Cookbooks we use regularly
In a nutshell
11 cookbooks that taught us how to live more healthily
They gave us the confidence to discard unnatural seed oils, sugars/starches, and grains
We learned how to quickly, easily, and cheaply prepare delicious, healthy food at home
I’ve been asked a few times which cookbooks are the best to follow. My response has been “for what purpose?” Answers differ but include elements of general good health, weight loss, or gut microbiome health.
Until now, I’ve shied away from specifically answering the question because I’m not in the business of offering advice. I’m simply trying to describe what has worked for me, in particular, I stress the “do no harm” principle. This means cutting out industrially processed ingredients that lack proper human nutrition, such as rape seed oil, flours, pasta, rice, and fruit juices. We also stopped eating things like bread, pastries, potatoes, meats cured with sugar, farmed fish, and corn fed beef. Stated as categories, this means we cut out:
Grains
The beginning
Eat Rich Live Long
This book represents a starting place for me back around 2017/2018 when I was still trying to figure out how I could have gone so wrong following dietary, exercise, and medical guidelines and advice. The book provides recipes to use in a three-week plan to help a newbie like me to stop the self-harm and eat healthier food. I also used this book to guide me through the process of reducing my carbohydrate intake from sugars and starches. I can’t really comment on the quality of the recipes because I was cooking many of my own meals in those early days and I’m a terrible cook.
The book was of greatest value for me because the authors helped me to understand what had happened to me. Ivor is a biochemical engineer by training and a risk-assessment professional. Jeffrey is a medical doctor. They go into considerable detail about how a carb-heavy diet is harmful and over-time leads to things like obesity and heart disease (my particular issue).
My wife is a very good cook and once she became engaged, we purchased and experimented with many additional dedicated cookbooks. The following selection commonly used in our kitchen was chosen by my wife.
The Early Days…
…of tasty, healthy food prepared by my wife. The recipes in these two books are based upon the “do no harm” principles listed above and a constant reminder to use the best ingredients available and affordable. If we couldn’t find exactly what we wanted, we were encouraged to follow the “better than” rule which advocates for the next best option. Both books start with a reminder of the basics, simple how-to guidelines for people like us who were early in our attempt to change what we ate.
The Art of Eating Well
In this, their first book, the Hemsley sisters showed us how to achieve good health using good food. They have a section that introduced us to and provided recipes for staples like bone broth and fermented food. They also list stockists and helped us figure out how to best eat out. There are recipes for breakfast, soups, sides and snacks, salads, fish and meat, vegetables, dressings and dips, baking and desserts, and drinks. All recipes are free from grains, gluten, refined sugar and high starch, and are delicious.
Good + Simple
This is their second book, and in it they set out deliberately to simplify things. The core assumption is that if food is delicious and simple to prepare, people are more likely to maintain a healthy life without much difficulty.
They describe things like kitchen essentials, stocking the kitchen, and eating well whilst travelling. They provide a two-week menu plan for those like us who were newbies. Beyond that, there are recipes for breakfast, soups and stews, sides and snacks, sandwiches and salads, fish and meat, vegetables, dips, dressings, sauces, and spreads, desserts, and drinks. As in their first cookbook, they advocate for healthy home cooking built around gut health, whole foods, and affordable ingredients, and demonstrate how tasty and achievable eating healthy can be.
Amending recipes we had enjoyed
We’ve long-enjoyed middle east cooking because, done well, it uses fresh, nutritious ingredients prepared simply. Our favourite restaurant in Philadelphia was Israeli Michael Solomonov’s Zahav. His book of the same name with Steven Cook is a staple in our kitchen. When I was working with investors in London, I’d seek accommodation in areas with strong middle-east influences because accommodation was more affordable and the restaurants were often inspired by Lebanese cooking.
Simple
Zahav’s UK equivalent, Yotam Ottolenghi’s cooking is traditionally associated with difficult-to-find ingredients and complicated recipes. Our experience is that, once sourced, unusual ingredients are a non-problem, but his earlier recipes are time-consuming. As for complicated recipes, this book aims to overcome that by emphasizing Short on time, 10 ingredients or less, Make ahead, Pantry, Lazy, and Easier than you think, hence the name…!
This book is not dedicated to the types of low-carbohydrate lifestyle we practice and we do need to swap in things like celeriac and cauliflower, for example, to replace potatoes. However, with simple tweaking, it represents a style of cooking that follows our preferred principles of fresh, nutrient-dense cooking that avoids the three industrially processed ingredient categories.
Cookbooks intended for a low-carb lifestyle
When we started to change what we eat, cookbooks designed for our lifestyle were few and far between and tended to be a bit user-unfriendly. That is no longer the case and I’ve listed below a selection from our kitchen.
Dopamine Diet
Michelin chef Tom Kerridge describes in this book how he used diet (mostly) and lifestyle to lose a significant amount of weight. That has never been our objective. Nevertheless, we found this book to contain recipes that we could still use regularly in our maintenance lifestyle. If the energy level (calories) seems a bit light for our purposes, we’ll typically increase or add in things like cheese, for example.
