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Hello, and welcome back to the podcast! I had so much fun chatting with today’s guest all about cookbook writing, plant-forward eating, and fall cooking. I speak with who’s a cookbook author and recipe developer. He’s written six cookbooks, and he publishes the newsletter, Family Friend by Lukas Volger, which features vegetable-forward recipes.
Lukas and I pull back the curtain on the cookbook writing process, diving into the nuts and bolts of how we both write books, but also how we get inspired and structure our projects. Lukas shares the topic for his new book, and for the first time I also share the concept behind my new book (which, although it’s almost done, comes out in January 2026!). Writing a book is about creating an “ecosystem,” as Lukas describes, but it’s also about project management, and we discuss how our new books differ from the books we’ve published in the past.
In addition, Lukas and I dive into plant-forward cooking. If you’ve been wanting to incorporate more vegetables into your diet, Lukas offers fantastic tips and applicable advice for bringing more vegetables into your mealtime routine, starting with the simplest of prep tricks. We also talk about fall cooking, sharing the dishes that we’re most excited to make as well as easy techniques for using up fall produce.
As Lukas explains, cooking is a practice, and it takes practice. The more we do it, the easier it becomes, not just from a technical standpoint, but also from an emotional perspective. With practice, cooking can become a habit—the default mode for how we feed ourselves (instead of always falling back on take-out or convenience foods). I believe that the payoff extends beyond just filling a hungry belly—cooking can also be a delicious way to connect to ourselves, to nurture our bodies and emotions, and to support our health (spoiler alert: this is the concept behind my new cookbook!). Whether you’re new to cooking or love it, I’m so grateful that you’re here on this journey with me. 💚
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xo, Nicki
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Cookbook Writing and Vegetable-Forward Fall Cooking