Ricki’s Anti-Candida Feast

Ricki’s Anti-Candida Feast: Holiday And Special Occasion Recipes

eBook Reviewed: Anti-Candida Feast: Holiday And Special Occasion Recipes
Ricki Heller, Diet, Dessert ‘n Dogs

I didn’t know much about the anti-Candida diet, but after following the link to the website (Whole Approach) that Ricki Heller explains outlines her own anti-Candida diet (ACD) in the intro to Anti-Candida Feast, I learned that 1) Candida is a yeast allergen that can exacerbate and even cause many health issues such as depression, arthritis, asthma, and more; 2) a three-stage diet plan exists to fight Candida (or Candidiasis); 3) this diet focuses on whole, minimally processed foods; and 4) normally xgfx ingredients such as nutritional yeast, peanut butter, most vinegars, and mushrooms are to be avoided. Fitting with gluten-free, all wheat products are a no-go. There is a lot more to learn about Candidiasis so I urge all of you who are curious to read up on it.

I wouldn’t have immediately spotted all of these restrictions just by (virtually) flipping through Heller’s e-book. What I saw was normal foods that I eat all the time (or at least desire to eat all the time!): pâté, mini cupcakes, cookies, salads, pancakes, tofu scramble. The “weirdo” ingredients that are already well known to most vegans include agar, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, chickpea flour, miso, and stevia. I must say, as a gluten-eating vegan, the recipes looked delicious, with the possible exception of the desserts relying on stevia as a sweetener. Some people don’t mind stevia, and I can tolerate it in chai tea, but I find it far too bitter for desserts.

I’m a huge fan of nut roasts (heh), having tasted some excellent ones at restaurants in the UK and long wondering why they aren’t more popular across the pond. So when I saw Heller’s Holiday Nut Roast with Smoky Almond Gravy, I knew we were about to embark on our first anti-Candida feasting adventure.

I’m not wealthy, and I live in an area where food is quite expensive, so in the future I would definitely save the Nut Roast for, as is suggested, a very special occasion. After a costly trip to my health food store picking up elite ingredients such as organic brazil nuts and cashews, I was intent on a truly astonishing roast.

And it was! It sounded more finicky in the directions than it actually was, since it’s essentially just some cooked veg and a bunch of nuts ground up in the food processor. I had worried that it would be dry due to the long baking time, but it was perfectly moist. The gravy, based on Isa Chandra Moskowitz’ Smoked Almond Gravy from Vegan Brunch, (can I just point out how appreciative I am of authors who actually credit a recipe’s inspiration?), was delicious. I’d made the Vegan Brunch version in the past, and despite using raw then toasted almonds rather than the smoked ones Moskowitz calls for, they tasted really quite similar. Altogether, the result was a moist, savory, protein-packed nut loaf smothered in a thick, tasty gravy. I certainly didn’t feel like I was following any kind of special diet or compromising taste and/or essential ingredients.

Heller has a pleasant conversational writing voice, and her recipes are free of typos and skewed instructions. I hope to try some of the other savory dishes; namely the Carrot Paté, Crimson Salad with Pecans and Pumpkin Seeds, and Millet “Polenta” with Roasted Garlic and Caramelized Onion. I might even take another stab at conquering my stevia trepidation in order to try the Chocolate Pots de Crème.

Pros:

• Nice layout, tempting recipes, solutions for special occasion foods.
• Simple, whole food ingredients. Everything relatively easy to find.
• Full color photos, eco-friendly e-book format.
• Avoidant of most allergens, with the exception of nuts (though they aren’t used heavily).
• Essential information about cooking for the Anti-Candida diet, xgfx-style.

Cons:

• Heavy on the desserts. Not a ton of savory and main-dish recipes.
• Most of the sweet recipes rely on stevia.
• Could use more scintillating photos, but hey, it’s a self-published e-book, stop being so picky!