The Homesteader’s Kitchen makes healthy hippie cooking tasty and accessible.

I admit. I’m a whole foods virgin. I’ve never sprouted alfalfa seeds. I’ve never made spelt flour pie crust.

Yet, I find Robin Burnside’s The Homesteader’s Kitchen (Gibbs-Smith, August 2010) intriguing. Burnside’s approach to food and cooking is “fresh, whole and simple” and, true to her philosophy, her cookbook provides delicious, wholesome recipes for nutritious meals using whole foods from the garden or farmers market.

The recipes are gleaned from Burnside’s 40 years working in restaurants (she co-owned Carmel Cafe in Carmel and Cafe Amphora at Nepenthe in Big Sur, and managed the Esalen Institute kitchen), as well as her travels from Bali to Baja. She’ll discuss and sign the book noon-2pm this Saturday at Treebones Resort in South Big Sur.

A peek into the glossary reveals a global pantry – fish sauce, tahini, miso, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind. And the recipes for gado-gado (Indonesian peanut sauce), company kitchari (an Indian one pot meal of lentils, rice and vegetables) and huevos rancheros are equally eclectic.

However, the recipes have a Burnside twist to them. The veggie sushi rolls with three sauces use quinoa and millet instead of rice, and enchiladas are stuffed with tempeh and chard.

“That’s how I eat,” Burnside says. “The older I get, the more I realize that consuming whole foods makes a huge difference in my health and vitality.” In fact, her diet comprises 75 to 90 percent raw foods.

With the closest grocery store an hour and a half away from her off-the-grid home in Big Sur, Burnside has always improvised using ingredients stocked in her larder. Eventually, modifying popular dishes became her tactic for turning people on to unfamiliar foods.

Before you dismiss it as a hippie cookbook, let me point out the gems that any cook can appreciate. These include useful tips on making homemade yogurt, quick fresh raspberry jam, and mayonnaise from scratch. You’ll learn techniques like claypot cooking, grilling bread (no oven necessary!), and how to make stovetop chard pie.

My favorite is the salad primer with detailed instructions on how to wash and store green salads, and leads into paragraphs on specialty lettuces, baby greens, roots, and edible flowers. You can also mix and match salads and salad dressings (green goddess, creamy cilantro, kiwi vinaigrette – take your pick!).

Meat-lovers are not left out either; smoked turkey with maple herb brine and grass-fed beef with mushroom stroganoff headline the fish, poultry and meat entrées. What you won’t find is refined white sugar or white flour. Instead, Burnside uses natural sweeteners like sucanat (natural, unprocessed sugar) and whole wheat flour. But you won’t even miss them in her recipes for amphora chocolate cake, fresh summer fruit tart with honey citrus cream, or ricotta cheesecake.

With The Homesteaders’s Kitchen, Burnside attempts to bridge the mainstream palate with healthy whole foods. Her fresh ideas and surprising marriage of ingredients spur me to meet her halfway.

The Homesteader’s Kitchen (Gibbs-Smith, August 2010) by Robin Burnside is $19.99. Burnside hosts a free book signing noon-2pm Saturday, July 21, at Treebones Resort, 71895 Highway 1, Big Sur, 805-927-2390.

Chunky Avocado Salad makes 4-6 servings

“The addition of fresh vegetables transforms this traditional avocado dip,” Burnside writes, “into a wonderful salad packed with nutrition, enzymes and south-of-the-border spice.”

2 medium-size ripe avocados
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice, to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
1/3 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/3 cup finely chopped celery
1/3 cup finely chopped carrot
1/3 cup finely chopped jicama, optional
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon toasted and ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Bragg’s liquid aminos, optional
1 jalapeno, minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato
 
In a medium-size mixing bowl, mash avocados with the lemon or lime juice, leaving small chunks of avocado intact as you go. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Serve immediately.