Wholesome Harvest: Cooking with the New Four Food Groups: Grains, Beans, Fruits, and Vegetables

With a title that cleverly avoids any hint of the vegetarian persuasion, this informative guide to four food groups by dietician Gelles ( The Complete Whole Grain Cookbook ) should appeal to health-minded cooks everywhere. In truth more of a cookbook than a diet or health book, it features quite a bit of good information about nutrition, diet and health, as well as cooking techniques for what appears to be the '90s answer to meat, fish and fowl: the sometimes quirky and yet always nutritionally solid bean. While the writing is straightforward and rather dull, the recipes are stimulating. Some of the best include entrees-- a vegetable sukiyaki, cannellini with fennel and sauteed arugala, couscous with three peppers and Senegal stew with millet. A section on breads and spreads includes tips about inventive, low-fat cottage cheese-based toppings. While the volume's breakfast recipes and menu suggestions are handy, conspicuously missing are recipes for fruit-based desserts. All told, the book's hardy soups and entrees will make it a valuable addition to the expanding shelf for healthful food cookery. (Aug.)