Lots of great recipes using one of my favorite fruits- bananas. I loved the ideas to use bananas in baking, replacing some less healthy ingredients, or just if you are out of something and want to substitute a banana.

I received an ARC from Andrews McMeel Publishing via NetGalley, this review is my opinion.


This book is great, with easy and yummy recipes we learn different and unique ways to cook the banana. I like that we have a different type of recipe, a healthy one, and an unexpected one. The author did a great job giving this known fruit. If you love to cook(or maybe just eat), I recommend this book, it gives us great ideas for us and to share with family and friends.

If you like bananas, this is definitely the book for you! It's also a good choice if you're looking for a cookbook filled with sweet treats that use less added sugar, fats, and eggs, with lots of vegan and gluten free recipes. All the recipes sound delicious, and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. Also, I didn't spot any hard-to-find ingredients. My only complaint is a lack of nutrition information- as a diabetic, I appreciate the use of bananas and other fruits to replace sugars, but fruit still has carbs, and I for one need those counts, so one star off for that- otherwise, I'd count this as a five star book. The photographer will make you drool, and really, all cookbooks should have a picture for every recipe like this one does, dontcha think?

#TheBananaCookbook #NetGalley

This was a simple collection of ways to use excess bananas from the pantry. Many of the recipes only had the banana added as a topping but there were a few interesting ones.
For someone who might be cooking/baking more regularly, it might not add too many new ideas. The ones that looked different did provide some. The gluten free and vegan options were marked clearly in the particular recipes. The photos were good as well.

I love bananas. I love them frozen for smoothies. I like them ripe and raw for snacking. I like them mashed up in baking and used in other desserts. I even would be open to more creative uses of banana. Which is why I requested an advanced copy of this cookbook. Because I wanted to see what other ideas were out there for using bananas creatively.

Turns out, judging by this book alone, there aren't any new ideas for recipes incorporating bananas, just a bunch of smoothie recipes and quite a few familiar desserts and snacks. I don't often apply the word "boring" to a cookbook, much less "underwhelming" or even "disappointing," but I felt like this cookbook was all of them. I'm not as eagle eyed as other reviewers, so apparently they spotted what I did not--that all the photos were from Shutterstock and that they often don't remotely correspond to the actual recipe with which they're paired in the book.. Overall, just unimpressive.

I suppose if you're brand new to food preparation, and need ideas for simple smoothies and snacks and some classic desserts, this cookbook could be a starting off point for you. Otherwise, I cannot imagine for whom this cookbook was designed. Meanwhile, I'm off to find more creative banana recipes elsewhere. Thanks to #NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for granting me a temporary digital advanced copy. This is my honest opinion.

The Banana Cookbook is filled with simple and easy-to-follow recipes featuring banana's. It has a bright fun bright design and plenty of pictures. The recipes are great for beginners and have smaller portioning in the recipes if you don't want to make a ton. The dessert recipes are simply delicious and I was pleasantly surprised at how many things you can do with bananas.

Many of the recipes do include nuts so anyone with an allergy would need to leave those out. However, the recipes are not complicated and don't need exotic hard to find ingredients so if you love bananas this is a great choice.

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

A nice selection of easy to make recipes. I do wish there was more variety, and perhaps more unique recipes. Bananas are always a good treat and this book highlights them in many sweet treats!

Love this banana book. Wonderful that someone put together recipes of my favourite fruit. The photos are beautiful. Recipes are great and easy to follow. Great book to start your love of bananas.

Sam Brooks has put together a book full of easy recipes, including a variety of vegan and gluten free options, that center around delicious bananas. Ranging anywhere from a classic loaf of banana bread to ice-cream and delicious iced banana coffee, there are a variety of recipes that covers everyone’s interests.

