Eat to Love by Mikaela Reuben...Again! A cookbook collab with family
A second look at Eat to Love: Where Health Meets Flavor, by Mikaela Reuben
Toronto: Appetite by Random House, 2025
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I love sharing a meal with friends and family, and I’m always happy to host another “cookbook collab.” The format is generally this: we choose a cookbook that we want to explore, each choose two or three recipes that we want to test, then meet for a meal where we bring our prepared dishes. We eat well, discuss what we love (and what could have gone better!). Then I collect our thoughts here, to share and encourage you to try out the cookbook if it sounds like something you’d like.
I’d already cooked from and reviewed Vancouver-based chef Mikaela Reuben’s cookbook Eat to Love for The BC Review (see my review here), but there were so many recipes that I’d bookmarked to try later. When my cousin Laurel decided to book an extended visit to Vancouver, and my sister Christine took the ferry over from Victoria for a few days, we decided to do a cookbook collab. Since I had the book and knew the healthy eating focus would work well for all of us, we decided to go with Eat To Love and planned our dinner party.
Check out my original review for all the details, but–as originally posted on The BC Review on August 19 2025–here are a couple of excerpts:
[Mikela]’s become a certified holistic nutritionist, sports nutritionist, and raw food chef, forging a career cooking for "clients all over the world, in the private homes of actors, athletes, and supermodels, creating health and nutrition plans and cooking up a storm.” Her goals for the cookbook spoke to me: get the nutrition right, and don’t forget that it should taste great. It’s how she cooks for clients, family and herself: “It’s not fancy, gourmet cooking; it’s a style rooted in my work as a plant-forward nutritional chef at the intersection of where health meets flavor.”
The recipes are arranged into five categories: Start the Day; Staples; Sauces & Spreads; Soups, Salads & Sides; Large Plates; and Sweets. There are over 100 recipes and so many of them looked inviting. The emphasis is on plant-based eating, and it’s clear that Reuben is focused on versatility: there are many sides, add-ons and sauces that can be used in combination with other recipes, or on their own for snacks.
For a second look at Eat to Love, we chose a protein bite, a salad, two main courses and a dessert course. Laurel and I did most of the cookbook cooking, and Christine contributed her amazing, original cheese biscuits, which provided a bread component. We were joined by my spouse Alan for a dinner party of four.
Trish: I was totally excited to cook again from Eat To Love, and I know that once you took a look at the cookbook you found lots to like as well, Laurel. How did you choose the recipes you wanted to cook?
Laurel: I chose recipes that were intriguing both with their ingredients as well as easy availability of the ingredients at our local grocery stores. I also felt the chosen recipes would work well together with our meal and give us a very thorough overview of the type of cooking this cookbook author offers.
Trish: Christine, you have recently been experimenting with scone and biscuit recipes, and have become rather expert at it. Can you tell us a bit about how you’ve come to this sort of baking and what inspires you?
Christine: Well as my family knows, I am a very picky eater. So lately I have been watching videos and coming up with slightly different recipes to make them my own and writing them down. Most have worked, with a bit of tweaking. I would one day love to publish my own cookbook. I started with biscuits and scones and have moved forward with a few others. My work will most likely be years in the making.
Trish: When we did our cookbook collab, I found myself slightly time challenged, having overscheduled myself a bit. This is not unusual for me! So I was looking for recipes I could make ahead, or that would be relatively simple. The Everyday Detox Salad was pretty easy and I could make the dressing ahead of time; and the walnut filling and hemp crema also got made a day or two ahead. Perfect! At the same time, I always like to try a technique or ingredient I haven’t used before, and the walnut “meat” fit the bill.
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The Recipes:
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| A favourite! Miso Maple Salmon Bites |
Miso Maple Salmon Bites
Laurel: I found this recipe exquisitely easy to assemble and the somewhat sweet and savory glaze caramelized beautifully under the heat with crispy edges and tender insides, Yum ! I also loved that the salmon pieces were bite sized and so cooked up quickly. On that note do watch closely while browning as the maple syrup can burn before you know it. Reuben noted that they could be served hot or cold, and while cold was good, I did prefer it warm.
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| Deceptively simple: Everyday Detox Salad |
Everyday Detox Salad
Trish: Reuben notes, “Incredibly healthy and easy to make, this salad is my go-to when cooking at home…” This salad was indeed easy to make. I whipped up the simple yet satisfyingly garlicky and slightly spiced dressing in a jar, gave it a good shake, and was ready to dress this four ingredient salad. Here’s the interesting bit: I have owned a mandoline for years. I bought it at a show where they demonstrate how wonderful a mandoline is to make all sorts of amazing foodstuffs cut into precise and gorgeous paper-thin slices or matchsticks. Alas, I used it once and it's been living on a high shelf ever since. Enter Laurel, who often uses her own mandolin, and voila…paper thin veg for the salad amassed in neat piles on my counter. Have I used the mandoline since (after vowing to use it all the time now?). Nope. For such a simple salad, this ended up getting high marks from all of us.
