The Healing Cookbook: Nourishing Plant-Based Recipes to Help You Feel Better and Stay Well

by Gemma Ogston

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks, Cooking

192 pages, Hardcover

Published March 12, 2024

About the author

Gemma Ogston is a plant-based chef and mum of two with her own company Gem’s Wholesome Kitchen based in Brighton.
She works closely with organisations such as Mums the Word Online and brands such as Dorset Cereals, providing beautiful and delicious food for events as well as designing cleanse packages for individuals. Her food is plant-based and plastic free

Reviews

[Anouk Verniers]

Delicious & perfect read in my healing era.

[Online Eccentric Librarian]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is more lifestyle than cookbook, with far more of the book devoted to changing the way you live rather than the what you eat. As such, there aren't a whole lot of recipes in here - just advice on how to live better which includes some food items and a lot of happiness juju.

The book has four main sections: recovery, replenish, staying well, and supercharge. Each section has some clip art and perhaps an inspirational image, advice on the topic, tidbits, and a few recipes. E.g., the first section, recovery, has: introduction, image of a sunset, advice to stop and take a break, then various toast toppers, vitamin C fruit salad, easy juices, checking in with yourself tips, being kind to yourself, healing words, better rest, simple healing broth and ramen noodles (recipe), flu buster golden turmeric soup + brown rice (recipe), healing hydration ideas, how to breathe, tummy loving simple stew (recipe), calming green soup (recipe), steamed kitchari (recipe). The juices section has 4 recipes, the toast toppers has 4, and healing hydration has 4 tea recipes. Some of the recipes have photographs; otherwise, there is a lot of simple clip art.

Each recipe has serving size, prep time, cooking time. Photos of the recipes can be anywhere: above, below, under the title. Each recipe has an introduction, ingredients list at the left, and then unnumbered clunky paragraphs for steps. There are occasional options provided for the recipes, e,g., toppings for a soup. There is no allergy, nutrition info, or macros. The recipes are mixed into the text and honestly can be hard to find, especially since they are not listed in the table of contents and you have to remember or know whether a recipe is for recovery or supercharging.

I honestly don't know how to rate this. It was a bit too woo-woo for me though certainly you could see that the author has heart and a good message. The recipes themselves were a mixed bag - they were not all vegan (e.g., honey), they aren't necessarily weight or health conscious (lots of coconut milk, white flours, white sugars, etc). But at the same time, they would certainly be better than the standard diet so many eat with unhealthy animal products and processed foods. And they have a lot of healthy ingredients in them (though the variety of recipes wasn't that great and I wasn't tempted by any of the main meal items).

Because the book feels chaotic, the recipes are hard to find, the recipes themselves have unnumbered steps that are frustrating to deal with along with a few surprisingly unhealthy ingredients, and because this really is a new-age type of wellness book rather than a cookbook, I think it wasn't what I was looking for and I did not get much out of it. View this as a self help book with recipes. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Luke Agger-Joynes]

Despite being described as a book of plant based recipes, the author uses non-plant based recipes throughout (namely honey).

This of course can be easily substituted with other natural sweeteners and natural sugars, for example agave, maple syrup, date syrup, dandelion syrup, etc. The fact the author couldn’t be bothered to remove a product from animals from her recipes, and then proceed to claim the book to be entirely plant based boggles my mind. Mind you the introduction states that the author uses dairy and eggs, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

[Lauren McCain]

I carry Gemma’s 2 cookbooks around the kitchen with me religious texts. The recipes are vegan, delicious, and cozy, and, just like her first book, never overwhelm me or seem too complicated.

This book added a few more lifestyle type tips, which I liked, but still kept mostly the same layout. Great for chronic illness, plant-based diets, sensitive tummies, etc.

i have so many favorites but ty gemma for giving me vegan shepherds pie 🫶

[Mairi Byatt]

Interesting read