Salad Samurai: 100 Cutting-Edge, Ultra-Hearty, Easy-to-Make Salads You Don't Have to Be Vegan to Love

I am a big fan of Terry Hope Romero’s books, I have all of them - her solo books and collaborations - to date, and they’ve never disappointed me. Since I’m also a huge fan of big, hearty meal salads I was particularly excited for this book. I eat a lot of salad, especially in the Spring and Summer and though I’m usually pretty good at creating delicious meal salads or bowls sometimes after days upon days of salad eating one can feel uninspired. Enter “Salad Samurai” This is a beautiful book containing 100 creative, innovative and delicious salads. Most of them are pretty easy to make, and pretty quick to throw together although there are a few salads in the book that require making a few different components - dressing, baked tofu, steamed seitan or tempeh bacon say. Of course you can always prepare these things in advance on a day when you have time so that when meal-time rolls around everything can be thrown together. Terry writes with an easy-going, down to earth style. She’s friendly, funny, and informative. Her sense of humor really shines through and so does her passion not only for salads but cooking and food in general. Her instructions are clear and easy to follow, most of the time you can read through her directions once and not have to look at it again. Most of the recipes contain minimal ingredients and most of them are common enough to find in most well-stocked grocery stores. She’s kind enough to included recipes for various baked tofu preparations, as well as seitan, different kinds of homemade vegan bacon, croutons and other items that may become ‘salad staples.’ The photography in this book is also lovely. All of them bright and mouth-watering. I only wish there were more of them, but I’m only being picky there, as it’s about 1 picture ever 2 recipes or so. Terry also includes lots of helpful hints and tips about how to make a good salad, and she gives you the skinny on the less common ingredients or on certain substitutions that can be made. All in all despite my love of her previous “Vegan Eats World” and her dessert cook books I think overall “Salad Samurai” is my favorite of her works so far. It’s just all around wonderful, and I also happen to think it’s a lot of fun. Some practical information you may find helpful is that this book does not contain nutritional information, and it does use allergens. Such as wheat, soy, nuts etc... in most cases you can work around these by swapping tofu for seitan say, or seitan for beans or one nut for another, but many of the cashew based dressings may be hard - it not impossible - to find substitutions for if you have a cashew allergy. If that’s not an issue for you then I highly recommend this book. So far I’ve tried, Back At The Ranch Dressing - Loved it Lemon Tahini Dressing - Pretty Good Marvelous Miso Dressing - Loved it Classic Croutons - Loved it Massages Red Onions - Loved it Red Hot Saucy Tofu - Loved it Tempeh Bacon Bits - Loved it Coconut Bacon Bits - Loved it Lentils for Salads - Loved it Steamed or Baked Seitan Cutlets - Loved it Deviled Kale Caesar Salad - Loved it The BKT (Bacon, Kale, Tomato) Bowl - Loved it Polish Summer Soba Salad - Loved it Pesto Cauliflower and Potato Salad - Loved it Seitan Bacon Wedge Salad with Horseradish Dressing - Loved it Backyard Buffalo Ranch Caesar Salad - Loved it BBQ Tempeh Dilly Slaw Bowl - Loved it Mushroom, Brussels, and Barley Harvest Bowl - Loved it Grilled Miso Apples and Brussel Sprout Salad - Loved it Klassic Caesar Salad - Loved it Gingery Beets and Lentils with Tahini and Agave Nectar - Pretty Good Smoothie Granola Bowl - Loved it Coconut Carrot Cake Salad - Pretty Good All in all I think this is a really wonderful book, great for any salad lover, and perfect for newbie or seasoned vegans a like!

