The YouTube Channel That Makes It Easier for Me to Eat Healthfully

Thousands of vegetarian recipe accounts exist on YouTube. Some are focused on whole foods, others showcase whatever “wellness” means at the moment, and some are all the way vegan and plant-based. Somewhere in the middle of all this is my forever veg-inspiration: Green Kitchen Stories.

Founded by Stockholm residents David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl, Green Kitchen Stories started as a blog and blossomed into a popular YouTube account with videos that garner up to hundreds of thousands of views. Along with four cookbooks published in multiple languages, David and Luise have created a mini-vegetarian empire.

While the kitchen in Sweden is painted white (not green), the name is meant to represent what they create: healthy vegetarian recipes using whole grains, good fats, fruits, and vegetables.

Green Kitchen Stories was one of the biggest influences for me in making the shift to a vegetable-heavy diet. They just make eating mostly veggies so easy! And their videos have inspired me to keep up with the change.

Every veg-filled video is aesthetically pleasing and showcases the freshest of ingredients — the sort you want to bike down to the local greenmarket to pick up pronto and arrange all over your counters, just like they do. Some of the components they use frequently — like chia seeds, turmeric, buckwheat flour, dates, and nut butters — seemed unconventional five years ago, but most are readily accessible at grocers these days. Even ingredients like dried superfruits and vanilla bean powder can be ordered online in a snap, making even the most inspirational of recipes very attainable.

My favorite recipes are the hippie pizza, goodnight smoothie, nuts and blues (a smoothie from their newest cookbook, Green Kitchen Smoothies), and green vegan chickpea pancakes. They’re all super-filling and nutrient-dense — I know because I’ve made them all. I love how they mix in healthy riffs on classic vegetarian and vegan recipes (chocolate mousse, anyone?), while also sharing recipes that feel entirely new like roasted root tangles and Danish apple cake (which is more like a jarred pudding).

The duo isn’t wary of combining unusual ingredients either, which keeps me watching and making their recipes to see if it will work out. They’ll whiz white beans with blueberries or avocado with raspberries, and they’ll even turn broccoli, carrots, and beets into homemade flatbread.

Don’t look for heavy narration in their videos. The music is generally upbeat and optimistic, providing a happy background vibe to the up-close-and-personal style of recipe development in their tiny kitchen. However, if you want to hear their voices and some of their stories, travel back to the 2014 videos where they offer a bit of narration.

The very best part, though, is when you get to see their three kids. They’ll often make cameos in the videos or become super-helpful sous-chefs in the recipe creation. All smiles and everything vegetarian, this European family has got healthy living down to an art in their very green kitchen.