No, cooking and eating “naked” doesn’t mean you have to worry about getting splattered with hot oil in your, um, most sensitive spots. Eating naked refers to eating healthy, whole foods that are good for you.

Boring, right? Not according to Margaret Floyd and James Barry, authors of “The Naked Foods Cookbook: The Whole-Foods, Healthy Fats, Gluten-Free Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great” (New Harbinger, $19.95). The authors say it’s a myth that healthy cooking takes time and is tasteless.

Their portobello eggs benedict still uses eggs, but replaces the ham with spinach. A portobello mushroom cap replaces the English muffin, and the whole thing is topped with a vegan Hollandaise sauce that’s made with olive oil, onion, lemon and turmeric instead of egg yolks and butter.

This book is full of good alternatives to classics, such as a breadless stuffing that uses lentils as a base and a noodleless lasagna that replaces noodles with thin strips of zucchini, summer squash and eggplant.

Don’t buy this book assuming it’s for vegetarians only, however. There are plenty of meat-based recipes that have been tweaked to be healthier. Their turkey meatballs use zucchini and walnuts instead of bread crumbs, and a salami pizza uses gluten-free dough and nitrate-free salami.


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