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Confession: I do not really cook. I’m juuust starting to. But I’ve been getting more and more interested in cookbooks because they seem to be much more of a ~journey~ than they used to be. I grew up with things like 30 Recipes to Achieve That Beach Body and it’s basically like, “drink a lot of aspartame” (remember the ’90s?). Now, cookbooks are like, here is the cook, look how neat they are, here are their beautiful photos, here is how easy this very healthy recipe is to make, maybe there’s some light journaling involved. So appealing.
So here’re come cookbooks!
Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. Okay, remember all that stuff I said about how easy something is to make? That’s not the case here. But when I stayed in London for a week (remember travel?), there was an Ottolenghi RIGHT BY my Airbnb and they had amazing food and a line regularly out the door. So this is all vegetarian recipes and has stuff like crusted pumpkin wedges with sour cream, two-potato vindaloo and lemon and goat cheese ravioli. Sure, it has an entire section on eggplants, but I’ll forgive it (p.s. eggplant is gross).
Chetna’s Healthy Indian by Chetna Makan. I love Indian food, but if you order it, it gets super-expensive so quickly! So I’m psyched by the idea of making my own. Especially from a cookbook by a Great British Bake-Off alum. She also has a vegetarian version if you don’t need the chicken/fish sections of this. This has recipes like cumin paneer salad, sweet potato yogurt curry, and chicken seekh kebabs (I do not eat chicken, but these sound really good).
Bean by Bean by Crescent Dragonwagon. Okay. So. My excellent friend and fellow Rioter Jesse recommends this on her 12 of the Best Cookbooks for Quarantine Cooking and Prep list. And sure, it sounds made-up. But it is NOT. And if you want to know the origin of the author’s name as I did, please check out dragonwagon.com. This compendium of bean knowledge highlights concepts like Bean Basics, Cool Beans (these are salads), and Hummus, Where the Heart Is. I am ordering it right now.
I am definitely doing a Cookbooks Part II in the near future, because these DID BUT SCRATCH THE SURFACE. Or did but rip open the bean pod. So. Look forward to that.
As always, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime and co-hosting the nonfiction For Real podcast with Kim here at Book Riot. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.