SPICES OF LIFE: SIMPLE AND DELICIOUS RECIPES FOR GREAT HEALTH
(Alfred A. Knopf, 2005)

For the first time, a ground-breaking cookbook that integrates 160 luscious dishes with easy lifestyle tips, providing further evidence that so many foods not only provide pleasure but can make a real difference in the quality of our lives.

In a marked departure from her previous books, Spices of Life contains an eclectic assortment of recipes that reflects Simonds rich background as a seasoned cook of cuisines other than Asian. She also shares some personal family favorites.

With an emphasis on the health-giving properties of herbs and spices, this book gives the latest scientific research as well as references to their tonic properties according to Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, the traditional Indian philosophy of medicine. Simonds draws on these proven beliefs to give us dishes that are both irresistible and healthful. Spices of Life demonstrates that you can have it all have it all- the pleasures of the table as well as excellent long-lasting health.

Click here for important corrections for the first printing of Spices of Life.



Other Books by Nina Simonds:


A Spoonful of Ginger
(Alfred A. Knopf, 1999)

From Nina Simonds, the best-selling authority on Asian cooking, comes a ground-breaking cookbook based on the Asian philosophy of food as health-giving. The 200 delectable recipes she offers you not only taste superb but also have specific healing properties according to the accumulated wisdom of Traditional Chinese medicine.

Feeling tired? Nina offers a spoonful of ginger in her hearty chicken soup. A cold coming on? Try Cantonese-Style Tofu (to sweat out the cold) in Black Bean Sauce (healing to the lungs and digestion). Your immune system needs building up? Wild mushrooms (a cancer deterrent) are tossed with soba noodles (a stress reliever). Concerned about cholesterol and clogged arteries? Instead of giving up all the foods you love, indulge in Yin-Yang Shrimp with Hawthorn Dipping Sauce.

Whatever your health concerns may be, you will find the right restorative and satisfying recipes. The wealth of information Nina offers derives from her extensive research into the evidence amassed over three thousand years by practitioners of Chinese medicine, and from her interviews with leading experts today in food as medicine, who offer their firsthand testimony. It is all here in this remarkable book. But above all, it is the extraordinary range of dishes that will convince you that you can enjoy delicious food every day- relishing its good taste and knowing it is good for you.

A Spoonful of Ginger won both the IACP Julia Child Book Award and the James Beard Foundation Book Award for health in 1999.



Moonbeams, Dumplings and Dragon Boats - A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities and Recipes
(Harcourt Books, 2002)

In this glorious collection, best-selling cookbook author Nina Simonds joins Leslie Swartz and The Children's Museum, Boston to offer festival lore, traditional stories, delectable recipes, and engaging activities that will inspire you to enjoy a full year of Chinese holidays. Try such treats as golden New Year's dumplings or tasty mooncakes. Build a kite at Qing Ming or a miniature dragon boat for the Dragon Boat Festival. Share the stories of the greedy Kitchen God or the valiant Imperial emperor warrior Hou Yi.








ASIAN NOODLES
(Hearst Books, 1997)

For great food that is fast, cheap, and healthy, nothing fills the bill like noodles. Nina Simonds, one of America's most popular authorities on Asian cuisine, shows that the most satisfying and delicious noodle dishes are fun and fabulous to make at home. Tired of spaghetti and ravioli? Try soba, somen, ramen, or rice noodles instead. The 75 recipes for fragrant noodle soups, salads, starters, sides and complete suppers will thrill noodle nuts and novices alike. Cool and refreshing Cold Soba Noodles, soul-warming Ginger Sesame Chicken Noodles, and light and airy Lemon Broccoli Noodles are just a few of Nina's intensely flavorful dishes that are good enough to eat every night. Asian Noodles has a trove of useful and well-organized charts and tips on using the recipes, types of noodles, and how to prepare, use, or substitute the noodles--all designed to make any noodle novice an expert in no time







ASIAN WRAPS
(William Morrow/HarperCollins, 1999)

Asian Wraps will surely add to the way you enjoy food, tempting you with a wide assortment of highly flavored, Asian-accented dishes eaten without benefit of fork, knife, or chopsticks. Nina Simonds, known for her impeccable versions of classic Asian dishes, cuts loose in this book, offering, for example, a creative seafood and rice salad tucked into lettuce leaves and a clever adaptation of Chinese Lion's Head. This dish is usually meatballs with a mane of cabbage, served floating in a soupy casserole; Simonds transforms it into stuffed cabbage rolls served with the rich broth in which they cook. For bite-size appetizers, there are skewers of grilled pork sâté, unexpectedly enveloped in radicchio leaves, a more classic Flaky Curry Turnover filled with ground meat and green peas, and colorful smoked salmon spirals filled with sushi rice, capers, and red onion. Going still further afield, Simonds fuses Asian and Caribbean flavors In her Chinese Jerk Chicken in a flour tortilla, including ginger, scallion, and rice vinegar in the jerk paste. Her Hawaii-style grilled swordfish kebabs served with pineapple salsa almost dare you to skip the wrapper and enjoy the lightly soy-sauce-marinated fish simply with its piquant accompaniment. As in her previous book, Asian Noodles, Simonds details all you need to know about special ingredients, covering 17 kinds of wrappers, from wonton skins and rice paper to lotus leaves and Indian flatbread. To make dishes accessible to everyone, particularly when there is not an Asian food store nearby, Simonds offers more readily available tortillas, pita bread,and lavash as substitutions. Asian Wraps resembles other recent books by Simonds, including A Spoonful of Ginger, in its generous use of beautifully styled color photos of prepared dishes and key ingredients.







CLASSIC CHINESE CUISINE (Chapters/Houghton Mifflin, 1994)

The book that taught a generation of North Americans how to cook Chinese food is back, completely revised, more authoritative and comprehensive than ever. Nina Simonds shows anyone how to turn out Chinese meals - from the everyday to the exotic - that will earn raves. She has an unerring eye for the most approachable and delicious dishes in the Chinese repertoire: more than 225 recipes, with step-by-step illustrations. Nina has been widely praised for her ability to make Chinese cooking accessible to American cooks.

Quotes for "A Spoonful of Ginger":

"The concept of medicinal foods, so prominent in Chinese medicine and the inspiration for the developing market for functional foods in the West, is here presented in all its richness by a master cook. Nina's recipes are recipes for health as well as for sensory delight. This book will be a classic" -Dr. Andrew Weil, best-selling author of Eight Weeks to Optimum Health


"There is a purity about the recipes, many of which are designed to highlight just one or two ingredients. Flavors are intense and clear." -Amanda Hesser, The New York Times