If you are someone with a nut allergy like me, you’ll be happy to find that there are several nut free options throughout the book. However, quite a few of those options will require you to simply omit the nuts that are used to garnish the final product. There are some recipes that will be difficult to get around, such as peanut butter based recipes, as substituting peanut butter with cashew, almond, or sunflower seed butter will create a much drier final product than the author intended.

One of the things that I liked about this book is the mouthwatering pictures that accompany the recipes. It’s one thing to read a recipe and think about making it, but there’s something about seeing a picture that really entices you to check out the recipe and get you pumped about making it. This is why I was disappointed to discover that the book is full of stock images rather than photos taken of the products of these recipes. Some of the pictures can pass, but there are some that are clearly not what you’ll get when you make the recipe.

I also wish that there were savory recipes included in the book. For a book that views bananas as a “new” staple, it’s odd that savory options are so overlooked. Otherwise, I did enjoy the book and look forward to trying some of the recipes. I’m looking forward to giving the iced banana coffee a go since it combines two of my favorite things: coffee and bananas. I’ve also been looking for a new tried and true banana bread recipe, so I’m excited to bake the one included in the book and seeing how it turns out.

Sam Brooks’ The Banana Cookbook is a good cookbook of simple and easy-to-follow recipes. I like the cookbook’s bright design, the pretty photos, and the inclusion of vegan and gluten-free recipes. However, I wish there was a greater variety of recipes and that the photos were original. Moreover, my copy is missing a lot of recipes and recipe ingredients.

This is a straightforward and no-frills cookbook with recipes that feature bananas as the special secret and, sometimes, not so secret ingredient. The recipes are simply written and feature accessible ingredients. The book has sections on breakfast bites and morning pick-me-ups; cupcakes and muffins; smoothies and shakes; sweet treats; frozen sweets; and delicious desserts. Learn to make familiar favourites like chocolate fudge popsicles, chocolate brownies, chocolate and banana French toast, and the quarantine staple—banana bread. You can also try your hand at slightly more exotic fare like pumpkin and sunflower seed cookies, a berry smoothie bowl, and matcha and banana cupcakes.

I love that the serving sizes are fairly small because many cookbooks usually feature recipes for a crowd. I also like that the recipes are simple and perfect for beginners. The ingredients are also mostly pantry staples which makes this book a great resource during quarantine or lean times. Moreover, I like that many of the recipes are suitable for vegan and gluten-free eaters.

However, this book is too dessert centric. I enjoyed the sweet recipes but I was really hoping for savoury recipes. Moreover, some of the recipes are too similar to each other and they didn’t need to be separate entities. Additionally, my copy is missing many pages of recipes and recipe ingredients. I was disappointed because I really wanted to try these recipes.

The page design is clean and simple but still eye-catching and bright. However, I wish the design was more fun. I love that each recipe has an accompanying colourful full-page picture. The photos are bright and pretty. However, I am disappointed that they’re all Shutterstock photos. I really wish the book had original pictures. Moreover, the images don’t always completely match up with the recipes.

I wish the recipes were more unique and that the pictures were original but the interesting idea, simple writing, and easily accessible ingredients make The Banana Cookbook a good cookbook.




🍌 🍌 🍌 out of 5 bananas!

Title: The Banana Cookbook
Author: Sam Brooks
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Release Date: 16th June 2020
Pages: 128
Genre: Cooking Recipes

Synopsis: It comprises 50 Simple and Delicious Recipes where main ingredient is Banana. The recipes are so well written and easy that even beginners can feel free to open any page of the book and try out that particular given recipe with ease. The beginning of the cookbook lays out all the essential utensils requirement, to create the dishes given inside the cookbook and a very informative measurements & conversion method page helps in taking accurate quantity of ingredients for preparing dishes. This Banana dedicated cookbook has recipes of Smoothies, Bread Spreads, Pancakes, Energy Balls, Energy Bars, Chips, Shakes, Cookies, Popsicles, Frozen Sweets, Cakes, Muffins, Ice Cream, Tarts and more. There are also pictures of the prepared dish before respective recipes so it is easily understandable how the end product will look like and how you can plate it making it look more delicious. This cookbook is ideal for people who are on Vegan and/or Gluten Free diet.

