12 Healthy Cookbooks Every Kitchen Needs
Whether you’re looking to eat a little healthier or want to add some variation to your diet, we’ve scoured the web and rounded up twelve of the best healthy cookbooks. From Rachel Ama’s one-pot wonder recipes to the batch-cooking saviour Joe Wicks’ family recipe guide to the gut health cookbook from the Macfarlane twins, here are our favourites.
Jamie Oliver’s Eat Yourself Healthy is less about strict rules and more about building habits that actually stick. The recipes are designed to support gut health, energy and everyday wellbeing, without straying too far from the flavours and formats people already enjoy eating. Hearty breakfasts, balanced midweek dinners and smarter takes on comfort food are all grounded in simple nutrition principles rather than trends.
What makes the book effective is its practicality. Ingredients are familiar, methods are simple, and the focus stays firmly on how food fits into real lives with busy schedules, family cooking and weeknight routines included. There’s a clear emphasis on fibre, plant diversity and whole foods, but it never feels preachy or restrictive. Instead, the book quietly reframes healthy eating as something sustainable, generous and satisfying, making it a strong choice for anyone looking to eat better without turning their kitchen upside down.
Who said cooking healthy food had to be complicated and boring? Rewriting what it means to be vegan is Rachel Ama, the chef, YouTuber and blogger from north London. In her cookbook, One Pot: Three Ways, you’ll find Rachel sharing easy, healthy and flavour-packed recipes that are simple to cook up.
Perfect for those who love to batch cook or are looking for a simple centrepiece to make for a dinner party, the book is made up with recipes using one pot and three serving options, so you can keep it simple or go the extra mile. Indulge on the likes of peri peri mushrooms with peri peri pittas, potato wedges and slaw or peri peri charred sweetcorn salad bowls.
Keeping it simple and healthy is Rukmini Iyer’s cookbook, The Roasting Tin. Literally everyone I know has a copy of this book or one of the successful follow-ups and it’s easy to see why. Each is packed with simple recipes that require minimal effort – which is always a huge bonus when you’re low on energy after a long day at work or for nights when you just can’t be bothered.
The Roasting Tin boasts 75 one dish recipes, from chicken tray bakes to supergrain saviours, midweek pasta bakes to herby salmon lunch ideas.
Comfort never looked so good or nutritious. Bowls & Broths is a cookbook from the cancer research scientist turned cook and best-selling author, Pippa Middlehurst (AKA @pippyeats). Inside you’ll find everything you need to know about making broth-based recipes, from seasoning to layering.
The simple step-by-step process is easy to follow and will see you cooking up hearty favourites and dishes that can be made in advance and stored away in the freezer for a later date. Think noodles, hotpots, rice, dumplings and even a few sweet treats thrown in for good measure.
ByRuby’s cookbook, Freeze, is the only guide you need when it comes to batch cooking. Complete with simple hacks and easy follow-along recipes, the cookbook is packed with everything you need to know when it comes to convenient cooking, from midweek meals to foolproof sides.
Delve inside and your freezer will soon be packed out with dishes such as vegetable and chickpea tagine; roasted seasonal roots with herbs; fish pie; wild mushroom risotto; and passionfruit tart for days when you fancy something sweet.
Ottolenghi can do no wrong when it comes to crafting recipes infused with passion, flavour and store cupboard essentials. In his latest cookbook, Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love, you’ll find recipes that raise a toast to the simple ingredients that line our fridge shelves, cupboards and freezers, ones that are often overlooked. Casting a fresh new eye over them, Ottolenghi and his Test Kitchen team give them a new life.
After the winter period, we often look to spring as a new start when it comes to cooking and finding a balance. Twins Alana and Lisa Macfarlane are here to guide you in the right direction as you learn to love and take care of your body and gut, through what they describe as a ‘toolkit’.
Learn to be good to your body through Macfarlane’s recipe guide. Craft dishes like their loveable veggie chilli; bright beetroot burgers with root vegetable chips; and omega packed salad.
When you’re cooking for just yourself, it’s easy to lose motivation and fall into the trap of skipping meals or snacking instead of making a healthy, nutritious dinner. Here to help you tackle that problem is Klancy Miller and her cookbook, Cooking Solo. Through her guide of 100 recipes, you’ll learn to fall back in love with food and the kitchen. Whip up the likes of smoked duck breast salad; spicy pork burger with coconut; and mackerel with lemon and capers.
The man on a mission to change the way we eat one healthy recipe at a time, Joe Wicks released a cookbook designed with families in mind, Feel Good Food is stacked with over 100 recipes that are simple to follow, quick to make and packed with flavour. Find inspiration within the weeknight dinners, breakfast recipes, energy-packed snacks and guilt-free sweets.
Mealtime with children can often feel like a battle. You’ll make something new and they’ll decide that they hate it before even trying a bite. David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl know the struggles of having raised three children while writing their cookbook, so they know a few tried and tested ways of getting kids to get adventurous in the kitchen. Even if it means crafting burgers that look like dinosaurs…
The Little Green Kitchen cookbook is a vegetarian cookbook made up of over 60 recipes designed with fussy children in mind. For the adults, there’s even an ‘upgrade’ option meaning you can add in a few extra spices and ingredients to make it even better for a more refined palette.
If you’re looking for food that will charge your body AND your mind, look no further. Mind Food is a collection of tasty recipes that all centre around whole grains, fresh veggies and fruit, healthy fats, and adaptogenic herbs.
Plant-based chef and food educator Lauren Lovatt draws on her own experiences with mental health and presents an empowering approach to food and wellbeing. Her recipes are not only good for our bodies but also the environment, as she cooks with only sustainable ingredients.
Delicious food doesn’t have to be difficult to make and with this cookbook, you’ll find a multitude of simple recipes bursting with flavour. From British-Iranian chef, Sabrina Ghayour gives exciting and vibrant recipes that won’t take hours to make.
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