Iconic Natural Foods Cookbooks and Their Legacy

Early Foundations

Before the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s, natural foods advocates already recognized the power of cookbooks to shape eating habits. One of the earliest influential texts was Jethro Kloss’s Back to Eden (1939), a sprawling compendium that combined recipes, herbal remedies, and spiritual guidance. While not a cookbook in the strict sense, Kloss’s work inspired thousands who sought self-sufficiency and natural healing through diet. Beatrice Trum Hunter’s The Natural Foods Cookbook (1961) was another early bridge, offering recipes that emphasized whole, unrefined ingredients. These texts laid the groundwork for the explosion of vegetarian and whole-foods cookbooks that would follow.

The Natural Foods Explosion of the 1960s–70s

As the back-to-the-land movement, vegetarianism, and macrobiotics swept through alternative communities, cookbooks became cultural manifestos as much as recipe guides. They were often shared communally, stained with lentils and whole-wheat flour, and served as blueprints for a new way of living.

George Ohsawa Foundation, Zen Cookery (1963; rev. 1966). The first macrobiotic cookbook in English—simple, grain-forward, and rooted in yin-yang balance.

Michel Abehsera, Zen Macrobiotic Cooking (1968). Brought Ohsawa’s ideas into Western kitchens, making macrobiotic philosophy accessible and lively.

Rosalie & Frank Hurd, Ten Talents (1968). Written by Seventh-day Adventist authors, this vegetarian (largely vegan) guide introduced soy foods and promoted a lifestyle rooted in health and spirituality. Copies traveled well beyond Adventist homes, somehow finding their way into the kitchens of hippie communes, where tofu recipes suddenly fit right in.

Edward Espe Brown, The Tassajara Bread Book (1970). A Zen priest’s poetic, personal approach to whole-grain bread baking that made kneading dough a meditative act.

Frances Moore Lappé, Diet for a Small Planet (1971). A groundbreaking book linking diet, ecology, and hunger. Its concept of “protein complementarity” gave vegetarianism a sense of scientific justification as a balanced and healthy way to live.

Jean Hewitt, The New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook (1971). With over 700 recipes, it helped natural-foods cooking leap from communes into mainstream suburban kitchens.

Anna Thomas, The Vegetarian Epicure (1972). Written while Thomas was a film student, this runaway success made vegetarian cooking stylish, sensual, and gourmet.

Sharon Cadwallader & Judi Ohr, Whole Earth Cook Book (1972). From UC Santa Cruz’s Whole Earth Restaurant, this book captured the spirit of seasonal, communal, and anti-processed eating.

Edward Espe Brown, Tassajara Cooking (1973). Extended his Zen-infused approach into soups, vegetables, and grains—emphasizing cooking as mindfulness.

Ellen Buchman Ewald, Recipes for a Small Planet (1973). A hands-on companion to Lappé’s ideas, showing practical ways to create protein-rich vegetarian meals.

Moosewood Collective / Mollie Katzen, The Moosewood Cookbook (1974; expanded 1977). Hand-illustrated and whimsical, it became one of the most beloved vegetarian cookbooks, emphasizing joy and creativity.

Louise Hagler & Dorothy Bates, The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (1975). From The Farm commune in Tennessee, among the first fully vegan cookbooks in the U.S., pioneering tofu, tempeh, and soy milk for home kitchens.

Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders & Bronwen Godfrey, Laurel’s Kitchen (1976). A nurturing, practical guide that combined recipes, nutrition, and moral encouragement, especially for families.

Doris Janzen Longacre, More-with-Less Cookbook (1976). A Mennonite text focusing on stewardship and resource-conscious cooking for a globally equitable food system.

Helen Nearing, Simple Food for the Good Life (1980). This book reflected the Nearings’ philosophy of simplicity and frugality. It was less about fancy recipes than about wholesome soups, grains, and garden vegetables—“recipes” that embodied their back-to-the-land ethos.

Mollie Katzen, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (1982). The whimsical sequel to Moosewood, which cemented Katzen as a defining voice in vegetarian cooking.

After the Hippie Era: The Raw-Food “Uncookbooks”

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new wave revived the experimental energy of the 1970s, focusing on raw and living foods.

Juliano Brotman & Erika Lenkert, Raw: The Uncook Book (1999). A flamboyant, restaurant-style exploration of raw cuisine—zucchini pasta, dehydrated pizzas, fruit-driven desserts—that helped ignite the raw-food revival.

David Wolfe, Eating for Beauty (2002), and Gabriel Cousens, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine (2003). Brought spiritual, medical, and culinary dimensions to the raw-food movement, expanding its cultural reach.

Roxanne Klein & Charlie Trotter, Raw (2003). Elevated raw cuisine to fine dining, with restaurant-style, plated dishes that gave the movement culinary legitimacy.

Alissa Cohen, Living on Live Food (2004). A practical, inspirational handbook that blended lifestyle coaching with approachable raw recipes, popularizing raw foods for everyday people.

Ani Phyo, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen (2007). A colorful, modern classic that made raw food fun, simple, and stylish, especially for younger generations.

Conclusion

From Back to Eden and The Natural Foods Cookbook to The Moosewood Cookbook, Laurel’s Kitchen, and Simple Food for the Good Life, these works reveal how cookbooks functioned as cultural roadmaps. They were not just about food but about how to live—spiritually, ecologically, communally, and healthfully. Later books like Juliano’s Raw: The Uncook Book and Ani Phyo’s Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen carried this creativity into a new millennium. Together, they chart the arc of natural-foods culture and show how recipes became manifestos for a different, more conscious way of life.

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