Thank you #netgalley for the ARC I am definitely gonna try out lot of the recipes from this cookbook!!

This was such a fun cookbook based on recipes with banana as the star ingredient! I look forward to making the No-Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake and Pan-Fried Bananas with Salted Caramel Sauce.

Thank you, Andrews McNeel Publishing and NetGalley, for a digital ARC!

It's a cookbook filled with banana recipes, what's not to like?Though not vegan or gluten-free myself I think it's nice there are a lot of vegan and gluten-free recipes in this book. and that it states at the beginning that any non-diary ingredients can be substituted with diary. A nice cookbook that's fun to look through but nothing super memorable.

A really great way to eat banana sweet. Easy, tasteful and amazing recipes with banana. I highly recommend it

The hallmark of a great cookbook for me is one that has a photo for every recipe which this one nails! I know that mine will never look as good as the picture but I like to know what it is supposed to look like to help me decide if the recipe looks tasty and if it looks within my limited skill range. Unfortunately, even though I love bananas I am not vegan or gluten free and my baking skills are basic so I don't have or care to try many of the ingredients in these recipes (here's looking at you pitted dates and any flour that isn't all-purpose!). Many of the photos make the banana recipes look tasty though so I'm sure banana loving vegans would be happy to eat these up!

I like this banana cookbook, because it features common ingredients that you most likely will have in your cupboard. There are nice pictures of each recipe. I like being able to see what the finished product should look like. My all time favorite is the chocolate and banana recipe. This recipe is under 100 calories. I make this all the time, and i use more ice to make it thicker. This cookbook is a must for people who eat bananas, and are looking for new things to try. There is a section for breakfast items, smoothies, sweet treats, etc. Off to the side is a list of ingredients, and instructions are in the middle of page. Each recipe only takes up one page.

The Banana Cookbook: 50 Simple and Delicious Recipes is a recipe collection full of all things banana. Due out 16th June 2020 from Andrews McMeel, it's 128 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is an odd compilation. The recipes themselves are fine and include everything from standards (banana bread) to slightly more exotic fare (chocolate and banana French toast). There's a pictorial recipe index included at the back of the book for easily finding desired recipes.

The book has a nice,logical layout. The introductory chapter covers the basics of tools and equpment. The recipes are arranged thematically: breakfast bites, cupcakes and muffins, smoothies, sweet treats, frozen sweets, and desserts.

Each of the recipes includes an introductory description, ingredients listed in a bullet point sidebar (in a really odd mix of metric and US measurements), step by step instructions, there is no nutritional info provided although the relevant recipes are marked as vegan friendly and gluten free. The dishes are photographed, however, the book credits are all shutterstock stock photos. The photos provided are high quality and clear. It's not clear if the recipes were developed to match the photos (some are quite specific) or if the recipes and photos were licensed for the book.

The recipe ingredients themselves are easily sourced and will be available at most well stocked grocery stores. There are a very few ingredients which might be a little more difficult to source, but definitely nothing that is 'way out there'.

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I loved all the ideas for baking and trying out the recipes. The fact that so many of them are vegan is great! Even Gluten-free recipes have been included. The instructions are easy to follow and the couple of recipes I have tried have worked out great. The book is divided into different sections: e.g. cupcakes and muffins, desserts, frozen treats, smoothies, etc which makes finding a suitable recipe so much easier!

This was a great recipe book. The pictures were beautiful and the recipes seemed easy enough anyone could do it. I also appreciated most of the recipes were vegan. Easy to follow basic banana recipes, 100% recommend.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I'll definitely make some of these yummy banana recipes! I love that each recipe has a photo! Some of the recipes are vegan or gluten free. Most of the ingredients I have at home. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review