The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes

by John Mackey, Alona Pulde, Matthew Lederman

Whole Foods Market has long been synonymous with high-quality and healthy ingredients. Now, John Mackey, CEO and co-founder of Whole Foods Market, has teamed up with nutritional experts and leading chefs to create a cookbook inspired by these values. They know that cooking food yourself is the secret to changing your diet and sustaining a new lifestyle, and are sharing their favorite recipes that celebrate nutrient-rich, health-promoting whole plant foods.

The Whole Foods Cookbook philosophy starts with the basic tenet that the most important dietary change you can make is to eat more fruits and vegetables. To help you navigate the nebulous world of healthy eating, the authors have written a clear and friendly introductory summary of the Whole Foods Diet's principles, the essential 8 foods to eat, tips on setting up a stress-free kitchen, and more. You'll also find specific guides on cooking beans and grains, building flavors, and impressive techniques like sautéing without oil and roasting to add layers of flavor. But most tantalizing are their 120 recipes covering breakfast, smoothies, entrees, pastas, pizzas, healthy desserts, and more.

The ultimate goal of The Whole Foods Cookbook is to change your habits around eating and preparing food. In the midst of our busy lives, the last thing most of us need is an overly complicated diet. Get the basics right, learn to cook a few meals you love, and eat plenty of them. Once you become accustomed to the whole foods, plant-based lifestyle, you'll quickly gain the confidence to create your own delicious variations.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Vegan, Reference

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 30, 2018

About the author

John Mackey is an entrepreneur and the co-founder and visionary of Whole Foods Market. In his 44 years of service as CEO, the natural and organic grocer grew from a single store in Austin, Texas, to 540 stores in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, with annual sales exceeding $22 billion. Mackey co-founded the Conscious Capitalism Movement and co-authored a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book titled “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” and follow up, “Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity through Business.” He is also the co-author of “The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity” and “The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes.” Mackey currently serves on the board of directors for Conscious Capitalism, The Motley Fool, CATO Institute, The Institute for Cultural Evolution, and the Students for Liberty and is pursuing his next business venture, Love.Life.

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite plant based recipe book!

[Gayle Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and accessible recipes. My only complaint is that a lot of the recipes have way too many ingredients for meals in a hurry.

[James R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mackey follows the Hollywood drug dealer motto: "don't get high on your own supply." While he himself has all these healthy home cooked meals, he has no problem with cashing in on sales of cancer in his customers. He has no problem selling sugar, beer, and all the other garbage that's sold at Whole Foods. If he had a shred of concern for people, Whole Foods would never have sold processed meats, since they're IARC group 1 carcinogens. Mackey doesn't actually care about this stuff; his only concern is $$$. Whole Foods basically says, "yeah it's a carcinogen, but it's organic!" His stores not only went non-vegan, they became very similar to most supermarkets.

John Mackey is a hustler & assumes supermarkets & private kitchens should continue to be how we get our food. He has an incentive to promote the 1950s status quo of going to the supermarket and cooking in your own private kitchen & everyone owning their own personal Vitamix blender. He doesn't question the politics of food, especially how little kids are being raised on absolute garbage. There's no consequence for a parent feeding their kid a horrific diet (just look at childhood obesity rates). And for people who can't afford that Vitamix? Well, too bad for you! If you're a kid and your parent just gives you frozen dinners? Sorry you got dealt such a bad hand! Oh well!

My issue here isn't the nutrition or recipes. Eating whole grains & vegetables is good. The American diet is terrible. The major problem here is the bias of the author & this idea that each person needs to buy a book & learn this on their own. John's a libertarian and his politics are visible in everything he does. What we need are communal kitchens (as opposed to communal restaurants & communal supermarkets), the abolition of private kitchens & private cooking, and making more foods illegal. Instead, the libertarians want to block all of this & keep the status quo as is. Just do meal prep Sunday (be sure to watch the right TikTok videos!), go to Whole Foods, and be a good little individual. Ignore society! Ignore kids in other families! Ignore school cafeterias!

The real issue is our society & its unhealthy lifestyle. John has this assumption that each person needs to study this stuff on their own, go to the supermarket on their own, and cook on their own. This kind of thinking is rooted in 20th century libertarian ideas. Apps do this too, they put everything on the individual, ignoring wider society.

Our society needs a change at the fundamental level. If bacon causes cancer, why is it perfectly legal & fine for Whole Foods to sell it and for kids to consume it? This should be a crime & John Mackey should be held personally liable for colon cancer caused by consuming products from his store. Further, why is it up to each individual to make these choices? A lot of us grew up eating absolute garbage, so we're having to totally unlearn our upbringing, which is a massive task.

Mackey sold out decades ago and co-opted the health movement to make money. He compromised on the major fundamental issues in order to make it very profitable. The whole "organic" business is just a giant corporate scam at this point. They can pretend to be "green" or "healthy" and the public generally buys into the propaganda.

[Alaina · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re interested in learning to cook real, whole food this is a great place to start. The first portion of the book is filled with information about nutrition, cooking without oils & processed foods and general plant based cooking. There are lots of sources and cited materials for further reading and research. I’ve already tried numerous recipes and they have all been delicious.

Many of the recipes are by the Sarno brothers, the chefs behind the Wicked Healthy vegan cooking brand, so if you’re a fan of the Wicked Healthy cookbook you’d definitely like this one as well.

[Linda Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nicely written and filled with beautiful photographs of the recipes. A plant-centered cookbook, about what you'd expect from Whole Foods. Fairly comprehensive and basic, I didn't see a lot of new recipes that jumped out at me. Some of the desserts looked delicious and I will be trying a few of the sauces that are included in the chapters. Not as useful to me as to others because I know my husband will not eat 95% of the recipes in here.

[molly, mol, mols, mo, etc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing spectacular in the way of recipes. Everything is something that you could accidentally make just because your hungry; bowl foods, veggie roasts, scrambles. The “health” aspect is okaaaaay but even that is a lot of common sense. Not an impressive book by a long shot. I didn’t learn anything and I’m only excited about a single smoothie recipe. You’re better off just grabbing something at the Whole Foods hot bar and calling it a day.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Whole Foods cookbook really isn't a cookbook at all but rather a collection of suggestions on how to live the "Whole Foods" lifestyle. The recipes that were included were not that interesting and the tone of the book too preachy.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worked for Wellspring/Whole Foods at one point in life and looking for a few favorite dish recipes. Sadly this cookbook did not contain them. I did find a few recipes to try. I think the book gives okay overview about eating real food versus processed foods.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads Giveaway.

The book is beautifully done and filled with recipes that I can’t wait to try. There are several that seem to be quick, easy and kid friendly.

[Patricia Kaniasty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has a lot of interesting recipes. Tried 2 and was impressed. If that sets an example...……..it's a good one.

[Margaret Gerberding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book if you are eating a plant-based diet or want to incorporate more plant-based items into your diet!

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The educational sections were really good. The recipes required too many ingredients and often more than one recipe. Unless you have a healthy budget, this is not a book for beginners.

[Cook Memorial Public Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2018 staff favorite recommended by Ellen B. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore...

[Shanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting recipes! Looking forward to making a few of these.

[Fallon Chiasson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot more about technique than recipes.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made a few things out of the book. Most were pretty good. Not one I think I will put in my cookbook library.

[Demetrius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likely need to grab from library again to revisit various chef tips. Definitely see a good handful if not two handfuls of recipes I’ve very much want to make.

[Lydia Kass · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pictures. Typical recipes.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

just didn't see anything in there I wanted to cook.

[Kristina]

Some okay looking recipes.