Okay, so I stumbled across this book at the Barnes & Noble on my college campus, and, since it was one of only about two vegan cookbooks there, I bought it. I immediately flipped to the middle section of the book and found myself wishing I had the means to make some of these delicious sounding dishes.

Since I am not a professional chef, I was a bit puzzled when it came to a few of the ingredients called for in some of the recipes. Luckily, Terry Walters put this book together for people like me and there is a section titled What's That?. If you can't guess from the name, this section lays everything you would ever need to know about any ingredient found in any of the recipes thereafter (and even some ingredients that are not included (for good reasons i.e hijiki)). It provides information such as uses, derivatives, brands, where to find, etc. It is a go to resource when you have no idea what a parsnip is.

That is not all that is included in this book. NO WAY! Included you will find a section that discusses what tools to use and not use. What is best for steaming, sauteing,storing, stirring... You get it. ;)

My favorite part of the book is called Basic Cooking Methods. I like this because it tells me how I should go about cooking these ingredients that I have never heard of before. It breaks down all of the food groups and goes into detail about selection, storage, usage, etc. Overall, this is a vital resource if you are a stranger to a kitchen.

Clean Foods also helped me in being able to understand Organic vs. Conventional foods. With the market flooded with products claiming to be 'organic', it can be hard to tell what is actually good, clean food. This book breaks down pesticide levels in select groups of fruits and vegetables and stresses the importance of seasonal production. 

Now, to the recipes. (I almost for got that this was a recipe book) The cover claims to have over 200 recipes. Now, I haven't counted, but I am not denying it! This book is LOADED with recipes that make me wish that the holidays came around more often. There is a recipe for EVERYTHING, and as much as I would love to go into great detail about what is included, there is just too much to even begin describing. 

If you are new to a clean food diet, this is a must have tool for learning what is what and what is NOT. I believe you can get it on Amazon for around 15-20 dollars. It is 290 pages of pure clean love for your body, so why wouldn't you get it??