You Are What You Eat Cookbook - Dr Gillian McKeith
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To read our review of Gillian McKeith's You are What You Eat original book click here.
One of the few criticisms of Gillian McKeith's 'You Are What You Eat' was that she didn't include enough recipes. So... she brought out a book full of recipes. We review the cookbook in full and include a couple of recipes so you can work out if this is the cookbook for you.
The chapters are:
Introduction: My Story
Chapter 1: Food Philosophy
Chapter 2: Body Check
Chapter 3: Getting Organised
Chapter 4: Juices & Smoothies
Chapter 5: Breakfasts
Chapter 6: Soups
Chapter 7: Salads & Lunchboxes
Chapter 8: Main Meals
Chapter 9: Quick Bites
Chapter 10: Snacks
Chapter 11: Treats
Chapter 12: Stocks, Sauces & Dressings
Let's go through the chapters, one by one:
Introduction: My Story
This is a very brief, 2-page introduction to the cookbook - giving Gillian McKeith's background and how she came to believe in healthy eating.
Chapter 1: Food Philosophy
This chapter details Gillian's eight 'guides' to healthy eating:
- Eat as much food as you want, until you are satisfied, as long as you eat the right food, prepared in the right way
- Never get fixated on weight
- Don't Do Fad Diets - They Don't Work in the Long Term
- This is a Plan for Life
- It's Got to be My Way or the High Way
- Be Creative and Compassionate in your Cooking
- Embrace Change
- Be in Touch with Your Emotions
The chapter ends with a brief introduction to food combining.
Chapter 2: Body Check
The chapter starts with a questionnaire to check how healthy you are. Then there's an immune system questionnaire and some food recommendations (with links to the pages where the recipes are). There are more questionnaires with the 'Toxic Check' and the 'Tongue Check'.
Chapter 3: Getting Organised
In this chapter Gillian explains how to organise your kitchen and get in the right mindset for healthy eating. Then she details the herbs, spices and other staples that you'll need to stock up on.
The chapter ends with a sample menu plan that Gillian would recommend to a client, along with a shopping list to start you off.
Chapter 4: Juices & Smoothies
Having all recently bought smoothy makers and juicers we have to admit that this was our favourite chapter of the cookbook! As well as loads of different vegetable and fruit juices and smoothies, Gillain also explains what the health properties are of all the different fruit and vegetables you can choose from. For example, asparagus supports your kidneys, cress protects against cancer, onion is an immunity booster and watercress is good for bone health.
We tried the peach medley smoothy recipe:
serves 1-2
- 4 peaches, stoned and quartered
- 2 ripe pears, cored and roughly chopped
- 1 apple, cored and roughtly chopped
Add 120ml water. Blend until smooth and creamy and then serve.
The smoothly was pretty thick (and came out quite an unappetising brown colour) BUT when we added a little more water (you may like yours thick) it was actually really, really tasty.
Other juices and smoothies in this chapter include: Very Berry Blast-off, Sexy Starter, Mango Mania, Happy Tummy, Antibacterial and Immunity booster and Beetroot Bliss for the Liver.
So whether you're looking for a tasty fruit smoothy or a healthy veggie juice this chapter has LOADS of different suggestions. You can't go wrong with this.
Chapter 5: Breakfasts
This chapter includes different kind of fruit and muesli and porridge breakfasts. There's even a list of the different ingredients that you can combine to make your own muesli.
We really liked the fruit salad with warm pear sauce (serves 4):
- 4 ripe pears, cored and chopped
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 300g strawberries, hulled
- 300g rasperries
- 300g blueberries
1. Place the pears in a saucepan with the lemon juice. Add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and cook over a low heat until quite soft. Remove from liquid and allow to cool. Blend in a food processor or with a hand-held blender until smooth. Add a little water if you prefer the sauce to be thinner.
2. Mix the berries together in a bowl and pour over the pear sauce. Serve immediately or chill until required.
Chapter 6: Soups
Loads of yummy vegetarian soups in this chapter including: carrot and almond soup, creamy brocolli soup, turnip and leek soup, best-ever beetroot soup, hemp pumpkin soup, white bean and cabbage soup, butternut squash and sweet potato soup, spinach soup, super green kale soup and sleep lettuce soup. In fact.. ALL the soup recipes are vegetarian apart from one miso soup that includes fish.
Chapter 7: Salads & Lunchboxes
In this chapter Gillian describes 5 different lunchbox options and gives the recipes for FIFTEEN different vegetarian salads.
Our absolute favourite (and not surprisingly as Gillian says you should have this salad as a 'special treat') is Goat's Cheese with Roasted Tomatoes, Peppers and Rocket. Really, REALLY, yummy. Try it for yourself:
Serves 4
- 4 red peppers, de-seeded and halved
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 125g goat's cheese, crumbled
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 200g rocket
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6
2. Place the peppers (cut side up) and tomatoes on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and roast for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the goat's cheese inside the peppers and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Scatter over the pine nuts and return to the oven for 5 more minutes
4. Arrange the rocket on 4 plates, top with the peppers and tomatoes. Serve granished with fresh basil.
Chapter 8: Main Meals
This is the biggest chapter of the entire cookbook and it includes loads of tasty vegetarian recipes (there ARE meat dishes there too but about 3 quarters are vegetarian.)
Some of the recipes here include: chickpea burgers, vegetable sushi rolls, fragrant thai curry, vegetarian chili, shepherdess pie, tempeh with kale, radishes and sauerkraut, lettuce and cashew nut wraps with tahini dressing (really yummy, we tried these!), haricot bean loaf, mediterranean black-eye pea casserole, chestnut roast, smoked tofu and bean burgers, risotto rice, aduki bean stew with millet mash and mushroom stroganoff.
Chapter 9: Quick bites
A handful of recipes that you can prepare quickly when you're in a hurry including: stuffed courgettes and pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes
Chapter 10: Snacks
Lots of yummy little snacks in this chapter including: sesame rice balls, sweet potato wedges, swede carrot butter, cashew butter, black olive tapenade and home-made hummous.
Chapter 11: Treats
This chapter includes the recipes for some yummy desserts that aren't laden with sugar. They include: blueberry apple jelly, lemon mousse, cinnamon rice pudding and grilled banana with citrus spice.
Chapter 12: Stocks, Sauces and Dressings
One thing missing from a lot of other cookbooks is how to make simple sauces and dressings. This final chapter has a number of different stocks, sauces and dressings including: sesame miso dressing, onion gravy, vegetable stock, tangy barbecue relish, egg-free mayonnaise and home-made tomato ketchup.
Our Verdict
Whether you like Gillian McKeith or not, or want to get healthy or not, we think that this is a terrific recipe book full of tasty recipes (the fact that they're healthy too is a bonus). Yes, there are a few fish/meat recipes but the majority are vegetarian. We think there are some really yummy recipes in this book and we give it four stars out of five (it would be 5 if it was 100% vegetarian!). ****
You Are What You Eat Cookbook.
To buy the cookbook or read some more reviews click here to take a look
To read our review of the original 'You Are What You Eat' Diet plan click here
We have also reviewed the following books. See below for more details:
Carol Vorderman's 28 Day Detox
Detox Yourself - Jane Scrivener
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