Dished Up: Cookbooks I Am Currently Inspired By

With a new mindset in regards to digestion and gut health, I have currently been busy browsing all sorts of cookbooks in search for recipes that are not only delicious and nourishing, but also bring healing properties and ingredients to the table. After a 7-day cure at VIVAMAYR + another 3 weeks at home of slowly transitioning back to every-day-life, I feel more in-tune with my personal well-being than ever. I wake up early, I have a lot of energy, I crave foods that are easy to digest and full of vitamins. Things could be worse, right?

In a quest to find the best of the healthy best (with the demand that the meals also satisfy a man’s tastebuds), I have come across a few incredibly inspiring cookbooks, mostly based around plant-based or vegetarian diets. What I have come to realize for my own body, is that I do incredibly well with carbs (the good kind: think potatoes, quinoa, sourdough bread, …) and fats. I have been skipping my daily cup of coffee in lieu of herbal teas, I have been opting for soups and stews in the evening (easier to digest than raw foods) and trying to really be present when I eat. Think: mindfully chewing each bite, eating slower and with more appreciation. No more TV dinners (at least for now), phone at the table or smoothie on the run. It is so important to sit down for a meal without any distractions.

But back to the best cookbooks my kitchen currently has to offer – some were gifts from family, some are borrowed from friends and others are my own purchases from places around the world that inspire me!

The Best Cookbooks: with plenty of inspiring plant-based or vegetarian meal ideas

• Malibu Farm: Not entirely plant-based or vegetarian, but with a farm-to-table approach, Malibu Farm is an incredible café in Southern California. I love both their Malibu and Newport Beach locations for a healthy brunch or lunch by the water. (More in my California Travel Guide). Bringing the best of the Californian Coast home to everywhere else in the world, this cookbook is built on the idea of fresh, organic, local.
• Ultimate Veg: “It’s all about celebrating really good, tasty food that just happens to be meat-free” says Jamie Oliver. I received this vegetarian cookbook from my aunt for my birthday back in February and since then, we have tried a few different recipes from the book and loved them all. However, our favorite is definitely the Bold Black Bean Soup, jazzed up with lime-spiked avocado, (feta) and chili. We usually skip the feta and it is just as amazing!
• Eat Clean, Play Dirty: The female founders of Sakara Life claim “food should make you feel sexy” – so true. Nobody likes feeling exhausted, bloated or stuffed after a meal. That’s why they have dedicated their business (meal deliveries in NYC) and this cookbook to a body and life you love! Designed to balance the science of nutrition with the pleasures of food, Sakara is a nutritional philosophy that helps to fuel the world’s most beautiful bodies.
• The Kinfolk Table: Cooking with friends, slow living, feel good kitchen. What’s not to love? Kinfolk is best known for it’s understated approach to entertaining and wonderful views into homes to inspire –  but this one combines kitchen tales, personal stories + favorite recipes. Although not entirely meat-less, this cookbook features 45 tastemakers who are cooking and entertaining in a way that is beautiful, uncomplicated, and inexpensive. Each has provided one to three of the recipes they most love to share with others, whether they be simple breakfasts for two, one-pot dinners for six, or a perfectly composed sandwich for a solo picnic. Need a tease? How about some Spiced Raw Chocolate Mousse or a Plum and Cilantro Salad with Fresh Goat Cheese.
• Eat Beautiful: How many times have we all heard “you are what you eat”? Uncountable, on my part. With good reason! The right foods and diet allow us to not only nourish our bodies but also our skin from the inside out. World-renowned beauty and make-up expert Wendy Rowe knows skin inside out. In this refreshing beauty + cookbook, Wendy talks glowing skin for each of the four seasons of the year. From cucumbers, ‘the internal cleanser’, to limes, ‘the natural astringent’ and carrots, ‘the immunity booster’, there are also breakdowns of the vitamins and nutrients each of these familiar ingredients provide. And of course the recipes to go along with it. I have shared this book before (back in 2016) and still love many of the recipes that can be found inside!

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