Plant Magic: A Celebration of Plant-Based Cooking for Everyone

by Desiree Nielsen

#1 TORONTO STAR BESTSELLER

From bestselling author Desiree Nielsen comes over 100 deeply flavourful and wildly delicious recipes for everyone who wants to eat more plants and feel good.

In Plant Magic, Desiree shares approachable ways to incorporate plants into your meals, along with how to dial up your pantry andtricks for coaxing the best out of simple foods like beans, grains, and vegetables. Plant-based cooking doesn’t have to be expensive, time consuming, or restrictive. Whether you’re craving morning things, stuff on bread, one pot (or pan) dishes, salads, tasty noodles, really good sweets, or everyday tonics and potions, Plant Magic makes cooking and eating joyful. Get ready to make Earl Grey Breakfast Loaf; An Easy, Cozy Lasagna; Lemony Chickpea and Potato Stew; Cumin Lime Black Bean Burgers; Sunshine Panzanella; Black Olive and Za’atar Focaccia; Tempeh Nachos; Rocky Road Blender Brownies; Carrot Cake with Cashew Frosting; and Hibiscus Lemonade. Featuring gorgeous photography throughout, Plant Magic shows you just how delicious plant-based food can be and that sometimes, healthy eating looks like a kale salad and sometimes, it looks like cake.

Genres: Cookbooks, Vegan, Food, Cooking

328 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 23, 2024

About the author

Desiree Nielsen RD spent what seems like her entire childhood in her grandmother's kitchen, stealing bites of sweet bread dough as it laid on the table rising. A love of good food was instilled in her long before she even thought about what was "good for her".

As a dietitian, she's passionate about helping people find the joy in eating healthy plant-based dishes that energize mind and body.

The host of TV's The Urban Vegetarian, Desiree is a trusted expert on anti-inflammatory nutrition, gut health and plant-based diets.

Desiree believes that modern nutrition has been lost in a sea of nutrient recommendations. Choosing unprocessed foods, largely plants, is the foundation of an eating plan that fosters good health. Passionate about promoting local and organic agriculture, Desiree loves preparing a simple meal made from the best of the season to share with friends and family.

Desiree's nutrition practice respects traditional knowledge and beliefs while maintaining a commitment to the latest nutrition evidence. To her, food is more than the nutrition it provides -- it is a vital part of our culture, our celebrations and our lives.

A sought after speaker, Desiree's positive "real world" approach to healthy eating is informative, motivating and practical. Desiree has been featured on local and national media across the US and Canada, including USA Today, The Globe and Mail, Well + Good NYC, Mind Body Green, Lifetime, Women's Health, SELF and The Marilyn Denis Show.

Desiree's love of food extends well beyond her work: she enjoys strolling through markets wherever she travels, hoarding cookbooks and one day hopes to become an expert gardener - instead of how she currently gardens, with clippers in one hand and Google in the other. Desiree is thankful everyday to have the opportunity to do what she loves most: sharing her passion for food and living well with the community.

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this plant-based cookbook appears to be living in Canada, so I'll start off by saying Yay! Canadian writer! I've taken a close (more on that in a minute!) look at these recipes and found a large variety of meals and ingredients, and was delighted to find different kinds of grains used, not just quinoa like the last vegan collection I looked at (and rejected.) I cannot tolerate quinoa and truly welcome new ideas. As well there are lots of "swaps" for people like me who can't or won't eat certain ingredients. (You will thank me tomorrow for not eating black beans today.) I've picked out 3 recipes I want to try right off the bat, but it'll take me some time to decipher what I need to have and do: in the softcover version of the book, which I'm currently using, the ingredient amounts, especially those in fractions, are printed in such minute fonts that I can't tell the difference between 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8. The directions are also in an unreadable font for me. The only way I will be able to follow any of the recipes is to use my phone to enlarge each section and read from the photos. On top of that, a few of the recipe titles were printed in extremely faded, and for me unreadable, pastel colours and there really isn't a fix for that except to have someone read them to me. The fix for me may just be to pass the hard copy on to someone else and buy the kindle version.

***I may remove this section from this review at some point, but I need to point out that the author states "I have always had the privilege of being in a body that is deemed socially acceptable, so I can only ever write from that place" and I really had to stop and catch my breath. If I thought for a second that society had the right to deem my body "socially acceptable" or otherwise, I wouldn't be thinking a cookbook is what that society needs right now. Does society need to be told to keep its eyes above my collarbone?

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to get you excited about cooking. Most of the recipes had ingredients that I wouldn't use, but I flagged 9 of them for inspiration

[Astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting recipes and recipe construction. Would buy this one.

[Sophie Lapierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful cookbook full of deliciousness. Cannot wait to try the tempeh nachos, they look amazing!