Eating My Words: The Athlete’s Cookbook

It’s never fun to give a bad review of a product. When I reviewed The Vegan Athlete last year, I perhaps unleashed my most critical review to date. I believe the words “let down” and “rather useless” made an appearance, and I ended the post saying that I wouldn’t suggest buying The Vegan Athlete.
You want an honest review? I’m your huckleberry. But after giving Brett Stewart’s book such a bad review, I was certain I’d never hear from him again unless it was in the form of a flaming bag of dog poop on my front porch.
So you can imagine my surprise when a copy of his new book, The Athlete’s Cookbook, showed up on my porch one day — free of flame and doo-doo. Classy, Brett. I tip my hat to you.
It was a big risk for him to send a copy of his latest release to a critical curmudgeon like me, but I’m glad he did. As it turns out, he did exactly what I suggested in my review of The Vegan Athlete:

The appendix, which contains 24 pages of vegan recipes, was the only section that seemed to understand the purpose of the book. Each recipe of this special section, written by endurance athlete and chef Corey Irwin, was prefaced with an explanation of why certain ingredients worked for the vegan athlete. Information on meal timing was wonderful (for example, Irwin suggests eating the Apricot Papaya Pudding Parfait as a post-exercise snack because it has ‘plenty of antioxidants and electrolytes, a significant amount of carbs to replenish depleted glycogen stores, and protein to help repair muscle caused by exertion during exercise.’).
Irwin’s fantastic insights on ingredients and timing comes as an afterthought when it really should be featured within the book.

That’s what I have in The Athlete’s Cookbook — 160 pages of delicious recipes from master chef Corey Irwin and notes on how certain ingredients benefit athletic performance and recovery. Whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, Paleo, or just plain everythingtarian, you’ll find something to fit your tastes. Let me tell you, friends — I’m obsessed with this one. I really thought I’d hate this book, but as soon as I started thumbing through the pages, I realized I had something special.
For starters, the ingredients are simple and flavorful. In contrast to Brendan Brazier’s Thrive cookbooks, which are great but sometimes use hard-to-find ingredients, I could purchase all of my Athlete’s Cookbook ingredients at my neighborhood grocery store. Heck, I found most of the ingredients in my CSA basket, as was the case for the Baked Egg in Avocado with Pico de Gallo (p. 44):

Or the vegan Kale-Potato-Leek Soup (p.50), which, thanks to fresh herbs, had an amazingly light and fresh flavor — perfect for springtime!

I also appreciate the athlete’s notes given with each recipe. For example, one recipe notes that cucumbers are rich in silica, which promotes joint health. They also contain antioxidants that help fight inflammation. Another one discusses the benefits of quinoa as a plant-based protein. That quinoa-tastic information came with my new favorite breakfast recipe: Hot Quinoa Cereal with Toasted Nuts and Fresh Mango (p. 43), which I can batch cook for a week’s worth of morning eats:

Though I made only vegetarian and vegan recipes from this book, the flavors impressed my omnivore friends and family. I’ve cooked about 15 recipes from this book so far, and all of have been fantastic. The biggest hit to date? The Beet, Orange, and Fennel Salad (p. 54):

This time, I’m ending my review on a positive note: Buy this cookbook. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by a cookbook you thought you’d hate? Tell me about it! —Susan