Cook Real Food is a course designed and delivered by optimal wellbeing teacher and plant-based nutritionist, Evita Ochel to teach you how to work with common whole plant foods and make quick, easy, delicious, and healthy meals with them. Instead of focusing on recipes, which can be limiting in many ways, you will be guided with meal templates to create an infinite number of meal and flavor combinations, no matter what your personal limitations may be. Cook Real Food will take you on a journey of self-empowerment to build your confidence, comfort, and creativity to work with whole plant foods in your kitchen.

When you make the choice to eat and cook real food that is most optimal for the human body, as whole plant foods are, you are making the choice to take responsibility for your wellbeing and positively contribute to our entire Earth. When you make the choice to create homemade meals from whole plant foods you are making the choice to avoid the health dangers of processed and convenience foods and their many harmful ingredients and cooking methods. Cooking your own food also helps you save money, bring more balance into your life, and build stronger bonds with family members whom you share your meals with.

You will learn how to:

  • Feed yourself in a way that is easy, doable, economical, and sustainable.
  • Feed yourself in a way that nourishes and heals your body from the inside out.
  • Feed yourself in a quick way, where the average meal takes 15 minutes.
  • Work with common, fresh, whole plant food ingredients that you can get from your local grocery store.
  • Cook various starchy and non-starchy vegetables, grains, legumes, and mushrooms.
  • Incorporate fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices into meals in easy and healthy ways.
  • Create simple, yet delicious and satisfying, meals and treats.
  • Approach plant-based, vegan cooking in a positive way based on mindfulness and gratitude.

Cook Real Food is a practical course with a holistic foundation. The course features 12 sections that provide over 60 lessons, along with practice activities in the form of worksheets and quizzes, and a course assignment to help you apply what you learned. All lessons include either summary sheets, worksheets, or recipes that you can download and print for quick reference and use. You will benefit from over 6 hours of content and a set of skills for life.

You will gain skills to know how to:

  • Obtain, select, and store whole plant foods.
  • Set up and stock your kitchen for healthy plant-based cooking and eating.
  • Cook foods in the least nutritionally-destructive manner.
  • Not rely on any animal foods, oils, or high-heat cooking methods.
  • Adapt your plant-based meals for special needs like gluten-free and nut-free diets.
  • Flavor your plant-based meals in satisfying ways.
  • Fix problem plant-based meals and avoid food waste.

When

This is an online video course that is available for you to take any time, and at your own pace. You can enjoy this from the comfort of your own home or even indulge in learning while on vacation. Students have lifetime access to the course, to review and repeat anytime they like.

Where

You can take the course on the leading online education platform Udemy.com using the button below.

Register for the Cook Real Food online course

Course Reviews & Testimonials

Greetings Evita, WOW! WOW! WOW! Where does one begin, these 2 courses on WFPB cooking provide a solid foundation for anyone wanting to go plant-based. The courses have not only given me more confidence in my cooking abilities but have educated me and have provided me with useful information and techniques to help me on my plant-based cooking journey. You are a fabulous teacher and these courses need more exposure so more people can learn from your presentations which are just outstanding. I am a retired USAF officer, Viet Nam Vet, 100% disabled due to Agent Orange exposure, and have a myriad of medical issues because of it. I went plant-based about 4 months ago primarily due to my kidney GFR reading being 26 and since then my GFR is 49 due to plant-based eating. It’s been medically proven that WFPB eating has tremendous medical impacts on Diabetes and Kidney disease. WFPB eating/cooking is growing but lots of people are confused on how to get started but these courses could change that. I have read your book which is also outstanding and I am looking at all your other resources. It’s been a pleasure taking your courses and wish you nothing but good health and continued success. Regards, Gil Matthews

Gil M.- November 2021


This course was exceptional! Evita has a unique approach to teaching about whole food plant-based cooking and eating. Her teaching is very practical and informative. Her 20+ years of experience in the fields of nutrition, optimal health, research, and science is certainly demonstrated throughout her courses. You can see her passion for health and educating others. I recommend this course for everyone. I took both her courses: “Eat Real Food” and “Cook Real Food”. Cheers to good health and longevity! Thank you Evita for teaching me how to make this a lifestyle.

Jennifer A.- Februrary 2021


This is an excellent cooking course for anyone who wants to eat healthy. I learned a lot about plant-based food cooking and I love to go back to the videos and listen while I am cooking. They are very pleasant to listen. The pan-cooking method with a layer of water instead of oil, which was for me hard to believe before I tried, has absolutely amazed me, and now I always apply it! The food tastes great and my whole family enjoys. The course is very informative, practical, and to the point. My personal favorite is that there are no recipes, but instruction on how you can prepare different types of meals and how you can combine food, where you can decide which actual ingredients you want to use. I absolutely recommend this course!