New Keto Cooking
We do not follow a strict ketogenic (keto) diet and we are not using any kind of diet to lose weight. Strict keto diets are challenging to follow but when done so properly can reduce things like obesity, epilepsy, T2D, mental illness to name but a few. Specifically, chef Michael Silverstein (2nd place in the all-star TV season of Master Chef with Gordon Ramsey) describes how he lost 80lbs in a year.
“Within days of eliminating sugar, I felt better. My energy levels skyrocketed and the stomachaches disappeared”
All of that said, using keto-inspired recipes can form the basis (see Dopamine Diet for variations) of a regular low-carb lifestyle.
This book was one of our early introductions to very high-quality cooking at home that otherwise we might only experience in one of the best restaurants. Silverstein emphasizes fresh food, provides nutritional information, and suggests cooking tips for the non-expert in all of his recipes. If you consider yourself a bit of a foody, this book is worth a shot.
New Comfort Cooking
In his second cookbook, Silverstein emphasizes that this is not a weight loss book. Instead, he tries to create recipes that follow healthy (keto) principles and apply them to the sorts of home-style family meals that he experienced as a child. For example, he draws from his mother’s chicken soup recipe and his dad’s approach to holiday brisket.
He continues to provide-pro tips as in New Keto Cooking. I appreciated the new tables he provides here describing the uses and flavours of various healthy, natural fats and table of temperatures to achieve a desired outcome with a range of meats.
Keto Kitchen Series
This is a series of four cookbooks based on the keto nutritional lifestyle. Monya Kilian Palmer is originally from South Africa and moved to the UK in 2012. She has worked for both Michelin chef Heston Blumenthal and Le Cordon Bleu.
In her first book, Monya describes how she and her husband were motivated to lose weight and states:
“…we enjoy a euphoric flow of consistent energy and mental clarity; all this from reducing our intake of carbohydrates and enjoying plenty of natural fat.”
In Keto Kitchen, the author provides good advice on the impact of keto basics such as macro-nutrients, insulin, sweeteners, processed foods, and alcohol. She also provides useful lists of keto-friendly ingredients and things to avoid like sugar, grains, starchy vegetables, legumes, and certain fruits. Recipes are provided for Broths/Breads/Bases, Breakfasts, Meals, and Snacks.
In her second book, Lazy Keto Kitchen, the author retains her keto core principles but adds in practical tips for maintenance with a little rule-bending. The key to this approach is consistently very low carbohydrate content with adequate protein and fat as appropriate for a given lifestyle (higher for people like me who regularly exercise, for example). Lapsing from strict keto is inevitable for us because we don’t want to lose weight, often dine out, and entertain with friends.
Her recipes cover breakfast and brunch, Tapas, Keto meals, and Sweets.
Budget Keto Kitchen was inspired by her need to be careful with expenses during the forced unemployment and imposed lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. She includes the basics from Keto Kitchen and Lazy Keto Kitchen and adds in her creativity using inexpensive ingredients. The result is satisfying meals from good ingredient combination and cooking.
Quick Keto Kitchen is the fourth in the series and the culmination of five years on the keto diet. The recipes in this cookbook are uncomplicated and quick to prepare.
She provides recipes for breads and handy bases, fresh and light, comfort food, sweets, and combined meals in minutes.
Summary
My wife and I have a home-cooked healthy diet that does not contain the industrially processed ingredients of seed oils (ever), sugars and starches, and grains. It does contain ingredients from a range of nutrient-dense plants and animals that are, as much as possible, locally-sourced and seasonal.
Changing what we ate was not always easy, especially in the early days. We had to throw away all of our seed oils, sugar/starch-, and grain-based staples. We then had to figure out what to replace them with, how to combine them, and how to create food that was delicious and easy to prepare. The books I’ve described are ones that we’ve found most helpful for those purposes over the past eight years.
References
Cummins, I. and Gerber, J. (2018) Eat Rich Live Long: Use the power of low-carb and keto for weight loss and great health. Victory Belt Publishing
Hemsley, J. and Hemsley, M. (2014) The Art of Eating Well. London: Ebury Press
Hemsley, J. and Hemsley, M. (2014) Good + Simple. London: Ebury Press
Ottolenghi, Y, Wigley, T. and Howarth, E. (2018) Simple. London: Ebury Press
Kerridge, T (2017) Dopamine Diet: My low-carb, stay-happy way to lose weight. London: Absolute Press
Silverstein, M. (2020) New Keto Cooking: Fresh ideas for delicious low-carb meals at home. Salem, Ma: Page Street Publishing
Silverstein, M. (2020) New Comfort Cooking: Homestyle keto recipes that won’t bust your belt or wallet. Salem, Ma: Page Street Publishing
Kilian Palmer, M. (2020) Keto Kitchen: Delicious recipes for energy and weight loss. London: Kyle Books
Kilian Palmer, M. (2021) Lazy Keto Kitchen: Easy, indulgent recipes that still fit your macros. London: Kyle Books
Kilian Palmer, M. (2022) Budget Keto Kitchen: Easy recipes that are big on taste and light on the wallet. London: Kyle Books
Kilian Palmer, M. (2023) Quick Keto Kitchen: Every day low-carb, weight-loss recipes. London: Kyle Books