Skip to main content

Book Review: Mostly Plants - 101 Delicious Flexitarian Recipes from the Pollan Family

Mostly Plants - 101 Delicious
Flexitarian Recipes from
the Pollan Family
.
I've never bought a cookbook in my life until now. Mostly Plants randomly came across my path when I happened upon a Youtube clip of Jimmy Fallon interviewing Michael J. Fox and his partner, Tracy Pollan.

One of the topics discussed, obviously, was the cookbook which is a collaboration with Tracy's two sisters, and her mother, with a title that comes from her brother Michael's quote:
Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
You can watch the aforementioned Youtube clip from April 2019 below.



Mostly Plants is a Flexitarian recipe book, not to be confused with a diet book. Its main goal is to give anyone trying to eat healthier, plant based meals, some options if you'd still like to keep a little meat in the mix.

At the time I bought the book my partner had been trying to eat less meat, and even tried going vegan altogether but wasn't managing to stick with it for very long. Possibly because it's hard to change what you eat when your partner (i.e. me) isn't really on the same page. If you're the main cook in the family it's more trouble to make two different meals, right?

Though I wasn't putting my foot down or anything, insisting that my meals had to be meat centric, my partner is just thoughtful enough to think I shouldn't have to change what I eat just because she wants to try being vegan.

Authors: Dana, Tracy, Corky, Lori.
Honestly, if someone is cooking for me, I'll eat almost whatever is put in front of me, so long as it tastes okay (I will maintain beetroot and celery are not actual food though, so you need to disguise them pretty good before I'll be happy about eating them). Meat isn't a religion for me.

Anyway, that's why I bought Mostly Plants. I was thinking maybe my partner could use it for ideas on more plant based meals that didn't eliminate meat altogether but instead reduced the meat to plant ratio somewhat.

I'd like to say I've tried quite a few of the recipes in this book, but I'm not really the cook in my household.

Sure I could cook but what if I actually was good at it? It could lead to me cooking more often, or even cooking all the evening meals. Before you know it I'd be on MasterChef Australia undergoing some kind of midlife crisis with dreams of my own food truck, and that would just be chaos right there!

My partner did try making the Crispy Parmesan Roasted Chickpeas, which is a snack recipe, and concluded she doesn't actually like chickpeas... I never got a look in on tasting these, so maybe she decided I didn't like chickpeas either?

That aside, I have read all the forward and the preliminary chapters of Mostly Plants. Its philosophy of not adhering to a strict diet, mixing things up, and generally favoring plants by cooking tasty recipes seems like it's not too hard to adopt.

If you want to go all in you may have to phase in shopping for a pantry that looks more like the Pollan family pantry. Most ingredients you can probably get at your local supermarket. There are tips on how to shop more sustainably for your meats and vegetables if you want to complicate things further by being environmentally more responsible too (or maybe just support your local farmer's markets perhaps?).

There's also cooking tips from all three sisters and their mother on things they've learned along the way to help you get the best results in trying these recipes.

Most of the recipes are suited to lunch, dinner, and sweets. Nothing immediately pops out as a breakfast dish (I don't know, go mad with bacon and eggs for breakfast if that's what you're into - I'm a cereal guy with a couple of biscuits and a cup of tea).

My only complaint about this book is there's no list of all the recipes in one place so I could just casually cruise the list picking out things I'd like to try. Instead I've got to go to the chapter cover pages for a list of recipes in each chapter... is that too first world of a problem?

The Transcendent Burger.
I love a good burger, and right now, veggie burgers are gaining some traction in the marketplace. Now if veggie burgers were called 'Transcendent Burgers' that would get your attention, right?

It gets my attention at least. I think I'm more open to trying a veggie burger you can make at home more than those veggie burgers that claim to look and taste like meat... I mean, come on, you know it's not meat, why go to all that effort making it look like meat?

Anyway, if you'd like to know what's in a Transcendent Burger pick up a copy of Mostly Plants. I guarantee you'll be suitably distracted by many of the recipes that you may even forget you were trying to find out what's in a Transcendent Burger.

So this hasn't been much of a review since trying the recipes in a cookbook is somewhat of a prerequisite, and I haven't done that. Let's call it more of an awareness campaign for people interested in more healthy eating but maybe would rather sneak their way in without announcing they're starting a new diet.

If eating mostly plants, and not giving up meat entirely, sounds like a philosophy you can get behind, Mostly Plants is a great introduction to being Flexitarian, or just trying a few recipes that you may not have considered before.

Mostly Plants is available from Amazon.



* This article contains Amazon Associate commission links that help keep this site free.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space.  Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation .  Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their  space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ).  While they sound highly soph

Book Review: Brand It Purple by Ashley Knoote-Parke

Ashley Knoote-Parke. Image: Facebook It seems almost redundant to review  Brand It Purple  given you probably won't find a hard copy edition without digging into the second hand market. The book's author and publisher, Ashley Knoote-Parke, seemingly, disappeared off the face of the Earth around about 2015. Which is a story in itself. However, the book is still a very informative guide and, while not specifically targeted at women, many may relate more to a book written by an experienced female entrepreneur. Brand It Purple is a personal marketing and branding guide released in 2009 by then, star on the rise author, Ashley Knoote-Parke, an English born, South African expatriate, who made Adelaide, South Australia her home. There she started her own publishing company releasing a photographic, coffee table book of South Australian sights, along with books showcasing female, then male, entrepreneurs. As well she published 'Brand It Purple'. I came across the b

Movie Review: Force of Nature - The Dry 2 (2024) *No Spoilers*

Eric Bana returns as Detective Aaron Falk in Force of Nature - The Dry 2 , and that's the only real connection between this and 2020's  The Dry . This is an all new mystery set in a new location. I will say, given that it's either wet or rainy, with the incoming threat of a major storm for most of the movie, the filmmakers really missed a trick in not renaming the film, The Wet. Back when I reviewed the first film I noted that I would love to see the second book made into a movie too, and here it is. This time Aaron and his detective partner, Carmen (Jacqueline Mackenzie), head into the mountains to investigate the whereabouts of a missing informant, who disappears on a workplace, team bonding retreat. All the performances in this film are easily on par with the first, though I do think some pretty outstanding actors really didn't have a lot to do here. In terms of mystery the first movie was better constructed as a who dunnit film you could play along with. Here you mo

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood  Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch

Nobody move, I've dropped my brain!

I'm probably one of the last Pirates of the Caribbean fans to see At World's End which is still playing at a few cinemas as it nears the end of its run. The title of this post, which is a quote from the movie, aptly describes the difficulties of trying to get your head around the plot. Although it does continue from the previous film in the series (all the characters are there) it doesn't seem critical to know the back story. The main plot is established right at the start. The East India Trading Company is out to wipe out pirates and anyone that so much as glances at a pirate. Our motley crew, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan and Captain Barbossa join forces to bring together the Brethren of Nine pieces of eight (nine pirate lords who can unite all pirates) and stop the massacre of their kind. Slight problem. Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the nine and he died in the last film. Since Captain Barbossa died in the film before that, we know that coming back from the dead isn'