A few weeks ago, I told you about a quinoa recipe book: 500 Best Quinoa Recipes.  The same publisher has just come out with two similar cookbooks that are great for cooking with inexpensive proteins: 200 Best Canned Fish & Seafood Recipes, and 250 Best Beans, Lentils, & Tofu Recipes.

I found fewer recipes in these that I could use, for three reasons.  The most obvious reason is that they’re each only about half as big as the quinoa cookbook, so of course there are fewer recipes in them to begin with.  However, they also each include foods we don’t eat (we don’t eat tofu and we eat fish but not “seafood”) and are not gluten-free (as the quinoa cookbook was/is), which narrowed the field for us.  If you do eat tofu and/or seafood and aren’t gluten-free, you’ll have more options here.

200 Best Canned Fish and Seafood Recipes contains far more than you might think.  When I heard the title, I thought canned tuna and salmon – maybe sardines and anchovies.  And all those are here!  But there is also canned crab, oysters, clams, shrimp, etc.  (I didn’t even know some of those things came canned!)  All of these are excellent sources of protein, and their canned versions are both convenient and (relative to their fresh/frozen counterparts) inexpensive.

I kind of wish that these had had chapters by type of seafood, but that’s probably a selfish preference.  It would have made it easier for me to skip the recipes for shellfish that we don’t eat.  Instead, the chapters are by course/type: appetizers and snacks, soups, salads, sandwiches and wraps, fish burgers and cakes etc., curries and casseroles etc., pies and pizzas, pasta, rice and grains, breakfast and lunch.  There’s also a chapter for the “top 15 classics.”

Each recipe includes the ingredients, directions, and yield, of course.  Bullet points at the top of the recipe also tell you what you need, whether it’s an oven preheated to a certain temperature, a certain pan size, or a particular device (food processor, steamer, etc.)  Tips in the sidebar suggest preparation shortcuts and/or alternative methods.  In some cases, they also suggest other types of canned seafood that can be substituted.  Some recipes include variations.

The book begins with a general chapter about canned seafood.  This lists the various types of seafood you’ll find in cans, and offers information such as typical can sizes, whether there are parts inside the can you’ll want to discard, if there are special preparation techniques, etc.  There’s also a brief history of canned seafood.

Although the book is not in color, there are some full-color photograph pages interspersed throughout.  Some of these are pictures of the meals, but I felt that some of these pages were somewhat “wasted,” because they’re pictures of fish or seafood and the fishing industry.  Lovely, but if the number of photos are limited, I would rather have seen the food.

Still, there is a good deal of value in this book, and we’ve found some useful recipes.  (The Salmon and Roasted Garlic Bisque we had last night was fabulous!)

250 Best Beans, Lentils and Tofu Recipes has similar advantages and disadvantages.  We eat all varieties of beans and lentils – we just try to avoid too much soy, so tofu is just about the only thing in this book that we don’t eat at our house, leaving us more options here.  And beans are cheap, so it’s great to have plenty of bean recipes in your repertoire!

Again, the chapters are by course/recipe type, following an introductory section.  This talks about how to cook beans and legumes, and a bit about nutrition.  I don’t fully agree with the nutrition section (as is probably apparent from the fact that we don’t do tofu and they include it), so I would personally skip that and just stick with the recipes.

Although it isn’t a gluten-free cookbook, many of these recipes simply are gluten-free (especially if you figure you can substitute gluten-free pasta in any pasta recipe).  Many of the recipes here are vegan- and/or vegetarian-friendly, and they’re clearly marked as such.  (This could be especially helpful if you’re not vegetarian, but host friends who are.  Now you know what to prepare when they come over!)  The layout is very similar to the seafood cookbook, with tips and substitutions in the sidebar, and what you need bulleted at the top.

All the pictures here are of the food, not of beans growing in the field. 😉

There is a good deal of soy used throughout the book, and hard-to-find ethnic ingredients are not uncommon, so you might want to find the nearest ethnic grocer.  Also, a (very) few of the recipes aren’t actually bean recipes, but recipes to use with the bean recipes.  For instance, recipes for crostini and pita chips are included near the bean dip recipes.

My only “complaint,” as it were, (and that’s really too strong a word) is that they didn’t do as much with this book as they could have.  This is not a book that’s going to convert bean-haters!  Beans are used in brownies and cookies, bean flour can be used to make great sauces – none of these “out of the box” uses are represented here.  (There is no dessert or baked goods section.)  Tofu can even be used in smoothies and mousses!  It’s kind of a shame that beans weren’t represented in all their full glory and readers given a less-limited picture than what most people start out with, of just what beans are “capable” of.

But what isn’t in the book doesn’t take away from the value of what is in the book, and there are a good many recipes here we’re looking forward to trying.

The bottom line is, I think that both of these are great resources to have around.

Disclosure: Robert Rose provided me with copies of these books to facilitate my review.  As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This post has been linked up to Meatless Monday and Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.