Yumna Jawad and her new husband were living in Dearborn and picking up their dinners from her mother or his, both amazing cooks who made favorite Mediterranean recipes from scratch. Meals took hours to prepare and the newlyweds were happy to reap the rewards. Then the pair moved to Arizona for her husband’s medical residency.
Yumna Jawad, author of “The Feel Good Foodie.” Photo courtesy of Penguin Random House.
“I wanted to learn to make all those dishes, but my mom buttered 40 sheets of filo just to make baklava. She made her own pickles, tomato paste and yoghurt all from scratch,” said Jawad from her kitchen in Cascade Township. “I began experimenting with ways to make things faster and easier.”
She decided to learn publicly, posting her progress on Instagram “to hold myself accountable so I wouldn’t quit.” She shared what she learned, posted recipes, and described what she did to make each recipe her own—adding ingredients and spices, swapping out ingredients for healthier ones, finding ways to cut down on prep time.
By 2013, she noticed lots of food people on the internet and decided “maybe this was something.” Jawad became the Feel Good Foodie and started growing her followers bit by bit, using social media to tag fellow foodies who tagged her back. By 2015, she knew she needed to diversify so added Facebook, YouTube, X (then Twitter), Pinterest and a website.
These days the Feel Good Foodie has 10 million followers across all platforms and released The Feel Good Foodie Cookbook in 2024. Most of the 125 recipes use 10 ingredients or fewer and take 30 minutes or less to make. There were 100 new recipes in the cookbook that hadn’t appeared on her website.
“I realized there weren’t a lot of people doing what I was doing with Mediterranean food, that there was a place for my kind of recipes,” said Jawad. “Before, I was making American recipes or Americanizing them, but decided to make the Lebanese recipes and curate my favorite techniques and ingredients.”
Jawad, whose family is Lebanese, was born in Zaire, spent some of her childhood in Sierra Leone, and moved to Dearborn, Mich., in 1993. She and her husband have lived in Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, and Kalamazoo, Mich., before finally moving to Grand Rapids in 2020.
Through all the moves, two children, and her husband’s medical training—he’s now a cardioelectrophysiologist—Jawad has continued to create new recipes to post on her website, refine the recipes she loves, and even start Oath, an overnight oats product in four flavors available online.
“The key to success is being adaptable and flexible, and to diversify,” said Jawad.
And her signature description of her culinary delights? “So good!”
Penguin Random House courtesy art.
Yumna Jawad’s Must-Have Ingredients:
Greek yogurt—sauces, savory dishes, use in place of oil in baking
Cans of chickpeas—salads, hummus, soups
Olives, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers
Feta cheese—salads, sandwiches, sauces
Lemons and limes to brighten flavor
Secret ingredient: Rose water for unique taste
Yumna Jawad’s favorite places to shop are Fresh Thyme, Whole Foods, Super Green Market. For more on Yumna Jawad, visit feelgoodfoodie.net and oathoats.com.