Get It Ripe: A Fresh Take on Vegan Cooking and Living.

A registered holistic nutritionist and author of the food inspired blog Domestic Affair, Jae Steele is also responsible for the cookzines Vegan Freegan, Ripe, Root, and Cookie Zine. Opening with an insightful preface, Get it Ripe is a wonderful resource for people who love to read about food, cook, and, of course, eat. Whether writing about food quality, digestion, organic food myths, or detoxification, Steele’s major strength is that she is able to promote healthy cooking and living without sounding preachy. It is for this reason that Get it Ripe would easily appeal to anyone interested in achieving a well-balanced diet and lifestyle.

Throughout the five main sections—“Informed Eating”, “Stocking Up”, “The Skills”, “Dish it Out:, and “Further Healing”—the reader receives useful information on the philosophy of vegan cooking as well as practical recipes. With almost one hundred and fifty delicious, creative, and well-explained creations to choose from, including ideas for beverages, breakfast, muffins, quick breads, biscuits, salads, dressings, sauces, gravies, marinades, soups, entrées, cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. Favourites are likely to include Roco’s Granola, Cashew Gravy, Red Lentil Hummus, Portobello Soup, Fettuccini No-Fredo, Luscious Lasagne, and Carob Chai Cake with Cardamom Icing. Recipes are accompanied by personal anecdotes; 16 full-colour photos provide practical presentation ideas. Also appreciated are the suggested menus and Steele’s symbols for unique dietary requirements: gluten-free, soy-free, nightshade-free, and raw/living. At twenty-one chapters and two hundred and seventy-one pages, Get it Ripe certainly provides culinary inspiration. Smitten fans will be pleased to hear that Steele is working on her second cookbook.