Food52 A New Way to Dinner: A Playbook of Recipes and Strategies for the Week Ahead

Anyone who has ever done a recipe web search has run into Food 52, the online mecca for all things good food. Founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs have more than just an encyclopedic knowledge of food and ingredients up their sleeves, they also want to make your life easier and (our favorite part) less wasteful. Their Food52 A New Way to Dinner: A Playbook of Recipes and Strategies for the Week Ahead will totally change the way you cook and plan your meals: their weekend recipes set you up for a whole week of quick-assembly workday lunches and dinners, so you can focus on life and still be well nourished. They tell you how to shop, what to keep in your pantry, the best way to store and freeze food and so much more! Everything you prepare has a purpose and is repurposed. What’s not to love? Plus, the recipes are seriously A+.

Hemsley & Hemsley’s Good + Simple

This book is a revelation. We enjoyed the bone-broth-loving Hemsley sisters‘ first book but Good + Simple is a true gem, with dozens of recipes becoming part of our regular arsenal like the Tahini Date Fridge Fudge (so yum!), Homemade Sriracha (such a winner!), Celeriac Spaghetti and Kale Carbonara (oh YAS!) and the Beetroot Feta Cake (ingenious!). As always, the recipes are totally grain-free, ideal for those on a gluten-free regime. The book is also filled with excellent wellbeing advice and handy cleansing meal plans to make life just that little bit easier.

Alternative Baker: Reinventing Dessert with Gluten-Free Grains and Flours

If the array of non-wheat flours at your local health food store make you break out in a cold sweat, this book is for you! Alanna Taylor-Tobin, pastry chef founder of popular vegetarian blog The Bojon Gourmet, is so passionate about nut, seed and less common grain flours, you will be too. Alternative Baker: Reinventing Dessert with Gluten-Free Grains and Flours is a fount of knowledge on gluten-free baking with tips, suggestions, how-tos, ingredient advice and more, plus a alternative flour guide with detailed profiles on each. Not to mention that the recipes are incredibly moreish, from the Blackberry Cream Scones to the Blueberry Corn Flour Muffins to the Fig & Olive Oil Cake, we want to gobble them all up.

Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-based Recipes

Vegans rejoice: Angela Liddon’s Oh She Glows Every Day is the book you have been waiting for! The Oh She Glows blog founder has found global success (and sold millions of cookbooks) thanks to her easy-to-follow, simple plant-based recipes that make life sans meat a cinch. Her food is colorful and fun, think Mac and Peas, Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers and Loaded Sweet Potatoes, so very kiddo-friendly and ideal for families committing to Meatless Mondays and Veganuary. Liddon is also famous for her cookie recipes and the doesn’t disappoint: we are crazy about the Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies and the Nut-Free Dream Bars.

Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking

Every Los Angeles foodie’ we know is obsessed with Jessica Koslow and Sqirl, her Koreatown eatery with lines out the door every day, and we can see why. We want to make every single vibrant recipe in her rustic, minimalist comforting book, Everything I Want To Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking, packed with all her favorite dishes. Breakfast (so many new ways to egg, hello Green Eggs & Onion Jam) and bowls are definitely her speciality but we were especially inspired by her accoutrements ideas: Raspberry and Cardamon Jam, Almond Hazelnut Spread, Green Garlic Puree…your sourdough toast will never taste the same.

Photos courtesy of listed cookbook author websites/blogs. Lead image from Food52, courtesy of James Ransom Photographer NYC.