Culinary Rx
Course Overview
Rouxbe, the world’s leading online culinary school, has joined forces with The Plantrician Project, a non-profit dedicated to developing educational events, tools and resources for physicians and clinicians.
Culinary Rx is an online instructional cooking and nutrition education program that healthcare professionals prescribe to their patients for prevention and lifestyle health. Their joint mission is to provide the tool that aims to empower patients through their transition to a healthier, whole food, plant-based way of living.
This cooking and nutrition course will help people navigate the many challenges inherent in moving away from foods that harm, to foods that truly have the power to heal and drive optimal health.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course you'll be able to:
- Understand and apply key principles of whole-food & plant-based nutrition
- Outfit your kitchen with essential tools and equipment to get you cooking
- Demonstrate knife handling and a variety of knife cuts for safety and speed
- Demonstrate moist cooking methods, such as steaming and simmering
- Demonstrate dry cooking methods such as roasting and sautéing
- Develop flavor in your food by using herbs, spices and other ingredients
- Plan and organize daily meals and apply principles of batch cooking
- Prepare a wide array of delicious, health supportive recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Course Syllabus
Unit 1: Orientation & Course Overview
Welcome to the Rouxbe Cooking School. Before you begin learning about how to cook and eat more plant-based foods, we want to be sure that you understand the course structure and how the learning platform works. We also want to explain what we expect of you as a student, and what you can expect from us. This introductory unit sets the stage for your learning.
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Course Orientation
In this unit, we will explain how this course is structured, how the Rouxbe learning platform works, and what to expect in the course.
Lesson 2
Introduction to a Plant-Based Lifestyle
Unit 2: Let's Start Cooking
This section is a resource to provide you with daily meal inspiration for your breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and desserts.
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Setting Up for Success
Lesson 2
Meal Planning Ideas
A myriad of breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas await you in this resource section.
Lesson 3
Quick Snacks & Desserts
Learn how to make nutrient-dense and delicious sweet treats and snacks in this resource section.
Unit 3: Plant-Based Kitchen Essentials
This unit introduces you to basic knife handling techniques as well as to some plant-based staples and batch cooking.
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Orientation
Lesson 2
Proper Knife Handling
Learn the techniques of using the most important knife in your kitchen: the chef's knife.
Lesson 3
How to Cut with a Chef’s Knife
Tackle the techniques behind using the most important knife in your kitchen: the chef's knife.
Lesson 4
Plant-Based Kitchen Staples
In this lesson, you will learn about some of the staple items essential to the plant-based kitchen, including plant based alternatives to common foods like stocks, dairy and proteins.
Lesson 5
Batch Cooking & Stretching Your Meals
This lesson introduces you to the concept of batch cooking, which will help you be prepared to eat well throughout the week.
Lesson 6
Unit Review
Unit 4: Basic Cooking Techniques | Part 1
This unit introduces you to basic moist- and dry-heat cooking techniques, such as steaming, simmering, sweating, roasting and sautéing.
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Orientation
Lesson 2
Salads & Dressings
Dressings and marinades are essential when creating flavor-packed dishes. In this lesson, you will discover simple formulas for creating dressings and marinades that have balanced flavor profiles and use minimal or no added sodium or oil.
Lesson 3
Cooking Vegetables in Water
In this lesson, you will learn how to cook vegetables in water while preserving their nutrients and color.
Lesson 4
Steaming Vegetables
In this lesson, you will steam and finish many sizes of vegetables.
Lesson 5
How to Sweat Vegetables
In this lesson, you will learn how to sweat food properly and why it is often beneficial to sweat the small stuff.
Lesson 6
How to Sauté
Learning how to sauté is an important task for any home cook or professional chef. It is one of the fastest and most common dry-heat cooking methods used to cook bite-sized pieces of food in a pan.
Lesson 7
How to Roast Vegetables
When cooked properly and to the right doneness, roasted vegetables not only look beautiful, they have a delicious and earthy flavor that pairs well with almost any dish.
Lesson 8
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 5: Basic Cooking Techniques | Part 2
This unit introduces you to the basic techniques used to cook legumes and grains and for batch cooking.
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Unit Orientation
This unit introduces you to batch cooking techniques that will help you prepare vegetables to eat throughout the week. Grains, legumes and rice cooking techniques are also discussed.
Lesson 2
Cooking Rice
In this lesson, you will learn to make plain and infused white rice. You will also practice the pilaf and risotto methods of rice preparation.
Lesson 3
Cooking Whole Grains
In this lesson you will learn how to properly prepare grains in safe and healthy ways. You will also be introduced to cooking the versatile grain quinoa.
Lesson 4
Unit Review & Assessment
Unit 6: Course Assessment
Time to take your final assessment and see how far you have come!
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Course Assessment
Time to take your final assessment and see how far you have come!
Unit 7: Plant-Based Nutrition Guide
This unit will introduce students to plant-based nutrition basics. While not exhaustive, this unit is intended to help people better understand the state of our health, how we got here and what we need to understand to redirect our lives down a more health-supportive path. It is hoped that the material will motivate students to dig deeper to begin to better understand how to truly take control of their lives through the foods that they eat.
View unit lessons
Lesson 1
Your Plant-Based Warm-Up
Lesson 2
Understanding Your Food Choices
In this lesson, you will be introduced to the the differences between foods that help and foods that could potentially harm your body.
Lesson 3
Nutrients Your Body Needs
In this lesson, you will learn about the macro and micro nutrients the human body needs to thrive, nutrient function and nutrient sources.
Lesson 4
The Challenges Ahead of You
Lesson 5
Reading Labels
This lesson looks at processed food products, how to read their labels and how some of their ingredients may affect your health.
Lesson 6
Resources
Use this section to access other helpful cooking and health resources
Practice Recipes
A few of the practice recipes you'll learn in this course.
Loading reviews…