Food Matters: The Reason Behind the Recipes

Every single recipe on this site is both vegetarian and gluten-free.  Most of the recipes you’ll find here are also vegan, or can easily be made vegan with simple substitutions. And many of those same recipes are paleo-friendly.

Why? Well, first and foremost, because that’s how I try to eat. That doesn’t mean that I think that absolutely everyone should eat the same way absolutely all the time. Everyone’s lifestyle is unique and everyone’s diet is different. As it should be.

There are, however, many benefits to limiting the amount of animal products and gluten you consume on a regular basis, especially in favor of nutrient-dense plant foods. And these are benefits that absolutely everyone can enjoy. I don’t think you’ll find a nutritionist anywhere who will argue that incorporating more vegetables into your diet is a bad idea.

One of my favorite cookbooks is Clean Food by Terry Walters. It’s full of delicious recipes that are based on the healthiest, cleanest foods possible – that just so happen to be almost entirely vegan and mostly gluten-free as well. And while the author does include a brief discussion on why she generally avoids animal products and gluten in favor of other “cleaner” and more nutritious foods, it comes across as really not all that big of a deal. Nowhere on the front, back, or inside cover of the original edition of the book does she even use the words “vegan,” “vegetarian,” or “gluten-free.” And when the book first came out, it wasn’t marketed as another gluten-free vegan cookbook. And that’s what I loved most about it. It felt approachable and accessible to omnivores and people who may have otherwise been put off by those labels. It emphasized whole, healthy, clean foods above anything else.

That’s the same reason why I don’t splash those same words all over the front page of this website. Because that isn’t my main message, and because I don’t believe that my recipes can only be enjoyed by people who already eat that way.

I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all diet. But I do believe in making delicious food that everyone can enjoy, whether it’s a hard-core carnivore or a die-hard vegan, or someone with a dairy allergy or a gluten intolerance.

In my family, for example, we have someone who eats mostly vegan, someone else who eats mainly meat, dairy, eggs, and bread, a couple of celiacs who can’t go anywhere near gluten, and pretty much everything in between. These are my taste testers. And my goal is to make nourishing, nutritious food that every single one of them will enjoy.

And that’s my bottom line. I’m not out to convert people to give anything up, except maybe for processed foods with unrecognizable ingredients. But I would like to convince you that making food is fun, veggies can be crazy delicious, and healthy eating shouldn’t be about restrictions, sacrifices, or guilt.

To sum it up, in the words of Michael Pollan:

Eat [real] food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

What about the science? A recently published article compared most popular diets in order to try and figure out which one came out on top. The best diet? Not really a diet at all. Just real food.

“The weight of evidence strongly supports a theme of healthful eating while allowing for variations on that theme. A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature, predominantly plants, is decisively associated with health promotion and disease prevention.” 

Read a summary of the findings and an interview with the main author, Dr. David Katz, in this article from the Atlantic.

In Katz’s words: “If you focus on real food, nutrients tend to take care of themselves.”