What kind of cookbook is Feel Good?

Feel Good – quick and easy recipes for comfort and joy is Melissa Hemsley’s latest cookbook. It’s a collection of recipes meant to make you feel just a bit better, both body and mind, as Melissa puts it. Because not only the act of eating healthy food is nourishing – but the act of preparing it in your kitchen and connecting over ‘the warm embrace’ of a meal with loved ones, is just as comforting, she states.

Something that resonates with me, because preparing food in my kitchen is my happy place too. Cooking to me feels like a comforting act of self love – whether I’m feeling happy or blue. And good food, always helps to ‘feel good’. So, there’s that!

The build-up of Feel Good

The Feel Good cookbook is divided into eight chapters. From breakfast and lunchboxes, to bowls, pasta’s and grains. From veg powered and plant based, to a small chapter of meat and fish recipes – with lots of veg too. There’s a chapter dedicated to stress-free sharing with friends, and the cookbook closes with easy puddings and snacks.

The recipes I’ve tried so far all live up to the ‘quick and easy’ statement on the cover. The ingredients are easily accesisble and the cooking time is perfect for weeknight dinners. The appetizers, snacks and sweets – a  category of food I often find most ‘fussy’ – are actually  also very easy to make! The cooking techniques are mostly familiar. The originality in the book comes from the combination of ingredients and also the beautiful dressings, spices and pickles. And of course: every dish you bring out incredibly colourful !

What I cooked so far

Smoked mackerel paté – with pickled veg

Now this is a perfect example of a delicious dip, that you can prepare in moments time. Melissa adds extra veg with radishes and cucumber. And she gives lots of options to ‘dress it up’ with things like horseradish and her excellent quick-pickled vegetables. I used her recipe to pickle the cucumber and it’s really fast and effortless and my new go-to formula for quick pickling! 

Lemony spinach and feta quinoa

If you crave something truly healthy for dinner, this bright and flavourful salad is just what you need. It has all the fresh herbs like dill and parsley. It gets lots of flavour from garlic, the use of stock and of course the feta cheese. Great leftovers for lunch too!

Shawarma-inspired cauliflower and sweet potato bowl

This extremely vibrant bowl of food is one of my favourite recipes from this cookbook. I already made it multiple times! The combination of the spice mix for the vegetables, with the pickled onions and the tahini yoghurt are so so good! The cauliflower goes into the oven and the rest is just chopping, stirring and quick-pickling. Utterly enjoyed this one! I could eat this kind of bowl every day.

Pesto-mozarella baked aubergines

This dinner made me so happy! The aubergines are topped with a rich tomato sauce and lots of extras, such as sun-dried tomatoes, olives and capers. Melissa describes this dinner as ‘pizza ingredients baked onto aubergines’. And so it is. Comfort food if there ever was any!

Farinata

This year I discovered farinata. I had never made it before, and it was better than I expected! Farinata is a kind of very thin bread-like dish made with chickpea flour. It couldn’t be easier to make. You make a batter from water, olive oil and chickpea-flour. And you top it with goodies – in this case kalamata olives and rosemary. But you could also use sundried tomatoes, cheese, or whatever you like and have lying around. It takes only 30 minutes in the oven. It’s delicious enough to serve on its own as a snack with drinks. Or serve it as part of a selection of appetizers, on a cheese board, or with a salad.

No-bake chewy nutty bars

Wanna go nuts? Then this is a treat for you! I put in 5 different kinds of nuts: walnuts and sunflower seeds in the bottom (with dates and ground oats). And hazelnut, pumpkin seeds, raisins and sesame seeds on top. In between is a wonderfully rich layer of melted pure chocolate. We brought some when we went hiking in the mountains with friends and they were an excellent half-way treat!

Who can come to dinner?

So, to conclude: who would I invite over when cooking from Melissa Hemsley’s Feel Good cookbook? My husband is a BIG salad and healthy bowl lover, so it’s no surprise he definately loved eating from this cookbook. I would also happily cook from it for my girlfriends, who are all trying to eat more green but sometimes lack inspiration. Melissa’s cookbook is a very good way to start eating more vegetables but in a very doable, joyful and delicious way!

Other sources of information

• Listen to this interesting interview with Melissa on the Where’s Home Really podcast or hrt interview on the Desert Island Dishes podcast
• Find lots of her recipes on the Happy Foodie website
• Melissa Hemsley on Instagram and on her website