An Essential Guide for the Curious Plant-based Enthusiast

A New Cookbook by Hollan Goewey

By Hailey Bethke | Photography by Mahna Ghafori

A bold, bright-hearted chef has entered the kitchen. She is reclaiming veganism as so much more than sad-looking salads—in fact, it is a whole rainbow. Adopting a plant-based lifestyle was Hollan Goewey’s way of declaring to live in vibrancy, and she wants to offer readers the same gift. It all begins with redefining how we think and feel about our bodies.

“I have worn many hats in this life, but the only one that matters is my relationship with myself and my body. When those two are aligned, everything falls into place,” Goewey says. A Kauai resident for over two decades, Goewey is the proud mother of three children, a former vegan restaurant owner, a cookbook author, and a spirited creative. She self-published her first cookbook, Good Food Gratitude, in 2019 after selling her restaurant, a way for her devoted following to continue devouring her delicious plant-powered dishes as she transitioned away from the café.

Her most recent book, Divorce Your Diet, expands beyond recipes to share why we should break up with limiting beliefs surrounding food. “Divorcing your diet isn’t about restriction and getting rid of the foods that are bad for you. It’s about a shift and replacing those foods with ones that will love you more than your ex,” Goewey explains. “Doesn’t that sound amazing? A lot of times, these restrictive diets work for us for a couple of months, and then we tend to plateau.”

Cookbook author, chef, and former restaurateur Hollan Goewey

Goewey’s books are the essential guide for the curious plant-based prospect. Her take on cooking goes back to the basics: she wants to make your transition to veganism as simple and stress-free as possible. She knows her way around the kitchen better than most chefs, offering dozens of food-prep hacks, and keeps her recipe steps and ingredients minimal. Most importantly, she has the wisdom and bubbly personality to make your vegan journey fun—because taking control of your health and putting delicious, nutrient-dense meals on your table can be zestful.

One of my key takeaways from our conversation was that Goewey always encourages you to turn inward. “Nobody knows the answers but you. We are waiting for the magic pill or injection to solve all of our health issues,” she says. “But the magic pill will never come.” In other words, trust your intuition, trust your body, and know that no singular diet will cure all your issues forever. We are each unique, and our nutritional needs are no different.

Her opening statement in Divorce Your Diet echoes this same sentiment. “I found my health through going vegan but continued to diet when I was feeling great. I have tried calorie counting, water fasting, raw veganism, intermittent fasting, juicing, Paleo, and Keto. Guess what I learned? F*** dieting. It doesn’t work in the long run. It doesn’t lead you to health, and that is why I am writing this book.”

She clarifies, “I am not making a case for you to be vegan like me, but to be plant-centric. It is so much easier than you think to replace a lot of what you eat with simpler plant-based versions of the original. You can make all your favorite recipes with better ingredients that don’t cause disease to our planet, animals, or your body.”

Goewey’s goal is to present the facts, sharing what she has learned through her own health struggles and as a chef for the past thirty years. As an educated consumer, you deserve to make the best choice for your health. That’s why each chapter of Divorce Your Diet brings new information to the surface, uncovering the reality of our food industry. Added chemicals and preservatives in processed foods, the impact eating meat and dairy products can have on your body and the planet, and the importance of buying organic produce over genetically modified foods or products sprayed with harmful pesticides are just a few examples from the book. Goewey also offers an entire replacement guide so you can easily make your favorite dishes vegan.

“Often, when I am working with new clients or having lunch with friends, they tell me they barely eat animals, but I notice they eat animals with every meal,” Goewey shares. “It’s in the butter on your veggies, the eggs on your toast, the cheese sprinkled in your salad. I don’t want to shame you or point a finger, but with awareness, we start to see things for how they really are. The average person in the United States eats 174 animals each year. You may eat more animal products than you are aware of, and it is time to look at this, considering they may be causing inflammation and disease in your body. I am not here to tell you that you can’t eat meat, but that adding more plants and eating less meat will improve your health overall.”

The bottom line is that you know your body best, and Goewey is here to support you in figuring out what nourishes you.

Goewey’s philosophy on health is simple and ever-evolving. She’s not one to stick to a regimented way of eating forever. Even with her vegan lifestyle, she will take breaks from food groups like gluten or fruit as she attempts to eat seasonally and support her body with local produce. She lights up as she speaks about how everything from epigenetics to hormones shapes what foods our bodies uniquely want to consume, all of which she outlines in Divorce Your Diet.

The bottom line is that you know your body best, and Goewey is here to support you in figuring out what nourishes you. Incorporating more plants into your diet will positively affect your health, whether you choose to be vegan or prefer to be plant-powered. Moreover, her three fundamentals for health are simple: eat more vegan or plant-based meals, eat organic, and drink more water. “If you do nothing but adopt these three habits into your life, you will see dramatic changes to your health,” Goewey affirms.

I was fortunate enough to witness Goewey’s culinary talents in action at the 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay in Kauai, where she offers bespoke vegan cooking classes to hotel guests by request. The kitchen exudes much more than just sweet-smelling aromas when she is present; Goewey comes to life and fills the space with her energy and passion for real, clean food. Although she will never admit it, she’s somewhat of a local celebrity on Kauai—she hugged more than a dozen friends passing by during our time together, each gushing about a favorite dish from her cookbook.

As she prepares her famous vegan mac-and-cheese, made “cheesy” by a creamy mock-dairy sauce crafted from cashews and carrots, she fills me in on her latest cooking endeavors. She recently hosted her book launch for Divorce Your Diet at Café Gratitude in Venice Beach, California, and served a four-course vegan dinner, complete with a watermelon cake to match the book’s cover.

Hollan’s new cookbook, Divorce Your Diet, outlines easy ways for readers to ditch dieting and adopt a vegan or plant-based lifestyle.

While she scoops creamy cacao pudding topped with homemade coconut whipped cream and local flowers, she expresses her ultimate goal for her readers to take full accountability for their health. “Throughout the book, you will be learning about your body, how to create the foods you love with better ingredients, how to listen to your body when it inevitably falls in and out of health, and how to take care of yourself physically and mentally when it does. Even though it may sound like a lot, I’m going to show you how simple it can be! You can have your cake and eat it too.”

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To connect with Hollan, follow along on Instagram @hollanhawaii, purchase her book Divorce Your Diet via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore, and visit her website, HollanHawaii.com.