Salad Samurai: 100 Cutting-Edge, Ultra-Hearty, Easy-to-Make Salads You Don't Have to Be Vegan to Love Paperback – Illustrated, June 17, 2014

I am a big fan of Terry Hope Romero’s books, I have all of them - her solo books and collaborations - to date, and they’ve never disappointed me. Since I’m also a huge fan of big, hearty meal salads I was particularly excited for this book. I eat a lot of salad, especially in the Spring and Summer and though I’m usually pretty good at creating delicious meal salads or bowls sometimes after days upon days of salad eating one can feel uninspired. Enter “Salad Samurai” This is a beautiful book containing 100 creative, innovative and delicious salads. Most of them are pretty easy to make, and pretty quick to throw together although there are a few salads in the book that require making a few different components - dressing, baked tofu, steamed seitan or tempeh bacon say. Of course you can always prepare these things in advance on a day when you have time so that when meal-time rolls around everything can be thrown together.Terry writes with an easy-going, down to earth style. She’s friendly, funny, and informative. Her sense of humor really shines through and so does her passion not only for salads but cooking and food in general. Her instructions are clear and easy to follow, most of the time you can read through her directions once and not have to look at it again. Most of the recipes contain minimal ingredients and most of them are common enough to find in most well-stocked grocery stores. She’s kind enough to included recipes for various baked tofu preparations, as well as seitan, different kinds of homemade vegan bacon, croutons and other items that may become ‘salad staples.’The photography in this book is also lovely. All of them bright and mouth-watering. I only wish there were more of them, but I’m only being picky there, as it’s about 1 picture ever 2 recipes or so. Terry also includes lots of helpful hints and tips about how to make a good salad, and she gives you the skinny on the less common ingredients or on certain substitutions that can be made. All in all despite my love of her previous “Vegan Eats World” and her dessert cook books I think overall “Salad Samurai” is my favorite of her works so far. It’s just all around wonderful, and I also happen to think it’s a lot of fun.Some practical information you may find helpful is that this book does not contain nutritional information, and it does use allergens. Such as wheat, soy, nuts etc... in most cases you can work around these by swapping tofu for seitan say, or seitan for beans or one nut for another, but many of the cashew based dressings may be hard - it not impossible - to find substitutions for if you have a cashew allergy. If that’s not an issue for you then I highly recommend this book.So far I’ve tried,Back At The Ranch Dressing - Loved itLemon Tahini Dressing - Pretty GoodMarvelous Miso Dressing - Loved itClassic Croutons - Loved itMassages Red Onions - Loved itRed Hot Saucy Tofu - Loved itTempeh Bacon Bits - Loved itCoconut Bacon Bits - Loved itLentils for Salads - Loved itSteamed or Baked Seitan Cutlets - Loved itDeviled Kale Caesar Salad - Loved itThe BKT (Bacon, Kale, Tomato) Bowl - Loved itPolish Summer Soba Salad - Loved itPesto Cauliflower and Potato Salad - Loved itSeitan Bacon Wedge Salad with Horseradish Dressing - Loved itBackyard Buffalo Ranch Caesar Salad - Loved itBBQ Tempeh Dilly Slaw Bowl - Loved itMushroom, Brussels, and Barley Harvest Bowl - Loved itGrilled Miso Apples and Brussel Sprout Salad - Loved itKlassic Caesar Salad - Loved itGingery Beets and Lentils with Tahini and Agave Nectar - Pretty GoodSmoothie Granola Bowl - Loved itCoconut Carrot Cake Salad - Pretty GoodAll in all I think this is a really wonderful book, great for any salad lover, and perfect for newbie or seasoned vegans a like!

