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These days, healthy recipe books are popping up left, right and centre, but we’re not complaining! From vegan and raw, to clean and simple, the following cookbooks (and UnCookbooks) are a few of our current favourites.

Naturally Sassy by Saskia Gregson-Williams

Not many seventeen year olds can say they have a published recipe book under their belts, but this ballet and foodie superstar can – and a completely vegan gluten and refined sugar free one at that! Sassy of the beloved blog Naturally Sassy takes the hassle and confusion out of healthy cooking with her easy to follow recipes featuring accessible ingredients that can be found in your local supermarket. Read on for the gluten free pizza recipe we can’t get enough of…

Brown rice pizza with a sun-dried tomato sauce (pictured above)

Pizza base

  • 220g (13/4 cups) brown rice flour
  • 3 tablespoons arrowroot
  • 1/2 tablespoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 20g (1/2 cup) roughly chopped parsley
  • 350ml (1/2. cups) warm water
  • 60ml (1/4. cup) olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Sun-dried tomato sauce

  • 60g (1 cup) sun-dried tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 60ml (1/4 cup) passata
  • clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

Toppings

  • 1 medium-sized squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into small cubes
  • 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Pinch of salt
  • 150g (1 1/2 cups) sliced white mushrooms
  • 2 sweet peppers (any colour), deseeded and sliced
  • 1 handful of fresh basil, roughly shredded
  • 30g (1/4 cup) pine nuts
  • 50g (1/2 cup) pitted black olives
  • 1 handful of rocket, to garnish

Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5 and line a 30cm pizza tray or a baking sheet with baking parchment. Place the squash in a roasting tin, drizzle

over the olive oil and add a pinch of salt. Pop in the oven to roast for 30 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, place all the ingredients for the pizza base in a mixing bowl and mix until fully combined. Scoop the dough out onto the prepared pizza tray/baking sheet and, with wet hands, flatten it out and mould into your pizza shape. You want a very thin crust, so it’s best to spread the dough out as much as possible. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden.

While the pizza base is cooking, place all the ingredients for the sun-dried tomato sauce into a blender and blend until smooth.

Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the sun-dried tomato sauce, mushrooms, peppers, basil, pine nuts and black olives. Cook for a further 10 minutes and serve, with the sweet potato cubes scattered on top and garnished with rocket leaves.

Extracted from Naturally Sassy by Saskia Gregson-Williams (Ebury press, £16.99) Photography by Matt Russell

The UnCook Book by Tanya Maher

If you’ve ever been to Tanya’s Cafes here in London I’m sure you are dying to try and re-create some of her absolutely delicious dishes! The good news is that now you can with The UnCook Book, the Essential Guide to a Raw Food Lifestyle. Tanya makes raw cooking not only look beautiful, but simple too, so anyone from an advanced raw foodie to a raw newbie will have loads of fun playing around in the kitchen with this book. Raw carrot cake anyone? Um yes please! Get creative in the kitchen with the recipe below.

Carrot Cake

Screen Shot 2015-10-01 at 11.28.37

Serves 12

For the cake:

  • 150g (51⁄2oz) pitted dates, soaked for 4–6 hours
  • 70g (21⁄2oz) dried pineapple, chopped small
  • 750g (1lb 101⁄2oz) carrots, grated and squeezed to remove excess liquid
  • 50g (13⁄4oz) ground flaxseeds
60g (2oz) ground gluten-free porridge oat flakes
  • 70g (21⁄2oz) coconut oil, melted 75g (23⁄4oz) maple syrup
  • 2 tsp mixed spice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1⁄2 tsp himalayan salt

For the icing:

  • 1 vanilla pod
 130g (41⁄2oz) cashew nuts, soaked for 4–8 hours
  • 50g (13⁄4oz) coconut oil, gently melted
  • 80g (23⁄4oz) agave nectar
  • 
juice of 1 lemon

Prepare the cake layer first. Process the dates and pineapple in a food processor until the mixture becomes chutney-like.

Add the remaining ingredients and process again until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a 23cm (9in) springform cake tin and press it down firmly to spread it across the base.

To prepare the icing, scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod. To do so, slice the pod in half lengthwise, then use a teaspoon to scrape out all the seeds until the inside of the pod is dry. Discard the pod.

Transfer all seeds and the remaining icing ingredients to a high-speed blender and blend on a high speed setting until thick and creamy.

Smooth the icing over the cake with a palette knife. Alternatively, if you prefer a runnier look, pour the icing over the cake, allowing it to drip down the side.

Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to set the icing. Alternatively, if you prefer your icing to be runnier, remove the cake from the tin and pour the icing over it when serving.

Tip:  The loose base of the cake tin is not completely flat, as it has raised edges. To remove the cake easily without losing any of it that may catch on this ridge, insert the base into the adjustable tin ring so that the ridge faces downwards.

Extracted from The UnCook Book by Tanya Maher (HayHouse Uk, £16.99) 

A Modern Way to Cook by Anna Jones

Like many in the industry, Anna quit her desk job to pursue her passion of becoming a chef. Adding food stylist and writer for the well-known Jamie Oliver to her CV, Anna Jones has established herself as a key player on the foodie scene. She recently published her gorgeous vegetarian cook book A Modern Way to Cook which really embodies her belief that vegetables should be the centre of every table and that eating healthy is not a constriction but joyful and delicious. For an easy weeknight recipe, try this:

Kale, Tomato and Lemon Magic One-Pot Spaghetti

Serves Four Generously

  • 400g spaghetti or linguine (Editors note: we love gluten free)
  • 400g cherry tomatoes
  • the zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons
  • 100ml olive oil
  • 2 heaped teaspoons sea salt (if you are using fine-grain table salt, add a bit less)
  • 1 × 400g bag of kale or spinach
  • Parmesan cheese (I use a vegetarian one) (optional)

The key to this recipe is to measure your water carefully and to use the right pan: you need a large shallow sauté pan or a casserole large enough to fit the pasta lying down. A large deep frying pan or wok would work well too.

Fill and boil a kettle and get all your ingredients and equipment together. You need a large shallow pan with a lid.

Put the pasta into the pan. Quickly and roughly chop the tomatoes in half and throw them into the pan. Grate in the zest of both lemons and add the oil and salt. Add 1 litre of boiling water, put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil. As soon as it comes to the boil, remove the lid and simmer on a high heat for 6 minutes, using a pair of tongs to turn the pasta every 30 seconds or so as it cooks.

Meanwhile, remove any tough stalks from the kale or spinach and roughly tear the leaves. Once the pasta has had 6 minutes, add the kale and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes.

Once almost all the water has evaporated, take the pan off the heat and tangle into four bowls. If you like, top with a little Parmesan.

Extracted from A Modern Way To Cook by Anna Jones (Fourth Estate, £25) 


GET THE RECIPE: Honestly Healthy’s Bircher Muesli | Sprouted Spelt & Honey Loaf


 

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