Every once in a while we stumble upon an amazing new cookbook that just gets what we’re living for; powerful plant-based eating, functional ingredients — and perfectly dreamy photography. Our latest crush — whose gorgeous cover will be proudly showcased on our shelves for the foreseeable future — is Radiant: The Cookbook by Portuguese chef and nutritionist, Mafalda Pinto Leite.
We added Radiant: The Cookbook to our January shop just after its launch and readers picked it up by the armload. Behind that coffee table-worthy cover lies a world of plant-based eating that’ll inpsire you and nourish you on levels you may never have experienced.
Radiant illuminates the healing properties of edible plants and herbs and shows us how to use them as fuel for all the things we’re working towards daily: to boost brain power and energy, balance hormones, improve digestion, even out our moods and get our skin glowing.
While Radiant is mainly a cookbook, it’s also an encyclopedic guide to discovering the magic of whole foods. If you’ve been looking for a guide to all things plant-based, but don’t know where to start, Radiant will teach you how to begin and help you find the kinds of recipes you’ll stick with for life.
Mafalda has made food’s role in beauty and holistic health her life’s work for the last fifteen years. She’s worked in food arenas around the world — including Jamie Oliver’s first restaurant, has published six cookbooks and has her own line of transformational foods, Puro Sumo, that is as every bit gorgeous as you might assume.
Mafalda believes that food can be healing medicine and a beauty regimen all in one — she created her new cookbook to show us how.
Radiant breaks down into three parts:
Part one… explains how nutrient-rich ingredients can transform health and beauty.
Part two… breaks down the best fruits, veggies, spices and adaptogens, the nutritional benefits for each and what they’re best used for.
Part three… is full of the healthy, light and absolutely beautiful recipes you’ll need to put them into play!
If you’re not the ‘diet’ type, but want to learn how to incorporate the most powerful plants you can into your diet for health and beauty, Mafalda’s guide will take you through education, sourcing and shopping, all the way to fork and plate.
The idea of a life filled with functional lattes and avocado-drenched salad dressing is what all this wellness stuff is about — its a thrill, not a chore to eat well. Grab a copy of Radiant and take a deep-dive into Mafalda’s beautifully holistic “inside out” approach to well-being. Here’s a spot-on recipe for spring to get you started…
Green Goddess Noodles
Turning vegetables into noodles creates wonderful texture and gives visual beauty to a dish. If you don’t already own a spiralizer, drop what you’re doing and buy yourself one. Throw in all types of hard vegetables and fruit, whirl it around, and welcome yourself into a whole new world. These noodles transform any dish from plain boring to breathtaking, both visually and texture wise, and they always upgrade a salad.
Ingredients:
For The Noodles:
bunch of kale
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced
2 Tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos or tamari
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp lemon zest
1 garlic clove, minced
pinch of pink salt
1 beet, spiralized
1 cucumber, spiralized (try to avoid seeds)
1 avocado, diced
½ cup pumpkin seeds
2 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 cups Green Goddess Dressing (recipe follows)
For The Dressing:
1 avocado
¼ cup tahini
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup water
¼ cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
¼ cup loosely packed fresh parsley
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped chives
½ tsp spirulina
1 Tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos or tamari
1 garlic clove
pinch of pink salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth and creamy, adding more water if necessary to achieve the desired consistency.
Tear the kale into bite-size pieces and put into a big bowl. Add the Liquid Aminos, lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, and salt. Massage the kale with your hands for a couple of minutes to soften and coat.
Divide the dressed kale among four bowls. Top with the spiralized beet and cucumber and the avocado, distributing the ingredients evenly among the bowls. Sprinkle with the seeds, generously drizzle with the dressing, and serve.
From Radiant: The Cookbook by Mafalda Pinto Leite © 2018 by Mafalda Pinto Leite. Photographs by Antonio Nascimento. Reprinted in arrangement with Roost Books, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Grab a copy of Radiant: The Cookbook + get glowing!
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