“Healthy” and “wholesome” are among the buzzwords in cookbook titles these days. Many are written by bloggers with huge followings and adorable family members who pop up in lifestyle photographs happily rolling cookie dough or slurping noodles at an immaculate kitchen counter.
The recipes within this genre tend to be practical and reliably good. And for my purposes, they make great candidates for re-gifting to make room for similar ones sure to follow.
I do have my favorites I’m inclined to hang onto. One is “The Defined Dish: Healthy and Wholesome Weeknight Recipes” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30), the debut cookbook of Alex Snodgrass, a Dallas recipe developer who founded the popular blog by the same name. I reviewed the book when it was released in 2020 and still reach for it for quick inspiration.
The Sichuan-inspired Cumin Beef Stir-Fry and Sesame Asparagus Sauté I made from her new spin-off convinces me that it, too, is destined to be a keeper. Like her first book, “The Comfortable Kitchen: A Defined Dish Book: 105 Laid-Back, Healthy, and Wholesome Recipes” (Morrow, $29.99) is grounded in the clean-eating principles of the Whole30 program she adopted years ago to help her manage postpartum anxiety issues. Recipes in both books are clearly marked as gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, Whole30 and paleo, with plenty of leeway for adapting to your dietary needs.
“The Comfortable Kitchen” loosens up those restrictions further, allowing for splurges such as Orecchiette alla Vodka made with heavy cream and real Parmesan (but easily made gluten-free by swapping the pasta) and Individual Texas “Sheet” Cakes (using almond-flour instead of all-purpose, and coconut sugar and maple syrup for sweetening). There’s even a chapter of her husband’s no-holds-barred cocktails because, in her opinion, “life is too short, and we should enjoy a little bit of everything if we are able.”
Following that philosophy, I could get comfortable chowing down on Shrimp Ceviche and Crunchy Chicken Tinga Tacos while sipping one of her husband’s specialty margaritas.
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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