This is not the run-of-the-mill salad recipe book. The author is creative and has a gift for putting ingredients together in a unique way that explode with flavor and inspire new cravings. I live in Spain so sometimes ingredients in American cookbooks are difficult to find but I did not have much trouble using the cookbook in this sense. I would plan out my week of salads and for ingredients such as dulse, I ordered from amazon and received it a few days later. The recipes are so good it makes me feel like eating vegan is delicious alternative. I have been eating much less meat after using this book. Here is the individual review each recipe I tried from the book: -Back at the Ranch Dressing- 5 Stars- I crave this dressing. I love ranch dressing and I am not a vegan but I prefer this to regular ranch. I have put it on a simple raw beet salad and it was excellent. The dressing is used in various recipes throughout the book and there are variations offeredto adjust the flavor by adding red curry, chipotle, horseradish, etc. - Chia Chipotle Dressing- 2 Stars- this is not my favorite. I felt like it was too sweet and did not have enough chipotle. -Shallot Mustard Chia Vinaigrette- 5 Stsrs- delicious. My favorite French style mustard dressing yet. Aside from salads, I put this on boiled cubed potatoes and it is amazing. -Lemongrass Tofu- 3 Stars- It was too mild for me and I would use more lemongrass in the future. I have my lemongrass in the freezer as it is usually not sold fresh in Madrid so this may be the reason for the lighter flavor - Red- Hot Saucy Tofu- 5 Stars- so delicious I forget that I am eating tofu which is generally boring - Coconut Bacony Bits- 5 Stars- They do not remind me of bacon but they go well on salads to create a great flavor and texture contrast. - Lentil Pate Banh Mi Salad Rolls- 5 Stars- This was a real surprise, the flavors come together amazingly especially the cornichon pickles. I was skeptical of adding the cornichon and made 2 with and 2 without and I ended up put the cornichons in the 2 without because it was so good. I should not have doubted the authors, she is a genius. - Chopped Chickpea Endive Spears- 3 stars- This was just not filling enough for the work required, the author does explain this is an appetizer so I was forewarned. I also found the preserved lemon to be a bit to bitter with the endive - The Bacon Kale Tomato Bowl- 5 Stars Delicious and satisfying. I will make again although Kale is harder to find here in Spain - East-West Roasted Corn Salad- 4 Stars- Perfect layers of flavors - Green Papaya Salad- 5 Stars- one of the best recipes from the book, it is addicting - Polish Summer Salad- 5 Stars- Another of my favorites. The genius of putting beets, dill and soba noodles together was previously an unknown delight. It sounded odd but now it is one of my staples. - Pesto Cauliflower & Potato Salad- 5 Stars- One of the best Cauliflower and potato combinations I have had - Pepperoni Tempeh Pizza Salad- 5 Stars- This is so crazy because I did get the sensation that I was eating pizza yet it was a salad (Arugula and Spanish) - Salade Nicoise Bento Box- 4 Stars- This one is difficult for me because individually the components were amazing but it was almost as if I was having too many good things at once and I would have liked to eat just the sea chickpeas on their own. These will be returning again and again to my kitchen. Chickpeas and dulse are what a match! The vegetable salad on its own was excellent and would have only needed potatoes with the lovely mustard dressing. Individually each item is 5 stars. -Fiery Fruit & Quinoa Salad- 1 Star- I did not like this dish at all. The cooked fruit in the quinoa with a sweet dressing did not have a flavor not texture appeal. - Herbed Pea Ricotta Tomato a& Basil- 2 Stars- This is a good take on ricotta and tomato but I would not eat tomatos and ricotta alone as an appetizer and so this version did not work for me either. I appreciated the creativity but I think the ricotta might go better on toast of something. Also, it was hard to keep the ricotta on the tomato and was hard to eat as it was intended. - Seitan, Bacon Wedge Salad- 5 Stars. The Seitan is amazing and I love wedge salad. I did not need the pickled green beens and made it without them the second time. - Backyard Buffalo Ranch Caesar Salad- 5 Stars- Another delicious salad with the ranch dressing but with a cabbage and romaine base. - BBQ Tempeh N Dilly Slaw Bowl- 5 Stars- A delicious use of dill. I made it with the tempeh cut in triangles as pictured but I would follow the recipe that cuts it is cubes because that is how you end up eating it. Granola- 5 Stars- This is a good base granola recipe. I also did the optional amarynth and felt that it did not add to the granola and would avoid doing that again. .

I'm actually surprised that this book has garnered so many 5-star reviews. Yes, the recipes are very creative, and yes, you never knew there were so many different ways to eat salad. Bonus that it's vegan-friendly. However, I've had the book for just over a week and already found a serious flaw in at least 3 of the recipes: some of the measurements seem to be totally off. For example, one of the ranch dressing variations calls for 3 tablespoons of brined green peppercorns. As I was making it, I vaguely recalled from using them in the past that these kinds of peppercorns have a very strong flavor/spice, so I started out with only 2 Tbs...and even that was way too intense flavor-wise, making the dressing almost inedible. I kind of think that's inexcusable for a recipe book, but the rest of the salad was so tasty that I couldn't be too upset. In another recipe, the author provides ingredients for making BBQ-style chickpeas. But it calls for way too much oil- 2 Tbs for one can of chickpeas- and not enough of the "BBQ" sauce. I realize some of this may be personal preference, but it really came out looking and tasting disproportional. But again, the salad as a whole was excellent and I've made notes in the book to make it better next time. Also, several recipes call for using an entire red onion in what will result in 2 salads. Red onions tend to run large and have a very strong flavor, so in one recipe I cut it down to half and still found the onion flavor and taste overwhelming. So next time, I know to use even less. The bottom line for me is that this book has a lot of great ideas but the execution needs some work. The fact that I need to stop and really think through each recipe in advance to make sure everything makes sense flavor-wise is a bit of a bummer.

