Mandy’s Gourmet Salads is a recipe book that contains more than just recipes for amazing salads. This stunning cookbook has so many favourites from the authors’ famous Montréal cafés, Mandy’s, and a little backstory on how they came to be. It is a must-have book for anyone who enjoys a hearty salad and fans of their legendary cafés.

One thing that I am missing right now is a trip to Mandy’s in Montréal. There is something to be said for a healthy fast food option, and although making a gourmet salad takes quite a bit of effort sometimes, this book has come at perfect time. The ingredients are easy to source and the instructions are super simple.

The contents are as follows:

Smoothies
Salads
Dressings
Grain Bowls
Sweets

❀ WHIMSICAL AND STRAIGHTFORWARD

I have bookmarked almost everything in this cookbook and have a hardcover copy already on order. The images are very whimsical, which is reflective of the Mandy’s aesthetic, full of colour and fun. Also, the layout is very clear and straightforward, which makes deciding on a recipe to make a little bit easier. I made the Mexi Salad, which has a perfect combo of veggies and crunchy tortillas.

❀ PERFECT RECIPE BOOK FOR A COLLECTION

If you are craving a Mandy’s salad or enjoy creating your own gourmet salad bowls, Mandy’s Gourmet Salads is a recipe book to add to your collection. The salads are original takes on many classics and is perfect for anyone looking to improve their salad game. Admittedly, the chocolate chip cookie recipe is next on my to-make list.

I didn't think a salad cookbook was really necessary, but this was fun and I found some recipes that were definitely worth trying.

Sisters Mandy Wolfe and Rebecca Wolfe operate “Mandy’s Gourmet Salads” restaurants in Montreal, Canada. (I hadn’t heard of this eight location chain before!) Take a peek at their Instagram for a look at some of their creations.

I’m surprised to see a Smoothies chapter and one for Sweets. I’m not much of a smoothie person – sometimes I feel like it’s cheating and I should just chew up the fruits myself. But I’ll take a look at this chapter and see if I can find a benefit to that much work and cleanup in the mornings!

Right away the book starts explaining Mandy’s theory of making great salads – avoiding sogginess, too much acid and bitterness; incorporating the right textures, including creaminess and crunchiness; and making sure the salad dressing includes tangyness and some kind of fat or oil. Their salads are globally inspired and informed by the current season. In winter, there are less fresh fruits and veggies available, so they lean more towards grain bowls (aha, that explains why Chapter 4 covers grain bowls!)

Each recipe in the book is meant for one person to enjoy, but the authors promise that it will be easy to scale up the recipe to feed more than one person. Their salad dressing recipes make either one or two cups of dressing, can be refrigerated for just a few days, and are meant to dress up to seven salads.

I love Mediterranean food and the Habibi Salad looks delicious, except would I really go to all the trouble to roast a sweet potato and then only use 1/4th of it? Same with the marinated tempeh in the next recipe? I think I’d get a lot more use out of this cookbook if the portions were doubled or quadrupled to make it worth the effort to make each.

Overall, I am impressed with the food photography, the cheerful writing, the lovely pics of the sisters and their restaurants that are interspersed. The recipes seem easy to follow, other than needing to double most of the salad ingredients to make them feed more than one person. I love that the book includes options for vegans, vegetarians, gluten-free and keto people as well. I definitely want this on my bookshelf to help get me out of the same-salad doldrums every weeknight!

This is a beautiful book that exceeded my expectations. I love making salads as meals, so I was drawn to this book, but I was surprised by just how much in here I would actually want to make and eat!

The recipes in this cookbook sound (and look!) so delicious that I pretty much immediately preordered myself a copy because I want these recipes around long after my ARC download expires. Very visual (which is so important in a cookbook!) with fun side stories about the owners of Mandy's and about the creation of their salads, this is a great resource for a whole array of different salads (as well as grain bowls, smoothies, and sweets) packed full of delicious ingredients. I'm excited to try them all!

What a gorgeous book! I've always hoped for an exciting and appealing book on salad recipes and this hit the spot.

This book is perfect if you love salads, but get in the rut of just using the same vegetables, dressing, and toppings over and over again even though they may be your favorite. This book is full of different and interesting salad recipes, with a bank of dressings, smoothie recipes, and even desserts. It's filled with beautiful pictures of the Mandy's restaurant and the amazing food. My one problem with this cookbook is that recipes that include meat in it don't often include how to prepare the meat, which would have been very helpful. It's a rather simple recipe book with most of the directions being to put the ingredients in a bowl and toss, but it's a great way to try new salads that you wouldn't think of making yourself!

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for this copy of Mandy's Gourmet Salads for review.

Mandy's Gourment Salads is perfect for anyone, including me, who is in a major salad rut these days. I find myself reaching for the same ingredients day after day to make a healthy and filling salad for lunch. The salad recipes in this book are varied and unique and have inspired a lot of ideas for new dressings or combinations that I might try for my family. Easily adapted and the dressing recipes can be mixed and matched which really helps work around personal preferences and family dietary concerns.

Ok I haven’t made any of these so I can’t give it the full five stars.. but I loved reading it.

The family vibe, the presentation/design.. and the salads all did look DELICIOUS. SALADS looking yummy page after page after page. I would try them all. I would like to try them all.

Definitely will get this for my sister who loves stuff like this when it comes out.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Now I need to make some food...