The Slim Palate Paleo Cookbook (2025)

Joshua Weissman has produced an amazing cookbook in The Slim Palate. I received a pre-release copy for review and I’ve been eating my way through his wonderful recipes. (More about that later.)

This is a new book by Victory Belt Publishing, a press that supports a Real Food diet and the Primal/Paleo lifestyle. The cookbook is a large-size quality publication, 271 pages of delectable, but surprisingly easy-to-prepare recipes and filled with photos by the author. What’s even more amazing is that Mr. Weissman is eighteen years old! He tells a story of becoming a foodie at a young age, then abandoning it for a fast-food lifestyle. Over the years he gained weight. Lots of it. Then, tired of the ridicule over his size, he decided to do something about it. His research led him to the Primal/Paleo style of eating. Soon he was losing weight and feeling better, and he started a blog with the purpose of helping others. People took notice and encouraged him to write a cookbook. Enter The Slim Palate, named after his popular blog and featuring not only recipes but lots of helpful information on charting a course to success.

Weissman’s writing style is warm and informative, and displays a wisdom beyond his years. Al-so, unlike many Paleo books, Joshua offers substitutions such as the addition or omission of cheese, sweetening with stevia or honey, thus making a book that you can tailor to your preferred choices.

Each recipe is accompanied by a lovely color photo. I appreciate that the photos aren’t the House Beautiful or Martha Stewart idea of perfection, but rather dishes plated in an earthenware bowl atop a length of folded burlap and with a fork your Great Aunt Emily might have used at her ta-ble. In short, they’re dishes shown as we might make them and the hominess makes them all the more appealing.

It’s my method to try several dishes before writing my review. For The Slim Palate I made the Roasted Garlic Soup on page 156, a simple soup of garlic heads, both roasted and chopped, leeks and chicken stock. Served with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, this was a superb starter to the entrée of Crispy Duck Breasts with Port-Cherry sauce (p. 80). Now, days after enjoying this dish, I’m looking to serve it again. Imagine slices of succulent duck, just medium cooked with a top-ping of the scored crispy skin and garnished with a port wine, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and sliced cherries. Wunderbar!

To accompany the duck breasts, I made the Fragrant Indian Cauliflower Couscous (p. 172). Yet another winner…and just as nice the next day as a leftover.

Yesterday morning I made Joshua’s Breakfast Sausage (p. 36), substituting ground veal for the pork. I made these into patties which I served with eggs over easy. The seasoning, redolent of sage with a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon reminded me of weisswurst and is a definite repeat.

Last night I made Grilled Citrus-Mustard Split Chicken Breasts (p. 78) with equally exciting re-sults. The bone-in, skin-on breasts are marinated in a Dijon mustard, garlic, orange and lemon juice mixture, then grilled on a gas grill. Joshua’s simple directions for the grilling resulted in the best grilled chicken I’ve ever made—crispy on the outside and wonderfully moist on the inside. We’re not big eaters, so one split breast was enough for a sumptuous dinner for two and LEFT-OVERS for tonight!

What more can I say except to urge everyone to give this book a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Two thumbs up, Mr. Weissman. Your book is smashingly fantastic.

A sweet first cookbook, I really liked Josh's notes and personality. Well put together, interesting recipes, and beautiful photos. Unfortunately, the recipes didn't appeal to my general tastes, but it was a book where I took the time to read each recipe intro because it was a genuinely cute read.

The good: This cookbook is very educational and Joshua's story is such an inspiration. The recipes look great too. Simple, but not boring and there is some real elegance in his recipes, a love for whole food that really comes through. His passion is palpable. It also doesn't appear that he simply recycled all the recipes from his blog, which is great because it shows he put some effort into making new recipes (when other food bloggers don't apparently). Oh, and there are a lot of recipes in this book. It's not skimpy. The photography was really nice too.

The bad: No nutritional info, a huge pet peeve of mine. When you have "slim" in your title, like it or not, you will attract people who are dieting. His story is a big attraction to that too, so some basic caloric and nutritional macros should have been added. It's too easy to calculate that these days and when selling a cookbook, go that extra mile for your readers. My second complaint was that his writing is very awkward. Yes, it's a cookbook, but in an otherwise elegant book, the writing gives his youth away.