Top 10: Healthy Cookbooks to Buy in 2016By Angelica Malin
Getting on the health bandwagon? Well, good news! This week, we’ve got a whole week dedicated to health and nourishment, during our special Abel & Cole Nourish Week. What’s more, we’ve teamed up with friends Abel & Cole for a very lovely giveaway of a month’s worth of Abel & Cole treats – enter here. To make your health kick easier, here’s ten healthy cookbooks you need to look out for in 2016:
1. For Everyday Goodness: Deliciously Ella Every Day
What: You’ve almost certainly heard the name. Ella Woodward is the creator of Deliciously Ella, a healthy food and lifestyle blog with over five million visitors every month. 2015 saw the release of her first book, Deliciously Ella, which was an instant number 1 bestseller, and the fastest-selling debut cookbook since records began – it has now sold over 250,000 copies in the UK alone! Ella’s food philosophy is about inspiring people to incorporate natural foods into their way of eating.
The Book: This month, Yellow Kite will publish Ella’s eagerly-awaited new book Deliciously Ella Every Day. We’re not allowed to tell you a lot, but what we do know is that her new book offers quick weekday dinners, slow cook comfort food, amazing colourful salads and incredible food to take with you when you’re on the go.
The Author: At 24, Ella has created a hugely successful app to accompany the blog, runs regular cookery classes and supper clubs, and is a food columnist for the Daily Telegraph. Ella discovered her passion for plant-based recipes after being diagnosed with a rare illness called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (PoTS). She couldn’t walk down the street, slept for 16 hours a day and was in chronic pain most of the time – she decided to completely overhaul her diet and Ella started blogging about her new approach to food and posting recipes, and quickly amassed a huge online following. She was recently awarded a prestigious Observer Food Monthly award for Best Food Blog 2015. Ella has just opened her first café, The Mae Deli, in her home city of London and is training as a nutritionist at the College of Naturopathic Medicine.
Price: Published by Yellow Kite (an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton) on 21st January 2016 – hardback, £20
2. For Low-Carb: The KetoDiet Cookbook
What: You love your Paleo or low-carb diet, but is it enough to give your metabolism the jolt it needs to really burn off that extra weight in order to live a healthier life? By eating foods higher in good fats, moderate protein, and little-to-no carbohydrates, you’ll feel less hungry. Not only that, but your body begins to burn fat stores instead of the carbohydrates and glucose that usually bog down your system.
The Book: The KetoDiet Cookbook contains 150 recipes and practical information for living and adhering to a ketogenic lifestyle. Martina Slajerova, founder of the KetoDiet blog, provides a complete guide to the ketogenic diet based on the recent research. Discover the science behind the ketogenic diet and the abundant practical solutions that benefit both beginners and advanced keto-dieters. The book’s recipes are created to be perfectly compatible with ketogenic, low-carb, high-fat, gluten-free, grain free, Paleo, primal, and ancestral diets.
The Author: Martina Slajerova is the founder of the KetoDiet blog and the KetoDiet app. She was brought to the diet after being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Disease in 2011, Martina, frustrated with the lack of practical resources, created the KetoDiet app/blog/e-book to help others live the Ketogenic lifestyle successfully. She is currently pursuing a nutrition certification and lives in London.
Price: £15.99 paperback – February 2016
Photo Credit: The KetoDiet Cookbook by Martina Slajerova, Fair Winds Press, £15.99
3. For Digestion: Fermenting Food
What: Whether you want to pickle your own sauerkrauts and kimchis, create condiments like horseradish and mustard, and even make own homemade yogurt, Fermenting Food is an indispensable guide to fermenting foods at home.
The Book: Fermenting Food embraces one of the latest health food trends and is the perfect introduction to pickling and preserving at home. Full of antioxidants, probiotics, nutrients and good bacteria, fermented foods pack a punch in taste, as well as being brilliantly healthy. The book includes a chapter on getting started and inspiring recipes for fruits and vegetables, condiments, dairy, legumes and grains, breads and beverages.
The Author: Adam Elabd is an educator in the fields of fermentation, natural healing and nutrition. He received a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science from the University of California Riverside in 2011. He’s a practising herbalist whose passion for fermentation, herbs and health is informed by his Egyptian descent and a childhood spent in Saudi Arabia.
Price: Fermenting Food Step-by-Step, published by DK1 February 2016 – £12.99
4. For After Work: Speedy Weeknight Suppers
What: Bursting with quick, simple and deliciously healthy recipes, Healthy Speedy Suppers will inspire anyone who feels too tired or busy to cook at the end of the day. Katriona MacGregor started her Speedy Weeknight Suppers column for The Telegraph online in 2013, after a move back to exhausting London office life caused a slump in her diet. Resolving to break away from eating ready meals and cheese on toast every night, she began developing recipes that took no more than 40 minutes to make, were packed with good quality, wholesome ingredients, and tasted fantastic.
