A Fraiche Foods Full Hearts cookbook review and tested recipes such as their salmon spanakopita and lentil shepherd’s pie recipes.

*I have updated the review as I get to know the book better with time.

The beautifully illustrated Fraiche Food Full Hearts cookbook by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer, is as it says, perfect for everyday and causal celebrations. It has impressive and well-organized holiday menus for every season and occassion from Mother’s Day and summer grilling to Christmas and Thanksgiving. It blends traditional well-tested recipes with modern day plant-based options. You will find everything here from Vegan Perogies and Irish Apple cake (which can be topped with their vegan caramel sauce) to Lentil Shepherd’s pie and a vegan Garden Bolognese (that even meat lovers will enjoy).

And of course as a holiday entertaining cookbook, it has incredible brunches, desserts and cocktails. Some examples to start off the day are their Breakfast Enchiladas, French toast with Bourbon peaches, West Coast eggs Benny, thoughtful sweetheart oven fries, Cherry Scones, veggie-loaded sunshine muffins, and fluffy almond milk Angel cakes (pancakes).

Then there are their scrumptious desserts, made with plant milks or coconut/cashew cream, and often with lots of fruit. Some examples are their Mini Cherry Almond Crumbles, Chocolate cake, aromatic Citrus Olive Oil Bundt cake, Naked Coconut Cake, Chewy chocolate chip cookies, and the decorative Cherry sweetheart slab pie (with cute hearts cut out in it).

And no entertaining book would be complete without cocktails! I made their holiday-perfect mulled wine and I am really looking forward to making their Elderflower gin and tonic, Rose-aritas and Grapefruit Jalapeno Margaritas, plus there are virgin drinks like coconut lemonade and eggless eggnog.

As they state in their interview on The Social, Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer combine Tori’s education as a Dietitian and Jillian’s love of comfort foods in a really balanced holiday-perfect cookbook that everyone in the family will enjoy. There are many pasta dishes, baked goods and classic holiday comfort foods here, all made meatless, and balanced with healthy veggie-loaded ingredients and sides.

They share many of their family’s and grandma’s traditional Ukrainian foods like Beet rolls, and often make meatless and plant-based versions of traditional foods such as a meatless one-pot Stew with dumplings recipe and their Vegan Perogies that have some cheese-like flavor. They also do many modern-day foods like Vegan queso, Tempeh Big burritos (which were delicious and so healthy!) and Sweet Chili tofu.

They are skilled bakers and have many recipes for traditional baking such as Perfect White Buns, Oatmeal molasses bread, and Banana Bread, as well as not-so-traditional baked goods such as Black bean coconut brownies and sticky Apple Date Toffee Pudding, and many other baked and delicious dough-based goods that are traditional, yet made plant-based, like their Veggie pot pie, crispy Skillet Cornbread or Mushroom Wellington, that can be brought out at vegan holidays even for meat eaters to enjoy. Quarantine update: This book is great for bread recipes, bun recipes, pizza dough recipes and other baked goods such as scones, cakes and more! Check it out here, available in kindle or hardcover online.

If you are looking to improve your skills in baking as well as cooking, or to learn some new healthy, plant-based spins on your favorite comfort foods and holiday foods then you will really enjoy this book!

And even if you don’t bake often, this book is so huge and comprehensive with lots of plant-based sides, appies and mains, such as Eat your greens pasta, vegetarian Chili, Grilled veggie Orzo salad, Tofu fried rice, Squash Risotto with sage, Sushi Pockets, Cauliflower Tacos, Overhauled baked beans, a dairy-free Creamy Spinach and Artichoke dip, Creamy dill mushrooms, Jilly’s Almost famous stuffing, maple roasted carrots and parsnips, or a Garlicky potato cauliflower mash with gravy- so there is something for everyone here, and for every plant-based holiday.

Also as their title states, they focus a lot on using fresh ingredients in their recipes, in all meals of the day, which is great, with just a few examples being their Spring Orechiette, Heirloom Tomato Fennel Panzanella, Summer Herbed Grilled Vegetables, Grilled Mexican Street Corn and Captain’s Kale Caesar Salad, Peaches and (coconut) Cream Shortcakes and Raspberry Almond Oat Bars. There are also many wonderful and often creamy (often without the cream and dairy) vegetable soups such as cream of mushroom soup, creamy roasted Tomato Basil soup and French onion soup.

Common question: Is the Fraiche Food Full Hearts cookbook by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer vegan? Practically!

This plant-forward book is meatless and vegan-friendly and great for those who are pescatarian/ovatarian and mostly dairy-free and vegan. If you are vegan, it has so many vegan recipes that you will enjoy, despite it having a few non-vegan recipes. It is balanced and has lots of plant based, dairy-free and vegan alternatives, both integrated in the recipes (there are lots of cashew cream based creamy soups, dips and desserts and many coconut, cashew and almond milk-based scrumptious desserts and brunches). They ahve recipes like butterless butter tarts and often use vegan butter, plant milk and vegan cheese and cream where possible.

There is also as a seperate vegan substitutions section at the end, which is very handy and has recipes such as almond truffle parm, vegan sour cream, vegan parm (which can be topped on their lime capellini), and smokey tofu bacon, etc.

