A Grain, a Green, a Bean: One Simple Formula, Countless Meatless Meals [A Plant-Based Cookbook]

By now you’ve probably scrolled through lots of reviews for this, so I’ll cut to the chase, but do want to emphasize that Gena Hamshaw is a registered dietitian nutritionist so you can be sure her recipes are balanced and healthy.I have three of her cookbooks and guess what? I’m not vegan or even vegetarian. But we try to eat healthy, nourishing meals. Which brings me to this cookbook.I’ve had this book for a month or so and waited until I’d cooked several recipes to post a review. Some are really, really good, some are good, some require a lot of time and/or create many dirty dishes (I have to be in the mood to tackle those.).The picture here is of Roasted Vegetable Couscous with Sweet Potato & White Bean Fritters. Yes, it’s a lot of prep but is delicious and company-worthy. A keeper for days when you have time.We loved the Sicilian-Style Roasted Cauliflower, Lentils & Arugula. We had it for a casual dinner, though because it’s served in pita bread, it would be a great lunch, too.Speaking of lunch, I LOVED the Black Beans, Pickled Red Onion, Cucumber & Avocado sandwiches—I’ve made this twice and plan to do so again this week. Perfect make-ahead lunch and very filling.Another winner: Orecchiette with Crumbled Tempeh & Broccoli Rabe. The bitterness of the rabe with sausage-tasting tempeh and a cheesy topping was delicious! (Full disclosure: I subbed Parmesan for the cheesy topping only because I had it on hand and didn’t have cashews to make the topping.)Savory Corn Waffles with Kidney Beans & Kale: good but not superb. That said, I hadn’t used my waffle maker in years and it never quite got the corn waffles nice & crispy, so I want to try this again.Cabbage Bulgur Lentil Bake w/ Red Pepper Sauce. This was good but a few things could have been better. The first was totally my fault—the cabbage wasn’t soft enough even though I cooked it a lot longer than she recommends. Also I wasn’t thrilled with the red pepper sauce. However, I’m willing to try again and maybe tweak the sauce a bit.Overall, if you really like to cook and are vegan or part-time vegan, I highly recommend this book. If you’re not an enthusiastic cook (prefer quick recipes, with few or with store-bought ingredients), this probably isn’t for you.

I’ve only cooked one dish so far — an orzo with roasted carrots, chickpeas, snap peas, and dill — but it was a hit: bright, comforting, and easy to adapt with the pasta I had on hand. The book’s “a grain, a green, a bean” formula gives structure and an assortment of recipes.One of the biggest standouts for me is the number of recipes that include tempeh. It’s a protein I’ve wanted to use more, and this book is finally helping me build a reliable repertoire. The cheesy tofu also looks like a great staple I’m excited to try.My only real frustration is with the index — cauliflower is mentioned in at least two recipes I came across while browsing, but when I tried to search for them later, cauliflower wasn’t listed in the index at all. It’s a small thing, but it made me second-guess how dependable the index is overall.Still, that doesn’t take away from the quality of the recipes or the inviting tone of the book. I’m looking forward to cooking through more of it — I have so many pages bookmarked! Ten Speed Press provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

I own a huge number of plant based cookbooks and this newest edition has quickly become my favorite and go to for dinner meals. SO many delicious looking recipes with so much variety of Grains, Greens, & Beans. I love this formula and had gravitated toward it in more recent months. I love that a book has recipes for all the greens that I see at the store and don't really know how to use in a recipe.I have had the book 2 weeks and made 3 recipes so far. 1. Saucy Stovetop Tortillas with Pinto beans and Spinach. I love how fast this one came together, but discovered I'm not much for convenience sauces. I was able to salvage my dish with LOTS of fresh toppings. Next time will make my own quick sauce or cut the sauce with plain tomato sauce. 2. Marinara white bean and kale English muffins. I made my own quick marinara and added an onion to the sautéed kale. These turned out great. 3. Pasta with crumbled tempeh and broccoli rabe. Oh, this has so much flavor due to broccoli rabes bitterness and cheesy topping. I really liked this one.Making my grocery list for next week's choices. Looking at Baked millet with sheet pan peppers, onions, kidney beans, & collard greens. The stuffed peppers looking amazing, so many, it's hard to decide. 😋Update: I made the sheet pan peppers, onions, kidney beans, and Collard Greens. I served it on a quick Polenta instead of millet. This has been my favorite recipe so far. I have fresh Collards ready in my garden and planning to make this again tonight. I'll probably top it with some hemp/pumpkin seeds to add a little more protein. But it's a quick and delicious meal. I feel like many of the recipes can easily be customized to your preferences.

