With over 75 nourishing recipes and herbal remedies, this cookbook and seasonal guide to wellness pays homage to the ancient wisdom of the elements.Turn your kitchen into a healing sanctuary! This cookbook will help you identify your unique constitution based on the five elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and ether. Use that insight to design an everyday wellness practice with nourishing meals, … nourishing meals, healing herbs, and self-care rituals. Tapping into these elements is at the heart of all traditional medicines—Ayurveda, Western Herbalism, and Chinese Medicine—and it is the key to discovering your most vibrant self.
Discover the power of herbalism and the elements to feel balanced and well from season-to-season. With simple spices and healing herbs, you‘ll feel confident creating remedies that support mental clarity, enhanced digestion, a relaxed nervous system, and promote an overall radiance. From cleansing tonics like Roasted Dandelion Chai or Hibiscus Punch with Schisandra Salt to rejuvenating classics like Kitchari with Golden Ghee or Tumeric Congee, you’ll find transformative recipes and uses for adaptogenic herbs to restore and find balance every day.
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Healing and Wellness with Herbs and Elements
The first thing you notice about this book is the vibrant colors and beautiful-looking food. This is not just a cookbook, even though it is called such. While it does have a large section of recipes at the end divided by season, the earlier part of the book looks at the healing nature of herbs, spices, and other foods more generally as well as has an extensive discussion of the five elements and how they relate to food, healing, and wellness. If you want to use nature’s apothecary, you will need to have access to a well-stocked health food store that sells a variety of fresh and dried ingredients (or a good farmers’ market or perhaps you would prefer to grow your own when possible). Because there is so much to this book aside from the recipes, it makes for a fascinating read; I love to read cookbooks and books about health/wellness… so this cookbook is right up my alley. The authors state that they have a grounding both in Western herbalism and Ayurveda. These two influences certainly come through in the book. Before they get to the section of seasonal recipes, they also share some general recipes like how to make herb-infused honeys, decoctions, and so much more—so don’t skip right to the recipe section… or you’ll miss some good basic ones. If you see healthful eating as something more than denying yourself a macronutrient (as current diets tend to do), you may very well appreciate this book that tells us the healing gems of nature’s bounty that we should add to our diets to make them more healthful.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
A well-written cookbook. One of those that is interesting to read as well as educational. I am not an herbalist, nor do I practice a sort of alternative type of medicine. Although much of this book leans toward topics on wellness both physically and mentally, I think there is something here for everyone. It’s possible people might view it as more focused than I did. This is a book I would use but also place on my shelf as a cookbook/reference book.
I think I’m a fairly good cook. Definitely an experimenter. With so many recipes online today, there are some definite criteria that are of utmost importance to me in the purchase of a cookbook. Kosmic Kitchen meets those criteria.
It contains a lot of varied information. Not just recipes, but information concerning herbs, spices, and many other plant-based items. As I said I don’t utilize my herbs for healing or well-being. I view them more as a flavoring, but I learned a great deal from this book. I never shy away from trying foods that sound good or are good for you.
Another aspect (maybe #1) is that the recipes are well-written and clear. Writing recipes is not just a list of ingredients and how to cook something. A recipe is a well-thought-out diagram, aiding you in creating something in the most efficient and tasteful manner possible. Sloppy or half-baked recipe instructions are a bug-a-boo with me. I will put down the most beautiful cookbook if the recipes are not put together well. Even though I am a seasoned cook and could possibly figure out what to do, it’s a pass for me. None of that exists in Benjamin and Singletary’s book.
And also finally (also maybe #1) Among the recipes are unique descriptions of what various ingredients can be used for. All kinds of additional ideas; sort of a blank canvas to paint on.
And then finally (again maybe #1) beautiful photos. I am very visual. Often a photo inspires me to cook, to create, or just to make sure I am feeding people aesthetically and healthy.
This is a much longer review than I normally write. One with a lot of “#1” items. I tend to not read long reviews myself because I don’t want to know much of the story. But there’s a lot to describe in this Kosmic Kitchen Cookbook. A lot to be savored.