The Book: The recipes are fresh, seasonal and nutritious and showcase a broad range of influences from around the world. Ingredient lists are short, prep is kept to a minimum and the methods are relaxed – often featuring one-pot or one-tray cooking. All of them have been put to the test at home after a busy day in the office, and the ingredients are easy to find and can be scooped up on the way back from work.
The Author: Katriona MacGregor is a chef, cookery writer and journalist who writes a hugely popular weekly column for The Telegraph. Her personal experience of stress, fatigue and autoimmune thyroid disease has lead her to create recipes that are simple to make but focus on good ingredients and wholesome food.
Price: Nourish Books – Published 21 April 2016 – £16.99
5. For Food Philosophy: Eat Right
What: Health conscious but bored of being told that plant-based, gluten-free diets are the only way forward? Meet Nick Barnard, co-founder of Rude Health. Eat Right is his inspirational and upbeat celebration of positive eating. This book offers truly achievable and simple ideas, recipes and advice on how to be nourished by traditional foods in a modern world.
The Book: Eat Right has 135 delicious and wholesome recipes that encourage the use of good animal fats, grass-fed meats and dairy, as well as sprouted, cultured, fermented and activated foods and drinks, alongside local and seasonal produce. There’s step-by-step instructions on making your own ghee, butter, apple cider vinegar, yoghurt, lard, broth, kimchi and sauerkraut, nut and seed butters, as well as sprouting grains and activating nuts and seeds, without requiring costly or obscure equipment or expensive ingredients. The focus is on wholesome foods and drinks that are both sustaining and nourishing, but also considering their health and environmental benefits.
The Author: Nick Barnard co-founded Rude Health in London in 2005 with his wife Camilla. Rude Health is renowned for its innovative, delicious and nourishing foods and drinks, winning scores of awards for taste and ethical standards. In 2013 he was crowned World Speciality Porridge Champion, and continues his quest for the Golden Spurtle. Nick also helps out at Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch biodynamic community farms, where he is found as often as possible, happy as a pig in a trough of acorns.
Price: Published by Kyle Books, 14th January 2016 – £25
6. For Natural Living: The Naturalista
What: If you have ever felt the stress of 21st-century living wrap itself around your heart and turned to a double espresso and a faint hope that tomorrow will be better, then this book will show you how to slow down, listen to your body and find a more natural, holistic way of life. This is truly a bright and beautiful guide to natural living in the modern age.
The Book: Xochi has taken the principles of naturopathy and created a way of life, from a gentler style of eating to simple beauty recipes as well as bringing relaxation and mindfulness into your everyday routine. Her food is gluten- and dairy-free and predominantly plant based, but straightforward and delicious. Her skincare recipes can also be made from kitchen ingredients and her techniques for everyday mindfulness can be fitted into the busiest of lives. Xochi’s recipes include power balls and energy bars, raw chocolate, sea salt and pistachio fudge, cornershop turmeric and coconut dahl and beetroot falafel as well as a gluten-free carrot and flax bread.
The Author: A former journalist, Xochi Balfour gave up her office life to set up a street food van, Rainbo. However, with this new foodie success came long stressful hours, and then a dawning realisation that she simply couldn’t sustain this way of life. She enrolled at the College of Naturopathic Medicine and started writing The Naturalista as a means of documenting her journey and posting food and beauty recipes.
Price: Published in hardback by Headline on 21st April 2015, priced £25
What: Roger Saul, champion of British spelt, has penned a sensational cookery book devoted to the wonder grain-of-the-moment. Full of mouth watering recipes to bring out the very best in the wholesome and delicious grain, the book, simply titled ‘Spelt’ is in stores now. The Romans referred to spelt as their ‘Marching Grain’ because of its high energy content. The grain is generally higher in protein, easier to digest and has a much broader spectrum of nutrients than wheat.
The Book: The unique collection of homely recipes found in ‘Spelt’ includes a host of ideas certain to become new family favourites, inspired by Roger’s own most cherished family meals. Also featured is a selection of spelt dishes from friends of Sharpham Park including Mark Hix, Signe Johansen and Amanda Hamilton. The wide variety of tempting treats ranges from delicious beetroot, Goat’s cheese, hazelnut and dill salad to Moroccan-spiced lamb and summer raspberry cake.
