief Plan Travel Guide for signing up.

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL

Get monthly updates from me on new posts, special offers, and speaking engagements. Not spammy, plus you get a FREE Migraine Relief Plan Travel Guide for signing up.

Comments

  1. Judith says

    Since you know that the items her book covers are NOT grains but really seeds,
    other people cannot learn the more accurate term and distinction for the diet if everyone continues to call them grains incorrectly.

    It’s like the difference between hard boiled eggs (they are not really) and hard cooked eggs which they are) as the more correct term. If we were all more accurate in our terminology, perhaps people could learn how to properly do eggs so they don’t have the ugly black/green sulfuric line between yolk and white in the hared “boiled” egg.

  2. Kate @ Babaganosh.org says

    Thanks for letting us know about this book! I love experimenting with different grains, and I’ve cooked with all of those except for the baby quinoa before. I never even knew baby quinoa existed!! I love it when grains have a lot of protein – it makes cooking so much easier when I don’t have to cook another separate protein.

    Just curious, how/where did you ask for a copy of the cookbook? Is there a place we can get them so we can do reviews and write about recipes we cooked from them? Thanks 🙂

    • Stephanie Weaver says

      Of course Kate, thanks for your comment! I am on a bunch of lists now, since I review cookbooks every week. Sometimes I request them, sometimes they just show up. If there is a book you are interested in, you can Google around to figure out who is managing the PR for that book and email them. Hope this helps.