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| Raw walnuts lent a meaty texture to these lettuce wraps. |
Raw Walnut Lettuce Tacos with Hemp Chili Crema
Trish: First of all, making nut “meat” is something I haven’t tried, so this was a challenge for me. Second, I happened to have a ton of cheap walnuts on hand that I’d gotten on sale at the local supermarket. I soaked the walnuts then added them to my trusty food processor with spices and that was basically it for the “meat.” So easy! I worried the spices wouldn’t be enough for the amount of walnuts, but if anything, this dish was strongly spiced and on the edge of being oversalted. It was entirely akin to falafel in flavour. Enter the Hemp Crema, another simple concoction of vinegar, lime juice, herbs and spices, which was mellow and smooth, and the perfect sauce for the spiced walnuts. We all thought the lettuce wraps were a bit fussy, and you totally need a sturdy lettuce, but you could easily serve these with tortillas. It made a great leftover on my lunchtime salads for the next week, too.
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| Lentil lettuce cups. The pickled onions were so good! |
Lentil Lettuce Cups with Tahini Ginger Sauce/Quick Pickled Onions
Laurel: This recipe was a little more time consuming to assemble as it required more prep, but the final product was fantastic: A contrast of warm, savory lentils, crisp lettuce, creamy tahini, and bright, tangy onions. It is a highly satisfying, plant-based meal that feels light yet filling. The pickled onions were a separate recipe, but recommended by the author to accompany this dish, and I feel that they were a vital part of the final product. The pickled onions added a brightness and a punch of acid to the dish, and without their addition the dish would be a little flat and somewhat bitter. They also added a lovely pop of colour.
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| I've made these cookies several times now. Love the classic tin. |
Salted Chocolate Cookies
Laurel: After we were doing so well eating a very healthy meal I was looking forward to indulging in these cookies and they did not disappoint. The deep cocoa flavour paired beautifully with the rich, nutty hazelnut, while flaky sea salt cut through the sweetness for a perfectly balanced finish. They were also ridiculously easy to put together and took all of five minutes to mix up. The only issue I could see would be getting the hazelnut butter if you don’t live in an area where there are stores that provide that specific ingredient. Knowing this, however, I can easily anticipate that the more readily available almond butter would work great as well. You could also modify the recipe and add anything you choose as a mix-in to the dough. I will be making these again and will be adding stem ginger.
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| My sister's original cheese biscuits are SO GOOD. |
Bonus: Christine’s Amazing Cheese Biscuits
Christine: One of my first recipe creations has been a basic cheese biscuit which I can do with my eyes closed (most of the time). Since I didn’t have a lot of time to work from the Eat to Love cookbook, I instead whipped up a large batch of my cheese scones. They turned out amazing and complimented the meal well. We had so much food to eat from these recipes, and it was a nice chance to try these new dishes: I was pleasantly surprised with all the flavours and textures.
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Trish: What a fantastic dinner party! My favourite dishes from this collab were probably the Miso Maple Salmon Bites and the Raw Walnut Lettuce Tacos. The salmon for the absolute unctuousness of flavour, and the walnuts because of the cool factor: not only was it yummy, particularly with the Hemp Crema, but it also felt healthy and interesting. Alan liked the salmon bites and the Everyday Detox Salad the best.
Christine, what were your favourites?
Christine: I was very surprised that I liked all the food. I loved the lentil cups and detox salad. The flavour in all this food came through amazingly. I loved the salmon bites the best: I could eat those every day forever! The lentils and salad were my second favorites, and there were so many flavours. I wasn’t sure I would like the walnut “meat” recipe, but honestly if I didn't know those were walnuts, I wouldn’t have ever guessed. Who knew! The walnut dish was very good but I’m not sure I would make it often as I’m not a huge fan of walnuts, but wow you can barely tell.
Trish: And how about you, Laurel?
Laurel: Hard to pick a favourite but would pick the salmon as my number one pick with the Lentil Lettuce Cups as a close second. I would also love to experiment a little with the delivery system for the lentils with tortillas or perhaps use the base lentil recipe and add them to a warm grain bowl or over a roasted sweet potato.
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At the end of the day, everything here worked and reaffirmed my initial impression that Reuben’s Eat to Love is a cookbook to own and keep…and keep cooking from. I’ve already made a couple of the recipes two or three times. Christine, Laurel and I are seasoned cooks, and nonetheless each of us found something new to add to our repertoire. Collectively, we noted how simple the recipes were, yet how they didn’t sacrifice flavour at all, which goes to show that her book’s tag line: “Where Health Meets Flavor” isn’t a trite phrase, it’s the truth. Reuben has put much testing and care into her recipes and combinations; the dishes are well composed and so very thoughtful. Thanks to my family for an evening of excellent eating and warm company!
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| Quick Pickled Onions |
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