I own all of Gena's books except for her first one, so when I saw she had a new one coming out I was a bit on the fence about if she would have anything new to offer and if I wanted to order it. After receiving it this week and making multiple recipes thus far (with a ton more bookmarked), I am so grateful I did.This book will truly get you excited to cook with a variety of whole grains, as well as beans and greens/vegetables. You may need to special order a handful of the ingredients, but for the most part they can be found at a normal grocery store and/ or you can substitute something that is (eg I didn't have farro and used pearl barley instead; ditto for sweet peas in lieu of cukes). She also offers substitutions at the front of the book in the event you don't have the exact items called for in the recipe. I love that she includes what can be meal prepped and even frozen in advance. There are volume and metric measurements. Some of the recipes look time-consuming but actually come together rather quickly. Keep in mind, too, that these are complete meals so the ingredient lists do look longer than if she were offering just single recipes. I find the recommended portion sizes are adequate without being ridiculously small or large. There is a small to moderate amount of olive oil and avocado oil used with the rare use of vegan butter and no store-bought meat or cheese analogs. There are quite a few gluten containing recipes that could easily be made gluten-free if desired.

This book offers a straightforward and accessible approach to plant-based eating. Every recipe simply includes a grain, a green, a bean in different combinations. This is a very whole-foods focused version of plant-based eating, and it really is as simple as beans, grains, veggies. If that is the kind of eating that appeals to you and your palate, then this is an excellent book. Gena Hamshaw has been writing vegan recipes for years and she is trained in nutrition. Those details really come through in the book.One of my favorite features of the book is Hamshaw’s attention to make-ahead/meal prep instructions, as well as her consideration of solo eaters. She notes that she only cooks for herself, so she is mindful of preserving food without unnecessary waste for smaller households.The eighty different meals in the book are divided into a few chapters: Bowls & Salads, Beans & Greens on Bread, Stovetop Meals, and Oven to Table Recipes.I tried several recipes from the book. The simple bean and lentil combination in Basmati Rice, Tomato Coconut Lentils, and Collard Greens was very flavorful and satisfying.Cold Kimchi Noddles, Eggy Tofu, and Cucumber came together quickly and was a great combination.Pita Chips and Crispy Chickpeas with Broccolini and Green Tahini Sauce had many components, but they came together easily for a nice—if not very filling—meal.Black Beans and Green Onion Tortillas were a great plant-based stand-in for quesadillas, even without any cheese imitation products.The Broken Vermicelli and Lentil Chickpea Stew with Herbs was fine on its own, but much better with Hamshaw’s corn muffins crumbled in, and made a good big batch to freeze.The Savory Corn Waffles with Kidney Beans and Kale were a very creative bean/green/grain combo and the favorite of the recipes I tried.There is a short dessert chapter in the book. The Chocolate Snack Cake was an excellent, easy, budget cake to throw together. The Chocolate Chunk Cookies were okay.One small frustration I had was that the recipe for sour cream was too small to effectively blend in my blender. I had to double it to get it to work, but the recipe did not acknowledge that this might be an issue.Overall, the book has some great flavors, though some of the meals might need a little more bulking up for larger appetites. They also might be a bit challenging for picky eaters, though the nature of the recipes often lends itself to being able to separate out components. That being said, if you do not enjoy beans, then this is not the book for you.The author does her best to avoid any kind of vegan specialty product, though it’s worth noting that she includes various soy products in the bean category, such as tofu, tempeh, TVP, soy curls, and Yuba. Hamshaw also uses some speciality grains that might be harder to find for some people.On the continuum of vegan food recipes, this definitely tacks to the health food end of things, and occasionally felt a bit austere to me. Every time I ate the food, however, I was surprised at how satisfying it was, even without a lot of bells and whistles.Ten Speed Press provided me with a free copy of this book. I actually did all this cooking from it, though, and the opinions are my own.

Nice recipes! Delicious ingredients

This cookbook is a dream! I have recently worked with a nutritionist and a nurse practitioner who are both helping people eat a whole foods, plant-based diet. The concept of this book - a vegetable, a whole grain, and a protein and fiber reach bean/legume - is the key to WFPB eating. These wholesome, delicious meals are easy to pull off because they're built around foods that I can easily buy from local farmers and grocers. I get easily burned out by trying to decide what to cook every day, but this cookbook is helping us accomplish our goal by giving us lots of great ideas. A Grain, A Green, A Bean should be a staple cookbook in the kitchen of anyone who wants to incorporate more healthy plant-based meals into their routine, or anyone who just loves a delicious family meal!

I REALLY enjoy this book. It arrived quickly. The color pictures present the recipes nicely. The recipes are divided into sections which is nice. The recipes seem easy enough to follow and almost all of them are made from ingredients I already have in my kitchen cupboards. It's a great way to get inspired to make a healthy and tasty meal.

Just what I was looking for to get an idea of how to come up with my own bowls for camping.

I am working my way through the recipes. No complaints. The marinated tofu sandwich p 97 is SO delish.I really need the calories per recipe, please

Great book if you have a lot of time, money, energy and various food stores to shop. If you want simple with limited ingredients it is not for you.

