My Cookbook Shelf Part 2: Feeling Virtuous

This past winter, I shared a list of my go-to cookbooks that hold many recipes in my repertoire and techniques that I turn to most. In the spirit of summer, it feels natural to give you my favourite titles to glean inspiration from in the hot weather. As I’ve mentioned before, I always get a boost of motivation to focus on my nutrition during this time of the year and my cooking style veers more granola-leaning and back-to-the-earth adjacent. These books provide beauty and wisdom that leave me excited and energized about eating in support of my health (yes, even I need encouragement sometimes!).  In this mix, you’ll find plenty of plant-based recipes, raw preparations, salads and grain bowls galore, herbal insights, meal planning and preparing tips, and education around health principles like seasonal living, food combining intuitive eating, and juicing. 

The Big Book of Juices by Natalie Savona 

This was the first health-centred cookbook I received as a companion gift to my juicer. I recommend it to every person that takes the plunge in purchasing one of their own. It’s a comprehensive guide on the juice and smoothie lifestyle containing over 400 recipes. There are countless innovative combinations in its pages and each recipe is complete with a nutritional profile and rating system to account for whether the drink is energizing, detoxifying, immune boosting, helps the body to digest and/or supports the skin. 

Body Harmony by Nicole Berrie

This is an excellent resource for someone who wants to cook more plant-based or is interested in the principles of intuitive eating or food combining. Nicole Berrie is a recipe developer and the founder of a plant-based bodega in New York. In my opinion, her specialty lies in creating flavourful, approachable, everyday plant-based recipes. My hat also goes off to her as her recipes follow a food-combining approach that demystifies the principles and makes them relevant to real life. Her dulse caesar salad has a cult following, as well as her signature green smoothie that I drink almost exclusively in the summer. 

Emotional Eating by Dimes Times

IYKYK, but if you don’t, Dimes is a restaurant in New York that made health food cool again, and was the catalyst in ‘rebranding’ a gentrified microneighbourhood as ‘Dimes Square’. This cookbook lets you take a little piece home with you, perhaps helping you feel plugged in when you live in small-town Ontario lol. The book is no exception to the brand’s unique point of view in the health and wellness space, favouring bold colours and graphics in place of the usual muted pallet, and beautiful photo documentation by artist Mary Manning. I respect this greatly. Aesthetics aside, the book contains all of the restaurant's greatest hits organized by time of day. Think 8 am acai bowls and orange date muesli, lunchtime seasonal salads, 4 pm snacks of crudité with turmeric cashew cream and beet chutney, dinnertime comforts like pozole and shepherd’s pie (randomly the recipe I’ve made the most?), and 10 pm nightcaps such as their famous wheatgrass margarita. 

High Vibrational Beauty by Kerri Lynn Pamer Cindy DiPrima

Another notch on the spectrum of health-conscious cool kids, this book was written by the founders of CAP Beauty, a retailer and in-house brand that makes and carries the best that natural beauty has to offer inclusive of skin, hair, and body care along with pantry items and herbal products. High Vibrational Living is one-part manifesto, and one-part seasonal guide inclusive of recommendations for beauty rituals, lifestyle practices, and of course, recipes. This book is not necessarily for beginners, as it implies that one has quite a strong foundation in their health routine, and contains many specialty pantry items, and the use of specific kitchen tools, but there are many accessible recipes and daily practices to consider. This is a book that I re-read at the start of each season to reinvigorate my passion for nutrition and to push my growth edge. 

The Kosmic Kitchen Cookbook by Sarah Kate Benjamin and Summer Singletary 

An everyday approach to herbalism, ayurvedic wisdom, and as the authors put it, ‘recipes for radical wellness’. This is another book I read seasonally and each time I learn something new. I’ve always been fascinated by herbal medicine and folk remedies, and now that I live close to nature I find myself using this book more frequently. It’s a great guide to the most common Eastern and Western herbs, elemental theory, and the seasons. The recipes are beautiful but attainable, and provide a good starting point for building up your home apothecary as kitchen herbalism is one of the most low-barrier ways to enjoy the earth’s medicine.

Salad for President by Julia Sherman

A book of salads for the culturally minded, this book truly reinvents the wheel with recipes from the author alongside a roster of impressive artists like Laurie Anderson and Ron Finley. This book speaks to me as it meshes the art world with the food world and the health space, all of which are pertinent parts of my path. Sherman teaches you how to cook like an artist through innovative recipes with unexpected combinations like puffed wild rice in your nappa cabbage and chicken salad, or a panzanella with polenta croutons. Creativity is encouraged!

Salad Freak by Jess Damuck 

Did you expect anything less than two salad-centric cookbooks on this list? Salad Freak is an instant classic that I cook from quite a bit in the spring and summer months. The recipes are interesting while remaining within reach, and most importantly: hearty and meal-worthy. Jess Damuck cut her teeth working for Martha Stewart and that effortless grace comes through with her California spin; I appreciate her use of edible flowers and non-typical salad greens. The book is organized by season and I have a favourite for each one: summer is the charred corn with tomatoes, halloumi and chilli crisp; fall is miso mushrooms and caramelized onions with farro and hazelnut gremolata, winter brings crunchy citrus and chicories with turmeric tahini dressing, and last but not least, spring holds my favourite peas with prosciutto and homemade ricotta. 

Enlightened Eating by Caroline Dupont

This is one of my favourite resources that I am constantly referring back to, written by a faculty member of my Nutrition program. Holistic as they come, this book provides insights from raw food, plant-based, macrobiotic and ayurvedic philosophies to nourish the mind, body, and spirit. Part one is a deep dive into healing, nutrition, detoxification and practical tools to get started on your journey to health inclusive of shopping lists, meal ideas, menu plans, and more. Part two contains recipes for every occasion to suit various pallets with ingredients you can find at your local bulk and grocery stores. The tone is gentle but inspiring, which in my books is the sign of a great practitioner.

My clients love my meal plans which include over 20 recipes that I pull from my cookbook collection. If you are stumped on what to cook this season or need a refresher to your current roster of dishes, let’s work together! Book a free discovery call and I can recommend the best course of action :)