I do like that its balanced; they do have a few seafood and dairy dishes such as their Smoked Salmon cakes, Potato crusted halibut, Seafood “bake”, Big mussels and there is a bit of dairy in a few traditional foods like Beet rolls (though on The Social interview which can be seen in The Loop they suggested subbing with cashew cream), as well as Salmon Spanakopita with tzatziki (they do give a vegan feta recipe in the back though made form tofu). It is nice that recipes, like Tori’s thin crust pizza, have customizable toppings with both cheese and no cheese options and the book often gives dairy free and nut free alternatives where possible as well as a few gluten-free options like their banana cream pie with coconut crust or their pumpkin pie with pecan oat crust, thats filled with cashew cream instead of dairy cream, so if you have relatives coming over that can’t have gluten or dairy there are options for them and the whole family to enjoy. The book has so many recipes that you can find something for every family member with their different diet types so I would say this book is gluten-friendly (though it has many amazing traditional baked goods) and very vegan-friendly.

Ok I could go on, but I can’t give away all their recipe titles and there is so much more to look forward to! To find out more of their recipes you will need to look at their book! You will love the dreamy pastel photographs on every page too, because you know, its a book by Jillian Harris and Jillian Harris knows presentation 🙂 Every dish and holiday menu is beautifully presented and well matched in the menu section of the book and there are even suggestions for matching serving-ware and decor.

Tested recipes from Fraiche Food Full Hearts Cookbook:

To test fancier dinner recipes from the book, I made their amazing Salmon spanakopita and Lentil Shepherd’s pie as shown in the pictures below and their Mulled wine as depicted above.

The spanakopita were delish and I’m sure with a little practice and making smaller packets, and if I had a thicker piece of salmon and more pieces of salmon to work with, as well as some tofu feta to thicken it up, I will get it to look like their book pic.

I did a dairy free version of the salmon spanakopita, but they do suggest Feta (and they have a Feta alternative recipe at the back using tofu, but I didn’t have either so I did mine with salmon and spinach, with some extra fresh herbs and souvlaki seasoning on the salmon to make up for lack of cheese). They also suggest topping it with their homemade Tzatziki which would be incredible if you can tolerate some dairy. But if not, I love the idea of filling the phyllo pastry with salmon and spinach to be able to enjoy dairy-free Spanakopita!

I also made Jillian’s and Tori’s lentil shepherd’s pie for meatless Monday. Its a delicious, totally vegan comfort food recipe. I made a mini version of it as I don’t have a family to feed. You will be pleasantly surprised at just how good this lentil shepherd’s pie is. The filling is made with lentils and mushrooms as well as peas, carrots and corn, then its topped with hidden sweet potatoes and another layer of mashed potatoes (made with vegan butter of course!), and then baked to perfection.

I also made their tempheh burritos with chipotle sauce today and those were really tasty, and considering I don’t normally like tempeh, despite what a nutritious fermented food it is, this was a big win!

And there are so many more recipes in this Fraiche Food Full Hearts cookbook that I can’t wait to try, coming up next will be their potato crusted halibut recipe which I am so excited about!

I encourage you to try some of their recipes over the holidays and for casual get togethers. Their delicious Tempeh Burritos, almond granola with broiled grapefruit, Rainbow salad rolls with crispy tofu as well as many soups, salads, dips, and mains are also a healthy way to start of 2020!

I will be testing more recipes and updating this Fraiche Food Full Hearts cookbook review with more tested recipe pictures in time.

Overall Fraiche Food Full Hearts is a hefty, well-written, well thought out and executed, five-star cookbook with tons of recipes (it definitely has well over 100 recipes if not 200 or more!) to enjoy all year round for years to come and many fmaily dinners and potlucks.

I know I certainly will, and I recommend it to anyone else, especially those with families and those who love hosting or going to potlucks, as there are many family, entertaining & potluck friendly recipes in this book that are sure to impress and feed a crowd. Plus it’s great for anyone seeking foolproof delicious plant-based recipes and well-balanced healthy recipes that never feel deprived, but rather are satisfying and impressive for sharing with others (because you want surefire recipes when company is coming or on date night!). So take a look, you will love this beautiful gem of a cookbook! To view this book on Amazon check it out here, it’s on sale now!

Perhaps you’ve followed fraicheliving.com or fraiche nutrition or you’ve heard either about the Jillian Harris cookbook, or the Fraiche cookbook.. If you would like to see more Jillian Harris Recipes or Fraiche Food recipes or to find more info on this best selling cookbook, checkout these sites by Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer.

For more vegan and vegetarian or flexitarian recipes, check out the top menu on this site.

Did you make this recipe or find this post helpful? Leaving a review helps our community! 🙂

Never miss a post! Follow this blog or my facebook page Pinch of Wholesome (formerly Dairy Free Indulgence) to stay posted on more delicious recipes! The follow buttons on mobile/cell are almost at the bottom of the page, and on the PC they are on the sidebar.

I will never spam you. It is your follows, shares, views and likes that encourage and allow me to continue this blog and keep sharing these dairy-free healthy recipes with you!

If you like this recipe and share it, tag me on instagram @pinchofwholesome #pinchofwholesome, I’d love to see your versions of my recipe 🙂

Click here to check out the cookbook!