Book review: The Easy 5-Ingredient Pescatarian Cookbook

De Santis and Anderson have unpacked a pescatarian menu in their latest book focusing on 5-ingredient simple recipes for delicious heart-healthy meals. And they did it supremely well. Check out these deliciously simple sample recipes.


Are you familiar with the pescatarian diet? Let me help you out a bit. A devoted pescatarian is one who doesn’t include meat in their diet. Just “pesce”—from the Italian for fish or seafood. Some pescatarians include dairy and some don’t. It’s a perfect compromise in many respects.
The pescatarian “diet” is a solid eating program that doesn’t involve denying yourself the things you enjoy. Your pantry can include all the oils and spices and grains and vegetables you need to make a delicious meal. You just need to say no to meat (and dairy, if you choose).
But what if I were to say “5-ingredient pescatarian dishes”? Would you question the possibilities?
De Santis and Anderson have unpacked the pescatarian menu in their latest book focusing on just that—5-ingredient simple recipes for delicious heart-healthy meals. And they did it supremely well. Their 5-Ingredient Pescatarian Cookbook is swimming with recipes that provide a delicious compilation of breakfast, entrées, desserts, and snacks with minimal ingredients. While there are several recipes that sneak in a few more than five items, they’re still easy and simple—and brimming with flavour.
The bonus is an introductory section that provides detailed information, including a solid overview of what an everyday pescatarian diet looks like. It also details nutrition, cooking ease, pantry essentials, and cooking tools, as well as information about the Dirty Dozen™ and Clean Fifteen™ from the Environmental Working Group’s 2019 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™, to name but a few.
We’ve included 2 recipes from the book that will most definitely “hook you.”

Recipes

Crab and Shrimp-Stuffed Avocados

Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake

Excerpted from The Easy 5-Ingredient Pescatarian Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Delicious, Heart-Healthy Meals, by Andy DeSantis RD MPH and Michelle Anderson, published by Rockridge Press. Copyright © 2019 by Callisto Media. All rights reserved.

A version of this article was published in the January 2020 issue of alive Canada with the title “The Easy 5-Ingredient Pescatarian Cookbook.”