We’re done with glossy cookbooks chock-full of impossible-to-make dishes. We want delicious, healthy recipes that are simple enough to prepare at home and make us look like Julia Child… without the hours of work.
Thankfully that’s what celebrity chefs, food bloggers, restaurateurs, and noted cookbook authors are serving up in the new foodie tomes hitting the shelves this fall. Here are a few highlights:
For Healthy, Everyday Cooking
Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-based Recipes by Angela Liddon
Available: Now
The second book from popular vegan blogger Angela Liddon features more than 100 plant-based recipes — from mac and cheese made with cashew-based cheese sauce to the Oh My Gee veggie burgers, which combine roasted butternut squash or sweet potatoes, walnuts, onions, black beans, and gluten-free flour. Comfort food without the guilt? Yes please.
A Modern Way to Cook: 150+ Vegetarian Recipes for Quick, Flavor-Packed Meals by Anna Jones
Available: Now
Timing is everything. Just ask author Anna Jones, who divided the chapters in her new vegetarian cookbook by cooking times. For example, when you just need to eat — and fast — the 10-minute chapter offers easy crispy cauliflower fried rice. But when there’s time to think about what’s for dinner, you may want to consider the butternut cannellini gratin.
Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China by Fuchsia Dunlop
Available: October 18
Fuchsia Dunlop knows a thing or two about Chinese cooking. After all, she spent 10 years researching recipes, techniques, and ingredients from the Jiangnan region of China (which includes Shanghai) for her latest book. Showstopper recipes include slivered radish buns, clear-steamed sea bass and spicy Chinese cabbage.
Power Vegetables! Turbocharged Recipes for Vegetables with Guts by Peter Meehan and the Editors of Lucky Peach
Available: October 18
Momofuku’s David Chang and author Dave Eggers launched Lucky Peach, a quarterly food publication whose contributors list always reads like a who’s who of the food world, in 2011 and now, for their third book, they’ve turned to veggies. Power Veggies, that is. The book features more than 100 recipes, including charred carrots and tempura green beans with honey mustard, and are destined to appeal to vegan and carnivores alike.
V Street: 100 Globe-Hopping Plates on the Cutting Edge of Vegetable Cooking by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby
Available: Now
Street food with a vegan twist? Sign us up. In the fourth cookbook by the chefs/owners of Philadelphia’s Vedge and V Street share recipes for Peruvian fries, jerk trumpet mushroom sticks, and Malaysian cauliflower salad. The recipes are also all easier to make than they sound, perfect if you don’t consider yourself domestically inclined but want to make really tasty food.
For When You’re Entertaining
Small Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home-Cooking Triumphs by Julia Turshen
Available: Now
Turshen co-wrote Gwyneth Paltrow’s two best-selling cookbooks and in Small Victories, a curated collection of her own recipes , she offers tips and techniques to assure amateur cooks that everything will turn out delicious — from sour cream pancakes and Caesar salad to her version of classic chicken soup.
Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking by Jessica Koslow
Available: Now
Sleeping in late be dammed. Sqirl opens at 8am and by 8:30, there’s already a line around the block to snag a bite Jessica Koslow’s sorrel pesto rice bowl or sit at one of the marble tables and dig into a slice of brioche toast topped with with raspberry and vanilla bean jam. If you don’t want to stand in line (or don’t live near Silver Lake), pick up a copy of her debut book, which, yes, includes recipes for the two aforementioned menu faves.
Mozza at Home by Nancy Silverton
Available: October 25
On a recent trip to Italy, restaurateur and award-winning chef Nancy Silverton rediscovered how fun it can be to cook for family and friends and penned a cookbook based on just that. Mozza at Home is packed with 150 recipes and 19 dinner party menus. Think marinated olives with Pecorino, flattened chicken thighs with charred lemon salsa verde, and olive oil cake.
Regarding Cocktails by Sasha Pertraske and Georgette Moger-Pertraske
Available: October 31
Milk & Honey was one of New York’s best bars both for its dimly-lit ambiance and also for its perfectly-constructed pre-Prohibition era cocktails. If you could get in, that is. Entrance wasn’t predicated on named-dropping (see the house rules), but on membership or by a difficult to obtain reservation. The NYC location closed in 2014, followed by founder Sasha Petraske’s death in 2015.
The London location remains open, but for those of us stateside, Petraske has given us one for the road: this beautifully illustrated book that features more than 85 cocktail recipes. With their easy-to-follow instructions, even the wine opener-challenged among us can concoct a signature drink to serve guests.
Cooking for Jeffrey by Ina Garten
Available: October 25
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from making other recipes the Barefoot Contesssa is that you can trust these recipes have been tested until the point they’re practically fail proof. Her latest includes her husband’s favorite dishes like skillet-roasted lemon chicken, brisket with onions and leeks and a rich, savory veggie stew made with carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and prunes. Just skip the front cover cake until cheat day.
And, if you’re looking for some easy, healthy recipes, don’t forget to check out our own recipe section and Autumn Calabrese’s brand new cooking show, FIXATE!
