Oh boy, this year I think I’ve cleaned out the library’s selection of cookbooks that have any kind of relation to gluten free or paleo or whole foods in general. Some have been too extreme for my liking – although I’m sure they have their fans – and others would come in conflict with what the rest of the family would eat. For example, I have some picky eaters – and serious coconut haters, and coconut is a big thing when it comes to being used as a flour and a dairy alternative. So I’m doing the best I can! It’s a steep learning curve! Here are my favourites picks from among the pile of cookbooks I’ve read.

Nom Nom Paleo by Michelle Tam +  Henry Fong

Tam’s popular Nom Nom Paleo blog has been transformed into a visually distinctive and fun cookbook. It is full of her humour – they seem like such a cool family – and is packed with recipes, 50% of these never published before. The recipes free of gluten, soy, and added sugar. A friend recommended it to me and it’s a good place to start if you’re thinking about a paleo diet. It contains over 100 recipes.

Low FODMAP Recipes by Sue Shepherd

What the hell is FODMAP? Well it’s an acroymn for referring to Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. What are they? Certain molecules that some people digest poorly. Sue Shepherd is a dietitian who suffers from coeliac disease who developed the Low-Fodmap diet to help those people with these intolerances (that include fructose, wheat, lactose, sorbitol and others). This diet is well recommended and instituted by people I know who follow it. The recipes are gluten free, too. It’s helped me. There are 150 recipes in total.

Supercharged Food by Lee Holmes

I’ve seen a few cookbooks by Holmes on the shelves at bookstores. This has more than 90 recipes that are gluten, wheat, dairy, yeast and sugar-free. It’s fairly ‘no frills’, but it’s lack of pretension makes it accessible and readable (and preferable to other cookbooks that are like encyclopedias!).

I Quit Sugar for Life by Sarah Wilson

I quit sugar at about this time last year. This book is a sequel-of-sorts to I Quit Sugar and I like this one better. I think the recipes are more family-friendly. I know her brand of ‘quitting’ sugar comes under fire a lot, and so I think her – better – ethos of just trying to eat better, more wholesome food sometimes gets lost a little. What I really like is her approach to the juices vs smoothies debate. If she’s happy enough to throw everything in a blender then so am I (and I do).

Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr.

If you want the very greenest of the green on the scale of health, this would come very close. Kris Carr’s incredible story of living with cancer (“cancer thriver” is what she calls herself, which I love) is inspiring and her appraoch to food is anti-inflammatory and vegetarian, emphasising a pH balance of the body.

My Darling Lemon Thyme by Emma Galloway (not available at Booktopia! So sad!)

I think this is my favourite of the bunch. It is a gorgeous book, the design and photography are all top notch and I love how Galloway brings it back to her own personal story and I can really see my crew (remember, they’re picky!) sitting down to these vegetarian and gluten-free meals without complaint.

Note: contains affiliate links