I love this cookbook! After following Cara's Kitchen blog and making many of the recipes from the blog, I'm so excited to have a whole book of good things to make. Some of my favorites are the Humble bowl (so many herbs, so good) and the cauliflower leek soup. I'm testing a few new ones this week!

The thing I love most about this cookbook is that all of the recipes are so simple to prepare (I work full time, so having recipes that are fast and delicious is super important to me) and these are mostly plant-based, using tons of veggies.

Typically I get all of the ingredients to make a couple of dishes for the week (with leftovers) for under $50, the recipes are nutritious, versatile, and easy on the wallet. If you're looking to expand your vegetarian cooking and looking for simple beautiful recipes I would highly recommend giving this book a try!

So I normally don’t buy cook books, but this one is the Bomb !

The beautiful photos are inspiring and the recipes are easy and not intimidating. Makes me want to cook fresh !

What makes this extra special is that the author, Cara Cifelli is so personable, authentic and inclusive. Her journey with food is inspiring and makes me want to care for myself more, and have fun doing it.

It’s not just a cook book, is a roadmap to loving yourself thru cooking for yourself.

Thank you Cara 💜

I have to thank the author Cara Cifelli. Like most single people living alone I often struggle with whether to go out or stay in for food. More often than not the former wins. Buying heathy food is a struggle because I either buy too much or not enough, and I wind up with leftovers for days that go to waste. This book gives me the tools to prevent that. I have creative healthy recipes that are easy to make. They have color, flavor, and texture, and for once I don’t feel guilty about what I’m eating at any given time. I’m not vegan and I have no intention of becoming so, but buying this book was never about that. Cara doesn’t press her lifestyle so much as advise you to find your own. If you choose to substitute ingredients so much the better. Please. Don’t take my word for this. Try her recipes and thank me later.

The sauces alone in here will change your life. If you're like me and tired of the same old dressings sold at the grocery store, this will breathe new life into your salad game.

I am not a vegan at all, but I'm always looking for delicious new ways to incorporate veggies into my diet. This book is perfect for that and the flavors are BOMB. I like that it's written for beginners, because I am definitely more of a novice cook. Yet I was able to recreate many of these recipes with ease. Even though I live in NYC and don't have easy access to a lot of these ingredients, I was still able to make substitutions and make it taste delicious. I also love that the author gives instructions on how to preserve the ingredients for meal prep, so you can eat the dishes throughout the week while preserving freshness. It means I only have to cook once and less food waste!

I would recommend this book to anyone.

I have followed some of Cara's recipes online for some time now and was very excited to learn that she was releasing a cookbook. The recipes are simple yet exciting and delicious, and I love that she gives so many flavor palette options, there is a little bit in there for everyone. The pictures are beautiful as well. However, what I love most is the stories and explanations really provide a sense of who she is as a person and the inspiration behind her food and holistic practice. This cookbook is informative and cultivates a feeling of balance and joy. While I have only made a few recipes so far, I am so excited to dig in further. I highly recommend this cookbook and Cara's work with body wisdom and body-love.

I'm fairly new to plant based eating. This book has been a huge help and has great recipes that are easy to make and ingredients are easy to find.

I haven’t made anything from this yet but I was impressed by the variety of recipes, and photography. It makes me look forward to eating healthier again- after the New Year, of course!

I was excited to get this and have an awesome go-to source when wanting a new Buddha bowl. Unfortunately, this was a huge let down. Firstly, there’s only one Buddha bowl in this book that’s called Vegan Buddha BOWLS. Then there’s another 9 or 10 other recipes for “bowls”, but they’re really just different veggies thrown together and are not Buddha bowl variations at all. But what really annoyed me was that beyond that the book is just vegan recipes! There’s a section for pastas, soup, smoothies, and side dishes. Like, just because you can put those dishes in a bowl DOESNT MAKE THEM BUDDHA BOWLS.

This author had such a great chance to put out an original and useful recipe book with variations on Buddha bowls, and instead really just said copy/paste every other basic vegan recipe book out there.

I love, love, love this cookbook! Her bowls are delicious, filling, and honestly, it’s food that you just want to eat all day. She’s not shy about healthy fats, so if you’re on a diet that restricts olive oil or avocado or stuff like that some of these recipes may not be for you. So far I’ve made the roasted veggie bowl, I thought it was quite nice and would definitely make it again. Her southern comfort bowl is amazing. Droool. I just wanna eat it all the time. And it’s a combination of foods I never would’ve thought to put together. Her tie a knot salad is another great one, the Sriracha is a must in it, to your own taste level, because it really brings out the other flavors. I thought it was best cold, eaten the next day. I served at a family gathering and everyone loved it. Her savoury mushroom oatmeal was so good. I prefer savoury things in the morning and this hit the spot. The balsamic dressing in the farmers market chopped salad is my go to balsamic dressing now. That salad is great; good combination of a lot of different flavours and textures. The kale ‘em with kindness bowl was lovely. So comforting and creamy and delicious and if you use pre-chopped, frozen, butternut squash it comes together pretty easily. The only two that didn’t wow me were the classic Buddha bowl, I just didn’t find it had enough difference in textures and flavours for me. Also the Topanga chopped salad. My partner really like that one but I thought it just lacked zing. That’s said, my two lowest rated recipes that I made from this book aren’t bad, not by a long shot, they just didn’t wow me. I think that speaks to how great the recipes in this book are. Her portion sizes, for me personally, are quite big so when it says serves 4 it usually serves six or eight. I’m definitely going to be looking for the next book from Cara, she knows what she’s doing!

Overall, this is an excellent book, including different sections on Buddha bowls, Salad bowls, Pasta bowls, Soup and Breakfast bowls. Sometimes the recipes do contain quite a few ingredients but, once you've stocked up on store cupboard ingredients and a fridge full of vegetables, fruit, grains and plant based protein, you're good to go. The recipes are delicious, overall, and the photos are superb......they'll make your mouth water. As some have pointed out, there are a few items which are not plant based but, I'd say, do not let this prevent you from buying this book. My diet has been plant based for 21 years and I felt I was stuck in a rut, with my food. This book renewed my excitement in tasty, healthy and appetising plant based food. Proving that presentation is important. Thank you! Edit: I also like that the recipe amounts /weights are in cups but, also, in grams and mls. Very helpful.

Great book!

Plenty of great and healthy recipe.

I like the "bowl" thing where you can put everything you want and turn it into a great meal!

The book is not a full book on buddha bowls but more like 'anything that a human can put in a bowl': soups, pasta, salads, smoothies, sides! The fact that you can put it in a bowl doesn't mean it's a buddha bowl. Overall disappointing as it only actually has 17 buddha bowls recipes!!!! 100% misleading title plus it is not even vegan as the author uses honey.. why couldn't she just say "maple or agave syrup"?!?! and really truly make this book vegan. If I had seen it in a book shop it would have gone back on the shelf.

The recipes need a lot of ingredients, which seem to be reused for other recipes which is great as it means less waste, but I've noticed Worcestershire sauce on the list of ingredients and that contains anchovies, I use Henderson's relish as a vegan alternative so easy to swap but maybe the author needs to do more research into her ingredients before publishing her vegan book.