Clean Slate: A Review

I recently received a copy of Clean Slate: A Cookbook and Guide from the editors of Martha Stewart Living.

From the cover:

More than just a cookbook, Clean Slate, from the editors of Martha Stewart Living, provides you with the nutritionally sound information you need to shop for and prepare food that nourishes body and mind.  You'll find guidelines for restocking your pantry with whole grains, beans and legumes, lean proteins, and healthy fats; glossaries of the best sources of detoxifiers, anti-oxidants, and other health-boosting nutrients; and menus for a simple 3-day cleanse and a 21-day whole body detox, with easy-to-follow tips and strategies for staying on track.

The book begins with tips for eating clean, nutrition information, and a couple of detox eating plans.  The next section contains almost 200 recipes including breakfast, drinks, soups & stews, salads, main dishes, snacks, and desserts.  This is a beautifully laid out book with a nice heavy cover and gorgeous color pictures of each recipe.

The nutrition information is good, solid information, but is really nothing new.  It's organized well, and would be a great, concise resource for someone just starting out eating clean.  I especially liked the "Know your Nutrients" section, which highlights nutritional powerhouses that are the best antioxidants, detoxifiers, inflammation fighters, and digestive aids. 

I love that a photo accompanies each recipe--after all, I read cook books for the pictures :)  The recipes represent a good variety of healthy options, and recipes that are vegan, dairy-free, nut-free, and/or gluten-free are labeled as such.  In addition, a recipe index lists each recipe with color-coded dots so that the reader can easily identify recipes which satisfy his or her nutritional requirements without leafing through the entire book.

A couple of nit-picky issues: 

1.  The cover of the book has flaps that can be used to mark a page.  I love that!  But the flaps are not quite long enough, so the pages are slightly bent when the flaps are being used.

2.  As I was leafing through the book, I noticed that a recipe for Sardine salad with lemon and herbs is labeled vegan, both on the recipe page and in the index.  It's not a huge issue, since I doubt anyone who actually eats vegan would believe that a recipe that calls for sardines is vegan, but that mistake makes me suspect that there are more similar types of mistakes.

Bottom line: This is a gorgeous book that, despite a mistake or two, would make a good clean-eating resource.

I received this book for free from the publisher through Blogging for Books for the purposes of this review.  All opinions are my own.