‘Mindfulness Cookbook’: Eat with awareness

Quick look: Bring mindfulness to your eating life with this cookbook, which aims to break readers free of destructive eating habits and retrain them to enjoy food without guilt or shame. Based upon Buddhist meditative practices, mindful eating encourages people to eat slowly and with awareness.

What’s inside: This slim, 144-page softcover volume, published in September, offers about 70 recipes divided by meal type: breakfast, lunch, dinner and “mindful treats,” such as Broiled Fruits with Palm Sugar and Chocolate Sorbet.

The book begins with an introduction to mindful eating, walking through a handful of recipes from the perspective of each of the five senses. Guided practices are interspersed throughout the recipes in the rest of the book, which uses terminology reminiscent of yoga. There’s talk of breathing and body scans, “mindful movement” and taking time to notice how you feel.

The book identifies factors that influence eating habits, such as stress and social pressure, and goals, such as beating emotional eating, learning to be in the present and change your relationship with your body. Tips include using smaller plates and smaller glasses, drinking a glass of water before every meal and practicing not cleaning your plate.

In the back, there’s a month-long meal plan, complete with practices upon which to focus and questions to ask yourself, such as “Am I really hungry?” There’s also a one-week eating planner with pictures and page numbers for particular dishes.

Look for Apricot Tea Bread, Granola Squares, Lime and Coconut Squid, Baked Fish with Lemon Grass, Lemon Grass Chicken, Okra and Coconut Stew, and Fig, Bean and Toasted Pecan Salad.

Many recipes comes with awareness points to ponder, such as noticing the crunch or creaminess of a certain ingredient, or “How does the warm smell of muffins change your mood?”

What’s not: Recipes are accompanied by images, but some are quite small, encompassing only a quarter of a page.

Fig, Bean and Toasted Pecan Salad

From “The Mindfulness Cookbook” by Patrizia Collard and Helen Stephenson

For the salad

2/3 cup pecans

7 ounces green beans, trimmed

4 fresh figs, cut into quarters

3 1/2 ounces arugula leaves

Small handful of mint leaves

2 ounces Parmesan or pecorino cheese

For the dressing

3 tablespoons walnut oil

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon vincotto or balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Heat a heavy skillet over medium heat, add the pecans and dry-fry for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until browned. Put onto a small plate and let cool.

Cook the beans in a saucepan of lightly salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain, refresh under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Put the beans in a bowl with the figs, pecans arugula and mint.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the salad and toss well. Shave over the Parmesan or pecorino, and serve.

Yield: 4 servings

Calories: 352 per serving

Awareness Points

Have you grown your own beans or mint? If you can, pick a fresh mint leaf, and rub it between your fingers. What do you notice?

Examine a fig quarter. Do you notice a sinewy texture? What are its three main characteristics?

Why not sample different vinegars and oil? A local farmers market is great place to do this. You could do the same with cheeses. Get to know your favorites.