This is a fantastic collection of salad recipes. I've long been looking for a salad book with vegan options since I am lactose intolerant and vegetarian, so the best menu options for me are usually vegan. Most of the recipes in this book are meal-sized recipes, often hearty enough to keep you full through the day without feeling bored at the idea of having filled up on vegetables. The recipes are arranged by season, so you'll know what vegetables and flavours you can expect to find in season and this is especially helpful for making budget friendly salads that don't skimp on taste or freshness. My summer favourites so far include the asparagus pad thai salad, couscous with snap peas and za'atar dressing, BKT, Mexican Roasted Corn salad with Avocado (seriously amazing). There is a plethora of flavours in this book and that's something I truly appreciate, especially in a salad cookbook. I don't want to eat the same salad dressed up 5 different ways. This book really does offer more unique salad recipes in one tome than any other comparable book I've come across to date. Although I praise this collection of recipes to no end, I admit this isn't a cookbook for everyone. Many of the recipes have recipes within them, take longer than the estimated time because preparation usually involves making something else in advance (usually a dressing, a topping, or grilling/baking an ingredient, etc.) If you're looking for a cookbook to make fast weekday lunches every day, this is not it. Prepping certain ingredients in advance greatly speeds up the salad prep process, but these are not salads I want to prep from start to finish when I come home from a long day at school and work. Believe me, I would if I had the energy, all of the recipes I've tried are fantastic, but that just isn't happening. That said, substituting with store bought salad dressings or protein toppings (chickpeas, marinated tofu, store-bought tempeh, lentils, or pre-cooked chicken if you're an omnivore) is a viable option and should be considered for those of us who just don't have the 45+minutes every day to make a salad. If this isn't a concern for you, or if substituting is something you're open to doing to save time, then I highly recommend checking this out. If anything, try some of the recipes that are available via Look Inside on the amazon page (some of my favourites are available that way!) before committing, but I guarantee if you're looking for vegetarian/vegan friendly salads that don't skimp on flavour, you'll be impressed. What this book does well is good, entrée salads for get-togethers, weekend lunches/dinners, in general when you have the time to commit to it. Every recipe I've tried has been worth the prep work, but even a substitution or two to speed up the prep process has resulted in flavourful lunches/dinners worth making again.

Was mir an dem Buch besonders gefällt: - Die meisten Rezepte haben ein ganzseitiges farbiges Bild - Die Rezepte sind unterteilt in vier Jahreszeiten (Ich finde die Idee genial, allerdings muss ich zugeben, dass man in DE trotzdem nicht immer alle Zutaten findet) - Es gibt ein Kapitel mit Dressings, die man dann für viele Salate verwenden kann - Ebenso gibt viele Rezepte für Toppings, z. B. Croutons, Tempeh Bites - Auch wenn man nicht alle Zutaten findet, schmecken die Salate noch phänomenal! - Bei vielen Rezepten gibt es Variationen. Ich finde das besonders toll, da ich so mein absolutes Lieblingsdressing immer variieren kann und es nie langweilig wird. Man sollte beachten, dass die Salate als Hauptspeisen gedacht sind. Sie machen mehr Arbeit wie ein schnöder grüner Salat und oft ist auch der Herd beteiligt (Tofu Bites, Croutons) allerdings machen sie auch wirklich satt!! Ich liebe Salate, aer da ich nur für mich selbst koche, habe ich oft keine Lust zusätzlich zum Hauptgericht noch Salat zu machen. DIeses Buch ist perfekt, da es Lust auf gesunde und abwechslungsreiche Salate macht. Ich kann das Buch voll und ganz empfehlen!

There and salads and then there are SALADS! This wonderful cookbook concentrates on the latter - gone is the apologetic and miserable side salad; these are complex and beautiful salads that will be the main star of any meal to which they are added - in fact all these salads stand best on their own; they ARE the meal! As with Terry H Romero's other books, this one is witty, informative and highly inspirational.

Even if it's totally vegetarian, there are good ideas on recipes and dressings. The miso is a frequent ingredient for sauces, which is very good, due to nutritional value of this ingredient. There is also a section on fruits and cerals salads which is very good.

Demasiados ingredientes especiales. Típico libro del que esperas mucho y al final haces una receta y lo guardas. El libro es bonito y el diseño está cuidado.