The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook: Recipes Inspired by the Extraordinary Produce of California's Most Iconic Market

Celebrating the unfamiliar yet extraordinary produce from California's most iconic market, Berkeley Bowl, this cookbook offers recipes for a panoply of fruits and vegetables that have been largely overlooked or forgotten in popular cuisine.

Registered dietitian Laura McLively, an avid home cook and creator of the popular blog MyBerkeleyBowl, created a recipe for every unfamiliar or "exotic" fruit and vegetable she found at Berkeley Bowl. Here is a collection of her favorite discoveries, and a tribute to the remarkable, 40-year-old family-run market that inspired them.

Shining a spotlight on the versatile and unique qualities of the astonishingly beautiful, plant-based bounty that's available to vegetarians and meat eaters alike, these recipes and photographs will help you embrace hundreds of exciting fruits and vegetables you may never have tasted or thought of cooking, including crunchy sea bean spindles, tubers bigger than a toddler, wiry haired rambutans, and wrinkly skinned Indian bitter melon. Eating more types and colors of plants exposes us to a wider variety of nutrients, antioxidants, and beneficial bacteria.

Berkeley Bowl is a mecca for great chefs, and with the recipes in this cookbook, you'll see why. Even if you don't live near Berkeley Bowl, getting your hands on these ingredients can be a fun and rewarding experience in its own right, and cooking with them will make your meals explode with flavors, textures, and new culinary adventures for all your senses.

Partial list of recipes:
     Green Garlic Soup with Lemon Cardamom Yogurt
     Sweet & Sour Tofu with Gooseberry
     Charred Nopal and Black-eyed Pea Chili
     Corn and Chive Stuffed Squash Blossoms
     Pepino Melon Poke
     Stuffed Indian Eggplant
     Morel Pot Pie
     Starfruit Almond Torte

Laura McLively is an Oakland, California based dietitian and food writer. She is the author of The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook (© Parallax Press 2018), which showcase original recipes using unusual fruits and vegetables from California's most iconic market, Berkeley Bowl. She is a food writer and correspondent for The Bay Area News Group, including the San Jose Mercury and the East Bay Times. Laura also runs a private dietetics practice. She is passionate about sharing her love of colorful, plant-based eating with her readers, clients, and patients. Laura is available for individually-tailored recipe development, public speaking, writing, and one-on-one consultations.

Erin Scott is a food, beverage, and lifestyle photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s inspired by honest food, real people, and the magic of light. Erin comes to food photography as a passionate eater, gardener, and cook - she has photographed over 50 books and authored her own cookbook as well.