The Food Matters Cookbook: 500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living

635 Pages·2010·2.98 MB·English

by  Mark Bittman

ALSO BY MARK BITTMAN
Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express Food Matters How to Cook Everything How to
Cook Everything Vegetarian The Best Recipes in the World Fish: The Complete
Guide to Buying and Cooking How to Cook Everything: Bittman Takes on
America’s Chefs Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from The New York
Times
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Copyright © 2010 by Mark Bittman All rights reserved, including the right to
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Designed by Davina Mock-Maniscalco Manufactured in the United States of
America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bittman, Mark.
The food matters cookbook / by Mark Bittman.
p. cm
1. Food. 2. Nutrition. 3. Health. 4. Cooking. 5. Cookbooks. I. Title.
TX353.B614 2010
641.3—dc22
2010028623
ISBN 978-1-4391-2023-1
ISBN 978-1-4391-4123-6 (ebook)
For my mom and dad
Contents
Introduction
PART I: EATING LIKE FOOD MATTERS
Food Policy, Made Personal
Turning the Tables on Animal Consumption
The Story of Junk
An Introduction to Sane Eating
Thinking Like Food Matters
PART II: COOKING LIKE FOOD MATTERS
Debunking Some Myths
What Ingredients Matter
A Word About Technique
Using The Food Matters Cookbook
PART III: THE RECIPES
Appetizers and Snacks
Soups
Salads and Dressings
Pasta, Noodles, and Dumplings
Rice and Grains
Beans
Vegetables
Bread, Pizza, Sandwiches, and Wraps
Desserts and Sweet Snacks
PART IV: RECIPE LISTS, SOURCES, AND INDEX
Where to Find: Fast Recipes
Where to Find: Make-Ahead Recipes
Where to Find: Recipes for Pantry Staples
Measurement Conversions
Sources: Books, Journals, Magazines, Online Resources, and
Databases
Acknowledgments
Index
Introduction
As of this writing, I’ve been eating like Food Matters—the title of this book’s
predecessor, a book that encourages us to concentrate on eating more plants and
fewer animal products and processed foods—for three years. During that period
I’ve met scores if not hundreds of people who have either come to similar diets
on their own (it’s not that complicated, after all) or read Food Matters. The
result of my own and just about everyone else’s experiences, as well as most of
the research studies that have been published since then, have confirmed the
conclusion I reached in the first place: If you swap the basic proportions in your
diet—increasing unprocessed fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains
—you’ll wind up losing weight and improving your overall health while also
improving more difficult-to-measure situations like global warming, the
environment in general, and animal welfare.
For me, it’s been astonishingly easy to remain on a diet that relies on far fewer
animal products and processed foods than the typically “American” one. And
this has been true even though I’m a journalist and author making his living from
cooking, eating, and writing about the same. At no time has my new way of
eating made my job—or my life—more difficult. If anything it’s easier, since I
pay better attention to what goes into my mouth and fully appreciate all sorts of
food, now more than ever.
Obviously, I’m not alone in touting a plant-heavy diet. The publication of
Food Matters in January 2009 came at the beginning of the seemingly endless
discussion about national health care. But in the course of that debate, more and
more people—including outspoken people in the big insurance companies, Big
Pharma, and even Big Food—were seeing the link between our diet and major
health issues like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. And now that these links
are accepted by the mainstream, so finally, the implications—and the costs—of
the typical American diet are getting the attention they deserve.
Food and diet have become integral in food policy discussions, as they relate
to issues as wide-ranging as global warming, other environmental issues, and
childhood obesity. But it’s not only activists and advocates who are influencing
the dialogue. Anyone who purchases food—which is to say everyone—has the
opportunity to advance the changes advocated in Food Matters. I’ve come to call
this “personal food policy,” because collectively our choices can stand up to the
legislators, lobbyists, and special interest groups that continue to shape the way
our food is raised, produced, packaged, shipped, and marketed.
For a variety of reasons, most Americans are more aware of what they’re
eating than ever before, and many sincerely want to eat better, though they might
not know exactly how to do it. I hear this over and over again, and it’s not hard
to believe, given the often confusing and conflicting information floating around.
We’re certainly not getting much help from our supermarket shelves or favorite
restaurants, where we still have to pass up undeniably tempting and convenient
junk to get at the real food.
For a more detailed summary of what “Eating Like Food Matters” means,
read on. If none of this is new to you, skip to Part II, page 13—there I discuss
the practicalities and principles of the Food Matters kitchen. Part III (beginning
on page 35) includes more than 500 recipes and variations that demonstrate just
how easy and delicious it can be to become a less-meatarian and begin eating a
plant-heavy diet.