The Dreaded Broccoli Cookbook: A Good-Natured Guide to Healthful Eating, with 100 Recipes

Well-written, thorough, informative book including nutrition, cooking tips, opinions (90% i agreed with) and often humorous throughout with anecodotes, jokes, and sometimes just cleverly written sentences. Highly recommended!

I picked up this book because it was on sale (kind of an 'impulse buy'), but also because I'm trying to cultivate a desire to cook. Thinking the book was really just about broccoli, I let it sit on my bookshelf for a couple of months before even opening it. What a surprise to discover this is a wonderful book, and I love reading it! It's about so much more than broccoli, and I've learned a great deal about putting flavor into healthy food (a skill which doesn't come naturally to me). The authors (a mother and daughter team) are very amusing and informative, and a novice like me would actually feel comfortable cooking with them, rather than feeling intimidated. I would recommend this book to anyone who's not already an accomplished cook or chef ; I'm inspired to go buy a Römertopf (clay pot) and cook up a feast this weekend. (And I'm someone who often eats cereal for dinner to avoid cooking. No longer!!) I like to know how and why you do certain things when cooking, and this book tells you everything you need to know, and it's all fun.

Unlike other assorted low-fat cranks, the authors of Dreaded Broccoli actually like food, and it shows. The book is witty, insightful and a pleasure to read even if you never cook a single recipe. In fact, its title notwithstanding, it is not really a cookbook at all; the authors' insistence on "recipe independence" means not cooking the recipes is really part of the point.

I have subscribed to the Dreaded Broccoli Newsletter for several years. It helps that I like to cook, but even if I didn't I would still enjoy reading the Haspels' writing. The Haspels are intelligent, highly literate authors whose ability to turn a phrase (article on cooking low fat buffalo meat at home titled "At Home on the Range") is a constant delight. I highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys eating, reading or reading about eating.Eli Becker