If you walked into my apartment one of the first things you’d notice is the amount of cookbooks I have. You’d realize very quickly my obsession with them. The gorgeous pictures bring me SO. MUCH. JOY. I’d probably even say that “flipping through cookbooks” makes it to the top of my list of favorite past times. Is that a little crazy? Maybe a little. It’s not just the food inspiration, the stories that go along with the recipes and the personal glimpse into other people’s kitchens make them feel intimate and special.
To be honest, when I’m cooking I rarely follow a recipe 100%. I actually feel like I’m almost incapable of doing that (something I got from my mom!). I’m always improvising with whatever we have in our pantry/fridge, but even still I believe in the power of a good cookbook. It provides an anchor and sometimes all we need is a little grounding to encourage us to spread our wings and experiment on our own.
Although it was really hard to narrow down my top cookbooks these are the six cookbooks I find myself turning to again and again. I hope by reading about the ones I love you can find some that peak your interest and add them to your own collection.
What are your go-to cookbooks? I’d love to hear!
My 6 favorite cookbooks
Pretty Simple Cooking by Sonia and Alex Overhiser - This cookbook shows its frequency of use at our house in grease stains and cocoa powder smears. All of the recipes in this book are vegetarian and truly simple. Like not the kind where people say “oh it’s so simple” and then they’re actually like not at all. It’s the perfect cookbook to pick up if you’re new to the kitchen and don’t want recipes that are overwhelming, but still want to impress your friends.
My Favorite recipes from this book:
Strawberry Lime Chia Jam
Red Lentil Curry with Cilantro Chutney
Roasted Cauliflower and Black Bean Tacos with Chipotle Aioli
Veggie Supreme Paella
Bliss Bites
Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake with Macerated Raspberries
Healthier Together by Liz Moody - Liz does such a great job of creating recipes that feel healthy, but are also fun and interesting without being too fussy. This book focuses on curating healthy relationships with food and connecting with others around the table — a message I certainly appreciate.
There are chapters in thsi book focused on recreating your favorite take-out recipes, curating a healthy happy hour, making fancy fare for hosting at home, and much more. All of the recipes in this book are portioned for two people which works out perfect for Josiah and I, but if you’re serving more than that you can easily scale up the recipes. We use this one ALL.THE.TIME. I struggled to even narrow down my favorite recipes in this book because we love so many of them!
My favorite recipes from this book:
Way More Veggies Bolognese
Zack’s Chicken Potpie
Chicken and Butternut Squash Tikka Masala wth Cilantro Chutney
Immune Boosting Turmeric Golden Milk Daal
Roasted Cauliflower and Crispy Chickpeas with Golden Ghee Dressing
Charred Chipotle Poblanos and Butternut Squash Taquitos
Persian Spiced Herb and Walnut Omelet
Flour Power by Tara Jensen - If you’re looking for a confidence boost in your bread-baking abilities, this is the book for you. Tara gently walks you through the how-tos of bread making with just enough science to make the concepts stick without leaving you scratching your head. Be prepared though, most of the recipes are not something you can just decide to whip together on a whim. The process of bread baking is a practice in patience and care so be prepared to have some delayed satisfaction, but I promise it’s worth the wait. I have a lot more recipes to try from this book, but the lessons she provides in the book have stuck with me and for that reason it makes it into my top six.
My favorite recipes from this book:
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Overnight Waffles
Workweek Bread
Whole Food Cooking Every Day by Amy Chaplin - This book is HUGE. It includes 250 recipes that are all vegetarian and free of gluten, dairy, and refined sugars. As the name implies this book focuses on using whole foods. For this reason you might expect the recipes to feel over complicated and overwhelming, but Amy does such a great job of making them feel approachable and simple. The recipes are very vegetable forward and super delicious. Everything in this book screams “nourishment.”
My favorite thing about this book though is that she presents a simple base recipe and then presents variations of that base recipes so that you can learn to cook with whatever you have on hand. For example she has a Winter Butternut Squash Soup as a base recipe, but then presents a variation that includes miso and another that includes hazelnut milk. She inspires you to adapt when you’re cooking in the real world where you can’t always find the ingredients you’re after. And as an added bonus instead of feeling like you just learned one recipe, it feels like you learned many! With just a few tweeks you can take that base recipe and turn it into a completely new meal.
My favorite recipes from this book:
Strawberry Coconut Butter
Curried Cauliflower Soup
Sweet Potato Soup with Coriander, Chili, and Ginger
Creamy Carrot Dressing
Green Pea Pasta using the Easy Pine Nut Pasta Sauce
Leek and Greens Cauliflower Bake
Green Kitchen At Home by David Frenkiel and Luis Vindahl - Whenever I flip through this book I instantly feel transported to Stockholm. I feel like I’m hanging out with David and Luis in their adorable kitchen chatting about all things food and life. The colors in this book make me very happy. The photos are so bright and inspiring.
I also highly recommend their Green Kitchen Travels cookbook. Warning: It will have your wanderlust going wild. I have all of their books and truly love them. If you are only going to buy one though I like this one because it provides a well rounded set of recipes that are sure to influence your next weeknight menu. All the recipes are vegetarian, but are ones that I as a meat eater still find myself falling in love with again and again.
My favorite recipes from this book:
Spinach and Feta Quiche with Oat Crust
Mediterranean Tray-bake with Halloumi Chunks
Daily Dahl
Fifty Shades of Green.
Half Baked Harvest Every Day by Tieghen Gerard - I’ve been in love with Half Baked Harvests blog forever. Her photography draws you in, but her unique take on food brings you back again and again. I’ve cooked from all three of her cookbooks, but find this one to be the one I keep coming back to the most. Tieghen lives in the mountains of Colorado and as you’re flipping through her book you can almost imagine yourself walking around her gorgeous property sipping on a cranberry moscow mule and taking in the incredible views.
My favorite recipes from this book:
Blueberry Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Zuppa Toscana with Cauliflower Gnocchi
Spiced Lentil Soup with Curried Acorn Squash
Chipotle Cheddar Corn Chowder
Brussel Sprouts and Gnocchi in Rosemary Butter Sauce
Saucy Garlic Peanut Noodles
Spicy chicken madras