The Author: Since 2004, Roger Saul, also founder of designer label Mulberry, has harvested and milled spelt at his home, Sharpham Park in Somerset. From its early beginnings, Sharpham Park has been dedicated to growing ancient spelt grain in an organic and eco-friendly way. The ever-popular Sharpham Park range, including flours, breakfast cereals, pearled spelt and risottos is available in the best food stores and supermarkets.
Price: Nourish Books – January 2016 – £15.99
7. For Korean Food: K Food: Korean Home Cooking and Street Food
What: Discover the delights of modern Korean cuisine and enjoy the first cookbook from the founders of the increasingly popular Busan BBQ. There’s a great buzz around Korean food right now – and there are no better authors than Da-Hae and Gareth West to introduce this flavoursome cuisine. Da-Hae uses her Korean background to explain the details of traditional recipes, and Gareth shows how Korean and Western flavours can be fused together to create really delicious combinations.
The Book: From a run-down on the basics of Korean cooking, including now readily available sauces, pastes and other ingredients, through chapters on kimchi and the etiquette of the famous Korean BBQ, to recipes for everything from the irresistible Bulgogi Burger and spicy, sticky spare ribs to Pajeon (seafood pancakes) and corn on the cob with kimchi butter, this book is packed with inventive, delicious recipes that will open your eyes to how great modern Korean food is.
The Authors: Da-Hae was born in Busan, South Korea, but raised in England from the age of three. Her mother continued to cook Korean food in England, often using ingenious substitutions, so Da-Hae enjoyed Korean breakfasts, lunches and dinners every day. Gareth’s career in food began with a job at restaurant group D&D London. They decided to start their street food company Busan BBQ in 2013, with Da-Hae now running the business full-time. Da-Hae, Gareth, and Busan BBQ have been featured in the media on the Travel Channel and BBC 1’s The ONE Show.
Price: 5 May 2016, Mitchell Beazley, Hardback – £20
8. For Californian Health: The Good Life Eatery Cookbook
What: With two successful branches in London, The Good Life Eatery is a health food sensation. Inspired by the Southern Californian healthy eating scene, the cafe serves nutritious, simple and flavour-filled food in the heart of Chelsea. The Good Life Eatery contains 100 recipes for naturally healthy, refined sugar free, simple carb free, locally sourced dishes. And many of the recipes are gluten free and dairy free, although there are always suggestions given for when you need that extra hit of protein.
The Book: Advocating honest food, they are passionate about revolutionizing how we see healthy food. There is no need to restrict your diet and make everything bland – food is to be enjoyed, and this book makes exciting, delicious and good for you recipes completely accessible, appealing and fun. Big on flavour, this is food to satisfy everyone. Just like their popular healthy eating restaurants, The Good Life Eatery cookbook is filled with over 100 vibrant recipes developed by Shirin Kouros and Yasmine Larizadeh – from hearty bowl food and fresh salads, to their signature cold-pressed juices and sweet treats.
The Authors: Creative, young entrepreneurs Yasmine Larizadeh and Shirin Kouros are the dynamic duo behind The Good Life Eatery. Their shared vision to bring something new to London’s food scene sparked a sincere friendship and a year-and-a-half long research and development programme in Los Angeles and in London before launching The Good Life Eatery in 2013.
What: Perfectly in tune with current trends of consciously reducing meat consumption, this book by Salma Hage focuses on the Middle Eastern culture of vegetarian, mezze-style dining. Salma Hage, author of bestselling book The Lebanese Kitchen, provides a vibrant and approachable collection of more than 140 Middle Eastern vegetarian recipes.
The Book: Drawing inspiration from traditional ingredients – from aromatic Middle Eastern spices to fresh figs and rich dates – this book offers an array of delicious breakfasts, drinks, mezze, salads, vegetables, pulses, grains and desserts. Salma simplifies this popular cuisine with achievable recipes, many with vegan and gluten-free options. Dishes include well-known recipes such as Baba Ganoush, falafel, and tabbouleh, whilst Salma introduces less familiar dishes such as the Lebanese ratatouille know as Msa’aa, the lentil and macaroni favourite called Rishta, and an array of unusual ideas for using pulses and grains.
The Author: Salma Hage is a Lebanese author and cook. Salma Hage, a Lebanese housewife from Mazraat Et Toufat (Apple Hamlet) in the mountains of the Kadisha Valley in Northern Lebanon, has over 50 years experience of family cooking. In the cook book, The Lebanese Kitchen, she presents a comprehensive list of her own recipes for family favorites along with classic dishes handed from generation to generation. As both mother and grandmother, Salma celebrates how to cook for families and large groups with an array of dishes that can feed a crowd.
Price: 25 April 2016, published by Phaidon – £24.95
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