A Couple Cooks: Local Indy Couple Shares Wildly Popular Recipes for Everyday and Special Occasions

What started in 2010 as a personal food blog by Sonja and Alex Overhiser has since evolved into A Couple Cooks, a fully SEO-optimized website that attracts millions of readers monthly. Their website now features over 3,000 recipes, featuring easy dinner ideas, cocktails, soups, salads, healthy mediterranean meals, desserts, and we could keep going.  

Growing up with little interest in cooking, Sonja saw food as simply fuel. However, after meeting and marrying Alex, the couple’s desire to host friends sparked a newfound passion for cooking. Their culinary adventure took them to local farmers markets, where they discovered fresh ingredients and the creativity behind simple, wholesome meals. Cooking became not just a necessity but a shared experience—one that would eventually lay the foundation for their wildly successful blog and eventually an Instagram following of over 100k.

Their success led to the release of their first cookbook, Pretty Simple Cooking in 2018, and their newest cookbook, A Couple Cooks, released on October 15 2024.

Cooking Together

Their newest cookbook, A Couple Cooks,  focuses on fostering relationships through food, with recipes that continue to emphasize simplicity and connection.

“What drew us to food in the first place was having people over for dinner,” says Sonja. “ And so we thought, why not just write a book about the joy of cooking with someone else?”

The cookbook includes chapters for everyday dinners, a chapter about dinner parties. And even one that focuses on cooking for two. There’s also a chapter on sides, baked goods, breakfasts, desserts, appetizers and cocktails.

Some of Sonja’s favorite recipes include the Artisan Bread, the Salmon Picatta, and the Chocolate Ganache Tart. (We may have invited ourselves over for dinner.)  “I think Alex made [the artisan bread] up and it’s extremely delicious. It tastes like it’s from a bakery.”

“It kind of has a focaccia bread taste to the outside with some rosemary and sea salt. I love that one.”

Sonja and Alex at Home

The Overhisers’ plant-forward, Mediterranean-inspired cooking style is at the heart of their brand. 

“We do a lot of vegetable based plant forward stuff, we started out that way,” says Sonja. “Our first cookbook is vegetarian and vegan. And then we’ve kind of brought in to include seafood and chicken on our website.”

“But we love to be inspired by all sorts of flavors, so you won’t find any specific cuisine. There’s a lot of different things.”

Her go-to meal at home for something quick, easy and delicious? “I love the easy chickpea curry. It’s really simple and comes together quickly, so we love it.” 

No one really talks about this but one of the most stressful parts of being an adult is figuring out what to make for dinner. So how do Sonja and Alex inspire people to cook delicious food at home? How do they stay motivated?

“I’m going to say this, and this is also preaching to myself, but think ahead,” says Sonja.  “We love to be spontaneous, but I think when you have a family it’s very difficult. So I think as much as you can think ahead.”

“At least having some idea of what you want to make is, like, halfway over, halfway there.”

Get the Cookbook

“Don’t be afraid to try something new, to try new flavors, to jump into something you feel like you don’t know how to do, because that’s how you learn how to do it. And that is something,” says Sonja.  

With the release of their second cookbook just around the corner, Sonja and Alex are gearing up for an exciting launch. They are planning to promote the book via social media and collaborate with local bookstores to support the release, staying true to their Indiana roots and love for local businesses. You can find the newest cookbook at Golden Hour Books, Indy Reads, Silver in the City, Nicole Taylor’s Pasta and Chapter Lounge. You can also grab the cook book everywhere books are sold like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.