The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook - by Laura McLively (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Celebrating the unfamiliar yet extraordinary produce from California's most iconic market, Berkeley Bowl, this cookbook offers recipes for a panoply of fruits and vegetables that have been largely overlooked or forgotten in popular cuisine.

Registered dietitian Laura McLively, an avid home cook and creator of the popular blog MyBerkeleyBowl, created a recipe for every unfamiliar or "exotic" fruit and vegetable she found at Berkeley Bowl. Here is a collection of her favorite discoveries, and a tribute to the remarkable, 40-year-old family-run market that inspired them.

Shining a spotlight on the versatile and unique qualities of the astonishingly beautiful, plant-based bounty that's available to vegetarians and meat eaters alike, these recipes and photographs will help you embrace hundreds of exciting fruits and vegetables you may never have tasted or thought of cooking, including crunchy sea bean spindles, tubers bigger than a toddler, wiry haired rambutans, and wrinkly skinned Indian bitter melon. Eating more types and colors of plants exposes us to a wider variety of nutrients, antioxidants, and beneficial bacteria.

Berkeley Bowl is a mecca for great chefs, and with the recipes in this cookbook, you'll see why. Even if you don't live near Berkeley Bowl, getting your hands on these ingredients can be a fun and rewarding experience in its own right, and cooking with them will make your meals explode with flavors, textures, and new culinary adventures for all your senses.

Partial list of recipes:
Green Garlic Soup with Lemon Cardamom Yogurt
Sweet & Sour Tofu with Gooseberry
Charred Nopal and Black-eyed Pea Chili
Corn and Chive Stuffed Squash Blossoms
Pepino Melon Poke
Stuffed Indian Eggplant
Morel Pot Pie
Starfruit Almond Torte

Review Quotes

"This beautiful book, which celebrates Berkeley's iconic grocery, is filled not only with Erin Scott's stunning photographs but also with recipes and ideas for how to use produce that grows on our shores but is not always the easiest to know what to do with. Now I know how to use those banana flowers I've encountered in Florida--and many other foods as well." --Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy and In My Kitchen

"I've been waiting for this book for the past decade. Since moving to the Bay Area, Berkeley Bowl has been my go-to market for buying food--whether catering an event or cooking for my family--and I am always discovering new produce there. The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook is an invaluable resource with fresh ideas for familiar ingredients and dozens of recipes for ingredients that you probably have never heard of (let alone cooked)." --Bryant Terry, James Beard Foundation Leadership Award recipient and author of Afro-Vegan

"The recipes are adventurous, but their execution is straightforward--perfect for those looking to cook outside their culinary comfort zones." --Publisher's Weekly

"If you've ever wanted to diversify your diet and include some of the stranger vegetables at the grocery store, The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook is a must-buy. Registered dietitian Laura McLively has created easy, accessible recipes for vegetables like stinging nettle, sea bean, kohlrabi, ramp, green garlic, chayote, pomelo, and more. She also tells you why they're worthy of inclusion in your diet--and it turns out, there are tons of superfoods (with super benefits!) we're all missing out on." --MindBodyGreen

"You could say [McLively] wrote the book on the place.... You'll be cooking inventively in no time." --Diablo Magazine

"The diversity is stunning and inspiring, with recipes using flowers, seeds and pods, savoury fruits, leaves, spores and succulents, roots and tubers, stems and sweet fruits, plus tips on where to get these if you don't live in the shop's vicinity." --American Express Essentials

About the Author

Laura McLively is an Oakland, California based dietitian and food writer. She is the author of The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook ((c) Parallax Press 2018), which showcase original recipes using unusual fruits and vegetables from California's most iconic market, Berkeley Bowl. She is a food writer and correspondent for The Bay Area News Group, including the San Jose Mercury and the East Bay Times. Laura also runs a private dietetics practice. She is passionate about sharing her love of colorful, plant-based eating with her readers, clients, and patients. Laura is available for individually-tailored recipe development, public speaking, writing, and one-on-one consultations.

Erin Scott is a food, beverage, and lifestyle photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She's inspired by honest food, real people, and the magic of light. Erin comes to food photography as a passionate eater, gardener, and cook - she has photographed over 50 books and authored her own cookbook as well.