They say food should be our first medicine, and that’s the premise of Julia & Libby’s Wholefood Kitchen. If you want to transform your body from the inside out, these two sisters have tried and tested their method presented in this book. They turned their diets from being highly processed and sugar-laden to wholefoods that nourish and promote health.
I’m liking
I’ve had this book on my coffee table for a few weeks now, and it has impressed a number of passersby. One drove home from my house and went to buy it en route to their destination. She reported back that she’s cooked quite a bit from it and really enjoys the food presented here. So that’s pretty high praise.
These two sisters aren’t chefs, but are home cooks. They have a wholefoods blog, and both have studied nutrition. Wholefoods are defined in the introduction as those closest to their natural state, and that’s what you’ll find in the recipes. The foundation of each chapter is around fruits and veges, wholegrains and legumes, eggs, seafood and a few recipes that contain meat.
Things that made me go hmmmm
There’s quite a lot of stuff at the start about healthy eating and kitchen equipment, as well as a chapter on homemade beauty products and a glossary. But the in between bits are recipes!
The food is in many ways, really simple. That’s the wholefoods philosophy, I guess. Nothing is overly complicated, although when you soup up traditional ‘treat’ foods to make them healthier, the do tend to rise in complexity – at least when it comes to preparation.
The conclusion
There are some fun dishes here, like deconstructed sushi. But do you need a book to show you how to cook rice and salmon along with a few chopped veges? I’m in two minds about this book. I can see the benefits of cooking this way but I don’t often feel like buckwheat porridge or feta and pea falafel; if I want strips of roasted kumara I’m not sure I’ll turn to a cook book to help me with that. I think probably more families would benefit from eating this food but when I produce it, it gets pushed around the plate and my son asks if there’s any leftover lasagne. The courgette chips weren’t a hit, but the chickpea curry was. I’ll keep going with this book – check out their blog and some of their recipes online to see if this book is for you.
Julia & Libby’s Wholefood Kitchen by Julia & Libby Matthews is published by Penguin Random House NZ and has an RRP of $50.00.
This book was kindly provided for review by Penguin Random House NZ.
