Light Basics Cookbook: The Only Cookbook You'll Ever Need If You Want to Cook Healthy

Shulman (Mediterranean Light; Proven al Light) expands her light-and-healthy motif with this fundamental cookbook. Much of the organization here is terrific, like the inclusion of a chapter of Warm-Up Exercises: five easy recipes for dishes like Pasta with Simple Tomato Sauce and Tossed Green Salad with Classic Vinaigrette are recorded in such detail that there are paragraphs dedicated to pressing garlic and peeling tomatoes. Introductory sections on everything from shopping to equipment are also first-rate. Some chapters are more muddled, however, including one on Grains, Beans, Vegetables and Tofu, in which Tomato and Bean Gratin, Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu and Asparagus with Rice, and Corn on the Cob are lumped together. The recipes themselves are uniformly well written and express modern American tastes with lots of poultry (Pan-Cooked Chicken Breasts with Ginger and Soy, Turkey Chili) and fish (Grilled Marinated Swordfish, Fish Fillets with Tomato Caper and Mint Sauce), as well as sections dedicated to pizza and Mexican dishes. (Jan.)