We’re Obsessed With These Juice Bar Cookbooks – And You Will Be, Too

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Diving into a juice bar cookbook

Juice bars are everywhere these days, serving up pretty-coloured blends of fruits and vegetables in stylish surroundings alongside healthy foods like açai bowls, smoothies, or vegan soups. And now, they’re making inroads into bookstores, too. Here are three new juice bar cookbooks I’ve added to my shelves.

Juice Bar Cookbook #1

The Juice Truck: A Guide to Juicing, Smoothies, Cleanses and Living a Plant Based Lifestyle (Appetite by Random House)

Where it’s from: Vancouver’s Juice Truck started as just that – a truck, often parked in Gastown – though they’ve now expanded to include a downtown smoothie cart and two cafés.

The cookbook: After an intro that outlines key tools and ingredients as well as some plugs for the vegan lifestyle, recipe sections cover juice, smoothies and smoothie bowls, nut milks, wellness shots, and some food items – all packaged in a vibrantly coloured softcover that’s easy to flip through. On-trend sections include a guide to “boosters” (powders like maca, ashwagandha, lucuma and spirulina) that are meant to add nutritional value to your foods, and brief guides to topics like meditation and gut health.

What we’ve bookmarked: The Yummy Yam juice (who knew you could juice yams!?), with its flavours of carrot, ginger and cinnamon, seems like the perfect juice for fall. And the Almond Butter Cups, apparently a top seller in their cafés, sound like a delicious nutrient-dense dessert.

The Juice Truck, $24.95 at amazon.ca.

Juice Bar Cookbook #2

The Greenhouse Cookbook: Plant-Based Eating and DIY Juicing (Penguin)

Where it’s from: Toronto’s Greenhouse Juice and its iconic sleek glass bottles have conquered the city, available in some 15 locations as well as for home delivery.

The book: While Greenhouse locations don’t serve food beyond smoothies and soups, the Greenhouse blog has a following for its beautifully photographed plant-based recipes – and the book is an offshoot of these (though most book recipes aren’t available online). You’ll find breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and desserts – all with accompanying photos – as well as recipes to make your favourite Greenhouse offerings at home, like the popular Rococoa smoothie (“we sometimes tell customers that it tastes like chocolate-covered almonds”) and East of Eden, their “gateway” green juice.

What we’ve bookmarked: Sweetened with dates, the Chocolate Hazelnut Spread will go perfectly on (sprouted grain, natch) toast or pancakes. And the Wake Up Negroni (yes, there are cocktails) blends gin and Campari with the Wake Up juice, a blend of orange, grapefruit and lemon with a pinch of cayenne.

The Greenhouse Cookbook, $28.65 at amazon.ca.

Juice Bar Cookbook #3

The Moon Juice Cookbook: Cosmic Alchemy for a Thriving Body, Beauty, and Consciousness (Pam Krauss Books)

Where it’s from: L.A.’s Moon Juice is the creation of Amanda Chantal Bacon, who’s gained renown for her level-10 woo-woo lifestyle and for the shop’s “dusts” – powdered blends of herbs intended to boost your health in targeted directions, like sleep or sex. Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan and sells them on her site goop.com.

The book: A stunningly on-trend hardcover with sometimes offbeat photography, the book goes deep into plant nutrition, opening with juices, nut and seed milks and functional beverages, then flowing into ferments (“yoghurts” and “cheeses” made from coconut or nuts), snacks and foods, and desserts and chocolate. Interspersed are tips on “fancy lazy” foods: Meals you can throw ahead quickly thanks to make-ahead components.

What we’ve bookmarked: We’re intrigued by the Chocolate Chaga Donuts, dehydrated rounds of an oat, sesame and chia-based dough topped with chocolate-coconut icing laced with chaga powder and “sprinkles”: Sprouted quinoa tossed with coconut nectar and either beet or turmeric juice for colour then dehydrated. And the Hot Sex Milk, a blend of pumpkin seed milk, maca and cacao powders, coconut oil and cayenne plus schisandra berries and ho shou wu (try finding those in your local supermarket) promises to “ignite and excite sexy flow” and send power “to all the right places.” Um, we’ll drink to that.

The Moon Juice Cookbook, $40 at amazon.ca.