Emina S.- July 2020


Wow, just wow! What an incredible course. I love how Evita carefully explains everything so well. You can clearly see how passionate she is about whole food plant-based nutrition. I love how Evita also discusses the aspects of nutrition in each video too. I have been a vegan since 1994 and lead a whole food lifestyle, but I was often eating the same thing every day or most days and had become stagnant in my choices of what to eat. I love all these incredible ideas on flavoring our meals with spices and sauces. This course is PERFECT and I am now able to get so much more variety in my meals. It’s a bonus that they are simple and easy meals as I know busyness got in the way some times in the past. I am now experiencing the benefits of mindfulness with creating new meals thanks to Evita. I used to eat for fuel but now there is the pleasure element too. I was so impressed with Evita that I bought her book, Healing & Prevention Through Nutrition. Whole food, vegan, and no oil, that’s my language too. Excited! I can’t wait to do more classes by Evita. She is an outstanding teacher and it was a joy and honor to learn from her. Thank you so much, Evita.

Joanne Rose ~ Maui Wellness Coach


This is hands down the best course on cooking with veggies! The instructor Evita Ochel is an authority in her field. She has a gift of taking the really complex arena of food and making it not only relatable but easy to understand and implement. In this course, you receive an abundance of knowledge, tips, tricks, and all the “how to” on all of our veggie needs. You will feel supported from the first step to the last delicious dish. I worked as a professional chef around the world and I was really impressed by the thought and care that went into making this course, from the cooking techniques with your health in mind to the meal templets that inspire your own unique creativeness. This is a wonderful addition to her other courses here on Udemy. STOP considering purchasing this course and put it in your cart NOW.

Eric Zippel - April 2020


I always found the hurdle to become a vegan a bit too high, but this course broke it down in such simple steps that now it seems silly not to indulge in a whole food plant-based diet. The course has taught me pretty much everything I need to aid me in my transition away from processed food, but what I enjoyed most was just how simple, honest and real it has been; such a refreshing and kind experience. Thank you so much, Evita, it has been a pleasure to be your student!

Aiste Jasmontaite - April 2020


A week ago I only knew how to cook spaghetti. And I already successfully cooked more than 9 different meals. So look… for an absolute beginner this course is a must. You are given the tools, the knowledge well explained and then you get different templates and steps to prepare hundreds of combinations of meals. I am really excited… 5 stars!

Fragiskos Sakellaridis - March 2020


I really enjoyed this course and the amount of detail explained. I have struggled to follow a healthy plant-based lifestyle in the past, mostly because I had not taken the time to learn how to cook and diversify the menu. I only knew a handful of recipes which gets very boring. Besides that, I was still using too many processed foods. Now I have a great foundation with the templates used in this course. Thank you so much for putting this together! Now I can show friends and family that plant-based isn’t just eating salad and stir-fry all the time.

Scott Stevens - February 2020


This course was so good that I have been recommending it to everyone I know. The meal templates make it easy to follow the lifestyle of Whole Food eating. Couldn’t do it without these templates. Love it!!

Connie Jo - December 2019


Another excellent course by Evita. I feel so empowered and inspired: preparing food is not a concern, or stressful anymore. I’ve been vegetarian for 4 years, but in the last year, I have turned to junk food for laziness. I gained a lot of weight and decided to make a change. This course helped me a lot: it’s easy to combine foods with Evita’s templates, and the meal examples gave me the right inspiration to start. I’ve also learned how to cook properly plant-based food (I thought I knew it, but it turned out not to :-) ). Thank you, Evita!

Giulia Manzotti - September 2019


The best course I have taken about plant-based meals. It really impacted my life in a super positive way. It helped me to be more aware about what I eat and also gave the foundations to be able to go from theory to practice. As a plus, this course helped me save a lot of money and time from my life. Evita´s course is an outstanding return on investment. I would recommend this course to anyone that is getting started into the plant-based lifestyle and want to make a positive impact. Thanks, Evita! Your course really exceeded my expectations and helped me and my family have a better life :D All the best, Mauro

Mauro Alberto Ochoa Elizondo - February 2019


This course is the ‘missing link’ I needed after soaking in a depth of knowledge from various sources, including Dr. Esselstyn. Evita, you’ve put everything into simple, easy to understand instructions that take the overwhelming issues of change out of it all. You are an excellent teacher and mentor. Very much appreciated.

Sharon Dickson - January 2019