The Herbal Medicine Cookbook: Everyday Recipes to Boost Your Health

The Herbal Medicine Cookbook is the definitive kitchen reference to transform everyday meals into natural remedies.

Your kitchen is the heart of a holistic life. The Herbal Medicine Cookbook infuses everyday cooking with the healing power of everyday herbs to nourish your body with healthy, homemade meals.

From Elderberry Hot Toddy Elixir to Sunday Roast with Chimichurri Sauce, this cookbook offers step-by-step guidance to transition from traditional to medicinal cooking. With 75 restorative recipes that use only commonly found herbs—plus over 30 herb profiles on taste and usage—The Herbal Medicine Cookbook is your kitchen reference to revitalize your life through herbal healing.

The Herbal Medicine Cookbook includes:

• Medicinal cooking 101 that covers diverse tastes and everything you’ll need to start cooking.
• 75 recipes for breakfast, soups and salads, main dishes, snacks and sides, condiments, beverages, and sweet treats.
• 30+ herb profiles for quick reference on taste, herbal complements, preparation, and healing properties.

"Medicinal herbs can not only help prevent and treat disease, but they can also add flavor, vital nutrients, color, and interest to your everyday foods. In this exciting new book from my former student Susan Hess, you will be introduced to common botanicals and their specific health benefits, the unique qualities of flavors, and pages full of delicious recipes that will allow you to include healing plants into your breakfasts, snacks, desserts, beverages, and dinners. If you like to cook, want to improve your health, and enjoy phenomenal food, this book deserves a place on your shelf."—David Winston, RH(AHG), author of Adaptogens, Herbs for Strength, Stamina, and Stress Relief

"Herbalists’ kitchens are special places. Go ahead, follow Susan into her kitchen—I promise you’ll be safe, and soon delighted and enthralled with the flavors and healing powers of culinary herbs. Susan has given us one of the most welcoming, encouraging, and accessible guides to using herbs that I have encountered. It’s practical, beautiful, and well organized, full of reliable information and wonderful creative recipes. I especially love the examples and images she uses to illustrate energetic concepts like cool and damp, descriptions that really bring them to life in our minds. Preparing food with herbs in accordance with these principles to keep us in balance and help us heal is inherent in traditional cuisines, and this wisdom is tragically being lost in mass-produced, packaged-food diets. I sincerely hope you will invite these herbs into your own kitchens daily for the benefit of your own and your loved ones’ well-being!"—Betzy Bancroft RH(AHG), co-director of the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism

"In an era of confusion and conflicting information regarding food as medicine, The Herbal Medicine Cookbook provides an oasis of clarity and common sense that allows the home cook to produce meals that fully nourish the family. The reader is guided by simple explanations of the healing properties of herbs and is invited to use intuition and creativity to transform simple foods into meals that nurture and support the body. Tantalizing and easy-to-follow recipes encourage us to recreate a kitchen culture where healing is provided around the table at every meal."—Annmarie Cantrell, MEd, healing foods chef

"This book is full of nourishing kitchen table wisdom and is a wonderful resource with simple reminders on how to live, cook, and create healing medicinal meals. An easy way for anyone to practice herbal self-care and connect with the wisdom of each season's gifts. The recipes are simple, delicious, and wrapped with wise woman wisdom. A blessing to everyone's kitchen table!"—Kim Clements, Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, and yoga therapy practitioner

"Susan takes two decades of profound herbal knowledge and love for the plants and beautifully compiles it into a book that every health enthusiast will cherish for their families. As a mother, I see this book as such a gift and a necessity. New traditions will be made and my children will learn about herbal medicine in the best place they know how—in the kitchen!"—Michaline Schrade, artist and herbalist

"When I discovered Susan Hess wrote a cookbook combining her love of herbs with her recipes, I knew I was in for a real treat! The book is full of recipes that promote health and are delicious! The simple and approachable recipes appeal to foodies as well as those who are new to herbs and want to incorporate them into their everyday lives."—Cara McQuade, herbalist, farm-to-table school chef, and acupuncturist

"I had the good fortune to study with Susan in her Homestead Herbalism courses. In addition to being a wonderful teacher, Susan has the unique talent of making herbal medicine not only beautiful to the eye, but also delicious to the taste buds. I am delighted to see her share her knowledge and talent to a larger audience through this book."—Danette Cathcart, PhD

"If you've ever wanted to use fresh or dried herbs and use them to feed as well as heal your loved ones, this book is the place to start. It is a primer on herbs, health, and delicious food all combined in a beautiful book. So many useful tidbits of information are spread throughout the pages, take your time and enjoy!"—Lynn Wagner, CCH RSHom(NA) DHom(UK), classical homeopath

"The Herbal Medicine Cookbook is a book you didn't know you needed. Susan Hess has combined her extensive knowledge of herbal medicine into a book filled with recipes that are artistically and deliciously produced. Feeding your loved ones with healing foods (and learning a bit about the foundation of herbalism) has never been tastier."—Betty Fikes Pillsbury, herbalist, textile artist, and author

"Learning about herbs is passed down from generation to generation. In our modern world, we have lost that personal touch that Susan Hess revives. Susan has been teaching traditional methods with a warm heart and welcoming smile for years. This book radiates her caring spirit and makes it easy to understand how herbs work. You will make a new friend with this book as each recipe educates you about a new herb. May you read this book, learn its wisdom, and pass along the knowledge to your near and dear ones!"—Bob Butera, PhD, author of Body Mindful Yoga

"The Herbal Medicine Cookbook is interesting, informative, and easy to use. Having taken Susan's Homestead Herbalism classes many years ago, I have gotten to know her. This book brings to the page her knowledge and most importantly her heart. The recipes are easy to use and prepare so much so that I can easily apply what I learn in this book. A great resource."—Lisa Montgomery, author of Vegan Challenge, Raw Challenge, and Raw Food

"If you've been doggedly churning out dinners and bemoaning breakfast time, The Herbal Medicine Cookbook is your newest best friend. Culinary herbs and spices possess unrivaled superpowers in the kitchen, adding both pizazz and healing properties to any meal. Susan Hess unlocks the door to kitchen medicine, illuminating common herbs and scrumptious recipes and practical, time-tested wisdom."—Juliet Blankespoor, founder of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine

"Food IS Medicine however you look at it! The Herbal Medicine Cookbook is part cookbook and part instructional herbal manual helping the readers understand the energetics and taste of herbs, and with herb profiles splattered throughout the book so that the reader can better understand why herbs are an important part of cooking for health. The recipes themselves vary from simple fare to a more adventurous meal. The first recipe I tried was Poached Pears with Elderberry and Warming Spices and it was easy to follow and quite scrumptious! The beautiful photography makes it a work of art, a book you will reach for again and again for when you are looking to renew your kitchen inspiration."—Tonya Lemos, director of Blazing Star Herbal School

SUSAN HESS is a therapeutic herbalist and native weed wrangler who lives in Mays Landing, NJ. She has spent the past twenty years practicing and teaching others about herbs and their uses. Susan grows a wide variety of medicinal and culinary herbs in her teaching gardens, and relishes wandering the wild places, discovering native beneficial plants, trees and mushrooms.