This article features overviews of some of the best Paleo cookbooks that, along with recipes, contain everything you need to know to eat Paleo.
While it hasn’t been without controversy, the Paleo diet is here to stay. Tens of thousands of people worldwide have adopted this back-to-basic way of eating.
The majority claim it has helped them lose weight and improve their health and well-being.
Also known as the caveman or Paleolithic diet, its focus is a natural diet similar in many ways to that which our ancestors ate over 10,000 years ago.
This was long before farming and food cultivation came into being.
Unlike today, back then, being overweight was rare. There were no supermarkets, convenience, or junk foods.
The males, in particular, led active lives, which included hunting for food to feed their families.
Fortunately, you won’t have to go to that extent to undertake the Paleo diet. And you won’t have to eat raw meat, either.
However, almost all processed foods are off the menu, which will be a deal-breaker for some. For me, this is more than made up for as chocolate, pasta, and sandwiches are allowed.
I’m not going to lie; the diet does require willpower. And it can take a while to get used to it. It also requires that you cook your meals a particular way, without using vegetable oil or artificial seasoning.
For this reason, if you want to try the diet, I recommend that you get a good cookbook. Those we will be looking at below are among the best Paleo cookbooks I’ve come across.
Table of Contents
5 of the Best Paleo Cookbooks
Paleo for Beginners: Essentials to Get Started
Paleo for Beginners: Essentials to Get Started is a 190-page Paleo recipe book that will teach you everything you may want to know about the Paleo lifestyle. A New York Times Bestseller authored by diet, fitness, and health expert John Chatham, it has sold over 150,000 copies.
Containing practical tips and advice, this is presented in a way that makes it easy to follow what many people mistakenly believe is a complicated way of eating.
On offer are 99 easy to prepare, tasty, and nutritious recipes, including vegetarian, vegan, and grain-free options. The recipes cover every meal, plus there are dips and sauces and snack and dessert recipes.
Examples include Paleo waffles, chicken & avocado wraps, eggs benedict Paleo Style, high-protein grain-free burgers.
You will also receive a 7-day step-by-step plan telling you everything you need to know about the diet and how to get started. There is even a Paleo grocery shopping guide listing 117 foods you can eat, plus those to avoid.
Whatever your questions regarding the Paleo Diet, there’s a good chance Paleo for Beginners: Essentials to Get Started will answer it.
The Paleo Cookbook
The Paleo Cookbook from Rockbridge Press is a comprehensive and highly rated 364 page Paleo diet guide/recipe book.
Open the book, and you will find a section called Paleo 101. This tells you everything you need to know about the diet and lifestyle.
The guide also contains nutritional information about the foods you will be eating and a range of helpful cooking tips.
Next comes the recipes. All are tasty and nutritious, easy to follow, and quick and simple to prepare.
So simple that even those who are new to cooking will get impressive results. Numbering 300, there are breakfast, lunch, and dinner offerings, plus side dishes, snacks, desserts, and beverages.
Included are fish, game, beef, lamb, poultry, and offal recipes, casseroles, soups, salads, omelets, and more. There are plenty of vegan and vegetarian options, plus Mexican, Asian, and Italian offerings.
You will find Mexican veggie scramble, chicken with sweet potato hash browns, and poached eggs with root hash vegetables among the breakfast recipes.
Lunch recipes include high protein grain-free burgers, Chinese chicken lettuce wraps, and egg salad lettuce wraps.
There’s peanut and sweet potato stew, Paleo ratatouille, and steamed artichokes and tomatoes over cauliflower rice, among other options for dinner.
Salads include zucchini and basil, bacon and spinach, and tuna salad with a twist.
You will find banana and berry pancakes, caveman custard, and gingerbread cookies among the dessert recipes.
The Paleo Cookbook is among the most popular and highly reviewed books of its type. It is well worth getting a copy if you are new to this way of eating.
The Complete Paleo Cookbook for Beginners
The Complete Paleo Cookbook for Beginners is a 2022 release from Rockridge Press that offers an excellent introduction to the Paleo lifestyle. It is authored by Sally Johnson, a registered dietician, and Kinsey Jackson, who has a master’s degree in human nutrition.