This is not the run-of-the-mill salad recipe book. The author is creative and has a gift for putting ingredients together in a unique way that explode with flavor and inspire new cravings. I live in Spain so sometimes ingredients in American cookbooks are difficult to find but I did not have much trouble using the cookbook in this sense. I would plan out my week of salads and for ingredients such as dulse, I ordered from amazon and received it a few days later.The recipes are so good it makes me feel like eating vegan is delicious alternative. I have been eating much less meat after using this book.Here is the individual review each recipe I tried from the book:-Back at the Ranch Dressing- 5 Stars- I crave this dressing. I love ranch dressing and I am not a vegan but I prefer this to regular ranch. I have put it on a simple raw beet salad and it was excellent. The dressing is used in various recipes throughout the book and there are variations offeredto adjust the flavor by adding red curry, chipotle, horseradish, etc.- Chia Chipotle Dressing- 2 Stars- this is not my favorite. I felt like it was too sweet and did not have enough chipotle.-Shallot Mustard Chia Vinaigrette- 5 Stsrs- delicious. My favorite French style mustard dressing yet. Aside from salads, I put this on boiled cubed potatoes and it is amazing.-Lemongrass Tofu- 3 Stars- It was too mild for me and I would use more lemongrass in the future. I have my lemongrass in the freezer as it is usually not sold fresh in Madrid so this may be the reason for the lighter flavor- Red- Hot Saucy Tofu- 5 Stars- so delicious I forget that I am eating tofu which is generally boring- Coconut Bacony Bits- 5 Stars- They do not remind me of bacon but they go well on salads to create a great flavor and texture contrast.- Lentil Pate Banh Mi Salad Rolls- 5 Stars- This was a real surprise, the flavors come together amazingly especially the cornichon pickles. I was skeptical of adding the cornichon and made 2 with and 2 without and I ended up put the cornichons in the 2 without because it was so good. I should not have doubted the authors, she is a genius.- Chopped Chickpea Endive Spears- 3 stars- This was just not filling enough for the work required, the author does explain this is an appetizer so I was forewarned. I also found the preserved lemon to be a bit to bitter with the endive- The Bacon Kale Tomato Bowl- 5 Stars Delicious and satisfying. I will make again although Kale is harder to find here in Spain- East-West Roasted Corn Salad- 4 Stars- Perfect layers of flavors- Green Papaya Salad- 5 Stars- one of the best recipes from the book, it is addicting- Polish Summer Salad- 5 Stars- Another of my favorites. The genius of putting beets, dill and soba noodles together was previously an unknown delight. It sounded odd but now it is one of my staples.- Pesto Cauliflower & Potato Salad- 5 Stars- One of the best Cauliflower and potato combinations I have had- Pepperoni Tempeh Pizza Salad- 5 Stars- This is so crazy because I did get the sensation that I was eating pizza yet it was a salad (Arugula and Spanish)- Salade Nicoise Bento Box- 4 Stars- This one is difficult for me because individually the components were amazing but it was almost as if I was having too many good things at once and I would have liked to eat just the sea chickpeas on their own. These will be returning again and again to my kitchen. Chickpeas and dulse are what a match! The vegetable salad on its own was excellent and would have only needed potatoes with the lovely mustard dressing. Individually each item is 5 stars.-Fiery Fruit & Quinoa Salad- 1 Star- I did not like this dish at all. The cooked fruit in the quinoa with a sweet dressing did not have a flavor not texture appeal.- Herbed Pea Ricotta Tomato a& Basil- 2 Stars- This is a good take on ricotta and tomato but I would not eat tomatos and ricotta alone as an appetizer and so this version did not work for me either. I appreciated the creativity but I think the ricotta might go better on toast of something. Also, it was hard to keep the ricotta on the tomato and was hard to eat as it was intended.- Seitan, Bacon Wedge Salad- 5 Stars. The Seitan is amazing and I love wedge salad. I did not need the pickled green beens and made it without them the second time.- Backyard Buffalo Ranch Caesar Salad- 5 Stars- Another delicious salad with the ranch dressing but with a cabbage and romaine base.- BBQ Tempeh N Dilly Slaw Bowl- 5 Stars- A delicious use of dill. I made it with the tempeh cut in triangles as pictured but I would follow the recipe that cuts it is cubes because that is how you end up eating it.Granola- 5 Stars- This is a good base granola recipe. I also did the optional amarynth and felt that it did not add to the granola and would avoid doing that again..

I like this cookbook a lot, but it hasn't become one of my cookbook bibles. I cook out of it often, but not every week (like I do with Thug Kitchen or Oh She Glows).Highlights:- Recipes sorted by season, so if you're shopping at the farmer's market or with a local CSA box, the recipes are easy to coordinate.- Lots of tofu and tempeh. I know some vegans don't like this, but I find those two to be my easiest way to get protein, so I like creative ways to cook with them.- Many of the salads are like deconstructed other meals turned into salads. For example, there's a BLT salad that is like the sandwich of the same name, but with baked bacon-y tempeh, tomato, and croutons (instead of bread). Can't remember whether avocado is in the recipe, but I add it in too, and this is a fantastic meal.- A bunch of these meal-deconstructed salads are junk/comfort foods - barbecue, buffalo ranch, slaw, etc. These recipes are not as healthy as others in the book, but they're obviously healthier than the original, and they're super yummy.- It's a good mix of fancy/I'm having company salads, perfect lunch meal salads (like the BLT one) and the sort of junk-food salads.- There are a few not-your-average-grocery-store ingredients, but I don't think there's anything anyone who's been vegan for any length of time wouldn't have in their pantry. (We all have 6 kinds of vinegars, Bragg's, nutritional yeast, and liquid smoke, right?) All of these can be easily omitted or subbed, too.There's also a "Sweet and Savory" chapter at the end that is essentially a way to sneak in other things in bowls, like granola and other breakfasts.