Review: Meet Your Matcha by Joanna Farrow

Title: Meet Your Matcha
Author: Joanna Farrow
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: September 19th 2017
Source: Nourish


Book Description:

Matcha teas and lattes have become a staple of every coffee shop and health food store. A beloved ingredient in Japan for generations, it is a powdered green tea that is rich in nutrients and antioxidants, and gives a slow-release caffeine boost through the day. Praised by everyone from Ella Woodward to the Hemsleys, one glass of matcha is the equivalent of 10 glasses of green tea in terms of nutritional value and antioxidant content. But there is so much more you can do with this miracle ingredient.

Packed with over 50 recipes for smoothies, soups, main meals and more, Meet Your Matcha will allow you to unlock the potential of this brilliant green ingredient. From a Matcha Sushi Salad and Matcha Chicken and Ginger Dumplings to Breakfast Smoothie Bowls or a Dark Chocolate and Matcha Layer Cake, these delicious dishes will let you make the most of your matcha.

Review:

★★★

Matcha is one of my favorite ingredients, though it is not something that is in my usual repertoire of handy dandy everyday ingredients. But, I was excited to give this cookbook ago because it has so many recipes. Overall, it delivered.

The book is divided into course types, including: smoothies and breakfast, main meals, sides and salads, desserts and cakes, sweet treats, and teas, juices, and cocktails. This makes it pretty easy to navigate.

I was happy that there were so many types of recipes. So many matcha books are either strictly tea, or they only include desserts. I appreciate that this one has main courses and salads and cocktails included in it. I wouldn't think to add matcha to a main dish, but here we are, and I'm definitely wanting to try it.

The steps are easy to follow. They're short, blunt, and to the point. They're also numbered. In my opinion, this makes it a great book for a beginner to get started in cooking with tea. The author gives a lot of suggestions for dairy free and meat free options, so if you have allergies, or are vegan/vegetarian, there's still items in this book that you can enjoy too.

Some of the ingredients could be a little vague, like "soft cheese", with no suggestions. I appreciate the rope you're giving me to explore, but even a personal recommendation tip would have been appreciated. It's also a bit hard to read all the ingredients because it's very busy. Listed it has cups, ounces, and grams all listed in one row. Also, there were times ingredients were listed twice with different verbiage, like caster/granulated sugar or groundnut/peanut. Counting on a conversion chart or a glossary list would have cleaned it up better.

With that out of the way, some of these recipes sound absolutely delicious. Some of the ones I'm most excited to try include Thai Prawn Cakes with Matchilli Sauce, Halloumi and Wild Rice Matcha-Spiked Pilaf, and Blueberry Matcheesecake.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.