This 192-page book contains information on the diet’s benefits and helpful tips for starting and sticking with it, along with a range of easy-to-cook, wholesome recipes.
Other useful inclusions are meal plans focusing on various requirements and shopping lists that make it easy to get into the Keto lifestyle.
A chart shows the foods you can eat freely, those you can have in moderation, and the ones to avoid.
There are snacks, desserts, smoothies, muffins, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and side dish recipes.
Most recipes are quick to make and simple enough for novice cooks. They also use easy-to-source ingredients.
Breakfast recipes include spinach and shroom scramble, nutty Paleo cereal, and chorizo hash.
Some of the main meal options are chicken and veggie stir-fry, sheet pan fajitas with coconut-lime dressing, and
And how about brownies for dessert?
Released in early March 2022, the Complete Paleo Cookbook for Beginners has a lot of highly positive customer feedback.
Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle
This article on the best Paleo cookbooks would be incomplete without the inclusion of Practical Paleo. Considered by many to be “the” best book on Paleo, the first edition sold over 500,000 copies.
Dubbed the “The Paleo Bible,” the book details how the diet can reduce or eliminate the symptoms of common health disorders. It also explains how simple eating “real” food can be when you know how to.
This second edition, authored by Certified Nutrition Consultant and health blogger Diane Sanfilippo takes things to another level again. Comprising 480 pages, it contains even more helpful information than its predecessor.
As well as answering questions you may have, it provides guidelines for incorporating the diet into your lifestyle. It outlines how to do this in baby steps or by jumping straight in at the deep end.
There are 3 x 30-day meal plans. One will suit you perfectly whether you want to improve your health in general, detox, balance your hormones, or manage a specific health concern.
You will also find over 150 delicious recipes, more than 40 of these new.
Included among these are meatball sandwich burgers with marinara sauce and Paleo avocado “toast.” There’s bacon and superfood meatloaf, fluffy banana pancakes, plus lots more.
There’s even a chapter with tips for sticking to the diet over the holidays and when eating out.
If you are serious about getting into the Paleo lifestyle, be sure to check out Practical Paleo.
Quick Prep Paleo: Simple Whole-Food Meals with 5 to 15 Minutes of Hands-On Time
Published in November 2020, Quick Prep Paleo is among the most reviewed and positively received Paleo cookbooks on Amazon.
It’s a great choice if you are already familiar with the Paleo lifestyle, so mainly seeking recipes.
Authored by Mary Smith, this 176-page book contains 75 delicious, family-friendly recipes.
All of the recipes have an active preparation time of between 5 and 15 minutes, making them ideal for busy people.
Once everything is in the pot, your oven, stovetop, instant pot®, or slow cooker can do the rest while you get on with other things.
Along with family favorites such as instant pot® orange-sesame chicken, beef stroganoff, and pot roast, there are some more unusual recipes.
These include sheet pan Baja fish taco bowls, chicken parmigiana with cauliflower gnocchi, and creamy salmon piccata.
Breakfast options include Buffalo chicken breakfast casserole, and with desserts like strawberry rhubarb chia pudding on the menu, you’ll be going back for seconds.
The meals are categorized, so at a glance, you can see if they are gluten-free, vegetarian, etc.
With a copy of Quick Prep Paleo in your kitchen, you will never run out of delicious recipes, and you’re sure to find some favorites that keep you returning to this fabulous cookbook.
Best Paleo Cookbooks Summary
Many thousands of people claim to have improved their health, boosted their energy levels, and lost weight on the Paleo diet. Unlike most fad diets, this one is sustainable long-term.
Proponents have stated that you can regulate hormonal imbalances by eating low-carb, high-protein meals and avoiding processed foods.
They also say that you can reduce inflammation and manage or decrease the likelihood of getting common health ailments, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and more.
This diet isn’t for everyone, but I recommend buying one or more of the above Paleo cookbooks if you want to try it.
Knowing what you should be eating and having suitable recipes at hand will increase your likelihood of sticking to the diet and ultimately reaching your goal weight.
