Book Review: Cooking with Coconut Oil

CoconutcoverLast week, I was kindly provided with a copy of the new cookbook Cooking with Coconut Oil by Elizabeth Nyland over at Guilty KitchenThis cookbook was provided to me for free by the author and FitFluential for the purpose of giving feedback.  This review is all my own, honest opinions.

Cooking with Coconut Oil doesn’t just have great recipes but they are also gluten-free and grain-free which is a total bonus for me.  Looking through the book though, you just see delicious, beautiful food and might not even notice the lack of grains!  All of the recipes are composed around the Paleo Diet but it is not exactly obvious.  Like I said, it is just good recipes of good food.  Of course, you can always add grains back in but I love that I have a recipe book that I can follow exactly without making my own substitutions! 

Since my husband is such a picky eater, I let him pick the first recipe and he ended up on Creamy Almond Butter Pork Pad Thai

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We didn’t have any pork (oops), so we substituted chicken instead.  I was super excited for this recipe because:

  • I never made Pad Thai before
  • I finally got to use my Fish Sauce I bought recently
  • I got to use my mom’s spiralizer for the zucchini noodles

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The end result?  DELICIOUS!  It probably would have worked better with pork like it told me to use (I just can’t follow a recipe, can I?) and it was a little too much sauce for Rob – but we both loved the flavor!  It was also super simple to make – nothing overcomplicated or fancy, just like the rest of the recipes in the cookbook – simply delicious.  I’m so excited to have this super simple recipe for Pad Thai in the future.

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There are a few other recipes I want to try from the book that use Coconut Oil in a more unconventional way:

  • Black Forest Smoothie uses the coconut oil blended into a smoothie.
  • Sweet Potato Cups with Baked Eggs (see below) uses the coconut oil in the crust and in the eggs themselves.
  • Coconut Oil Mayonnaise – I can’t wait to try this one.
  • Sandwich Bread using coconut oil and grain free!

I have at least half the book marked for “recipes to make first” though I’m pretty sure I’ll use almost every single one.  Each recipe just seems so simple but the amazing part is how she puts them together, using the coconut oil in new ways.  I feel like this cookbook is also a good way to learn how to cook for a Paleo Diet.  It has such simple recipes like the mayo and the bread to make the transition easier for those who follow a Paleo lifestyle.  I’m definitely glad to have this in my cooking library now.  There really isn’t I disliked about the book other than a recipe here or there I might not make (but that’s in any cookbook!)

I can’t wait to try the rest of the recipes and I’m thinking the Baked Eggs will be next on the list.  Bonus is that I can share that recipe with you!  Make sure to pin it for later use! 

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4 thoughts on “Book Review: Cooking with Coconut Oil

  1. I actually made something very similar the other day! I shredded a sweet potato, microwaved the shredded S.potato for a minute, then pan seared it to get it browned, but didn’t have to fully cook it…I made some bacon crumbled that put it on top of the shredded S.potato, put a poached egg on top and over all of it drizzled some left over hollandaise! Oh.my.goodness! It was amazing…and if you like hollandaise, you’ve got to make it the 2 minute way…amazing!

  2. I switched to cooking (exclusively) with coconut oil a couple years ago. I still DRESS with EVOO, walnut, pistachio and hazelnut oils but the cooking is all coconut (or lard). It’s such a nice oil!

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