As a business owner and toddler mom, I love the approachability of these vegetarian recipes. They're easy to see through on a weeknight, delicious, and the whole family can eat them. These nourishing and yummy recipes are so great - highly recommend the book!Ten Speed Press provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

I’ve been a long time fan of Gena’s blog and I own her other books. This one really failed to hit the mark. I’m a longtime vegan ( over 15 years) and I could have come up with these recipes myself ! There’s nothing really creative or inventive in these recipes and most rely on the separate sauce that you need to make. I was pretty disappointed in this book and I’m glad I borrowed it from the library before purchasing. Sorry, Gena. Better luck next time!

I have the author’s previous book, ‘A Vegan Week’, and was expecting to enjoy this book much like that one. The approach here is as the title suggests, combining greens, beans and grains in a formula that I think could work for most people and diets. The recipe categories include bowls & salads, beans & greens on bread, stovetop meals, oven to table recipes, basics (think sauces, pickles, etc.), and sweets (5 sweet things). The first recipe I made was Barbecue Tempeh and Slaw, which I was pleasantly surprised to own all the ingredients in my pantry other than the tempeh and the bread, it was very satisfying for ease and flavor. The Sheet-pan Shawarma-Spiced Soy Curls and Freekeh recipe includes cooking the grain in the oven, on the same sheet pan which was something that succeeded despite my skepticism. Each recipe category has a color coding, which makes flipping through to find something a little faster. I also appreciated the formatting at the top of each recipe with the serving count, and list for grain, green and bean type. I could imagine gifting this to someone new to plant-based or vegan cooking, or someone who is looking for some new inspiration with this type of consistent approach. If you have flexibility for the ‘green’ or fresh vegetable being used, this is also a very pantry staple (non-perishable) friendly way to cook. Ten Speed Press provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

Very good book

This book surprised me in the most wonderful way. As someone who is not a vegan I don’t gravitate towards that diet and usually find the vegan substitutions just meh. But A Grain, A Green, A Bean feels different. The recipes aren’t trying to be a common dish with a vegan substitute. They are each unique recipes that stand on their own. I loved the wild rice, adzuki beans, kabocha, and kale we made last night for dinner. I’m still thinking about the turmeric rice and broccolini we had for lunch a couple days ago. And the olive oil cake still in the refrigerator is calling my name. I’m hoping to make the lasagna rolls later this week.Ten Speed Press provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

I am so impressed with A Grain, A Green, A Bean. The recipes are all approachable, easy to follow and very tasty. I am not a vegan but I do want to increase more plant based meals. This book provides an approach to vegan eating that is very adaptable. I found that the 4 recipes I prepared to be very well received by my spouse. In fact, he asked if I would make some of the dishes once a week. I made Farro, Lentils and Kale with Avocado and Green beans from the Bowls and Salads chapter – fantastic! We also enjoyed the Orzo, Chickpeas, and Roasted Carrots with Sugar Snap Peas and Dill along with the Freekeh, Herbed Chickpea Cakes and Arugula. We are fortunate to have a backyard garden and a meyer lemon tree which provided the ingredients needed for the Couscous, Chickpeas, and Zucchini with Preserved Lemon and Olives – very yummy, perfect for summer! For snacking we found both the Chickpea Hummus and Red Pepper Hummus to be delightful.A Grain, A Green, A Bean uses alternatives to dairy products Cashew Cream, There are plenty of recipes with protein alternatives such as tempeh, tofu and seitan. The author does a nice job of explaining the various ingredients in the introductory chapter. I found all of the vegan products easily at a local health food store (Sprouts) and I have since spotted most everything at the “regular” grocery store too.While I made dishes from the Bowls and Salads chapter, there are a wide variety of recipes in the Oven to Table chapter and Stovetop Meals which look very appealing I look forward to making: Basmati Rice, Chickpeas and Masala Green Beans with Eggplant; Radiatori, Cannellini Beans, and Zucchini with burst Sungold Tomatoes; Baked Polenta, White Beans, Roasted Mushrooms, and Broccoli Rabe; the Broccoli Steaks with White Bean Purée and Turmeric Harissa Couscous (sounds particularly delicious); and the Baked Risotto with Mushrooms and EdamameBased on the recipes I have tried which were easy to prepare and delicious, I would highly recommend this book. Ten Speed Press Provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.

This book is very good. It's becoming one of the go-to books for quick dinner ideas. In our case, not all of the recipes will be used "as is" in our household. However, this is just a matter of personal preference/taste, of course. Highly recommend this cookbook!

Gena Hamshaw's *A Grain, a Green, a Bean* is a thoughtful and versatile cookbook that simplifies plant-based cooking with a clever formula: combine a grain, a green, and a bean to create satisfying meals. The book offers over 80 recipes, including dishes like gochujang pasta with kale and edamame, and French onion brothy beans with garlic toast, catering to both novice and experienced cooks. Hamshaw's approach emphasizes time-saving techniques, such as sheet-pan and one-pot meals, making it practical for busy lifestyles. While some recipes may require unique ingredients or advance preparation, the cookbook provides ample guidance to help readers navigate these aspects and expand their culinary repertoire.Ten Speed Press provided me with a free copy of this book; the opinions are my own.