Cookbooks to help you brighten 2022

Photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim

If you’re like me, you’ve done more cooking during the pandemic than in any recent time period. In fact, for the first time, I got tired of cooking.

This list of 19 cookbooks from the Food Tank, a food think tank, brightened my day.

From meatless meals by Jane Goodall to updates to “Diet for a Small Planet” to zero-waste fixes, the cookbooks are full of bright flavors, personal stories, and rich traditional knowledge.

“Cooking is one of the most powerful ways we can make a difference in the food system every day,” said Danielle Nierenberg, president of the Food Tank. “By using ethically produced ingredients, supporting local farmers and producers, and eating seasonally, we can build equity and ecology from the ground up.”

The 19 cookbooks are:

• “#EATMEATLESS: Good for Animals, the Earth & All” by Jane Goodall
• “A Bite of the Big Apple: A Food Justice Cookbook” by Clara Pitt and Leila Tilin
• “A Gathering Basket” by I-Collective
• “Black Food” by Bryant Terry
• “Cook More, Waste Less” by Christine Tizzard
• “Cooking at Home” by Priya Krishna and David Chang
• “Cooking for Your Kids” by Joshua David Stein
• “Diet for a Small Planet (50th Anniversary Edition)” by Francis Moore Lappe
• “Dreaming in Spice: A Sinfully Vegetarian Odyssey” by Hari Pulapaka
• “Foraging in 2021: The Ultimate Guide to Foraging and Preparing Edible Wild Plants” by Joseph Erickson
• “Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes” by Abra Berens
• “Jubilee” by Toni Tipton-Martin
• “New Native Kitchen” by Freddie Bitsoie and James O. Fraioli
• “Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love” by Yotam Ottolenghi
• “Rice” by Michael W. Twitty
• “Take One Fish” by Josh Niland
• “The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora: Recipes and Techniques for Edible Plants from Garden, Field, and Forest” by Alan Bergo
• “The Perennial Kitchen: Simple Recipes for a Healthy Future” by Beth Dooley
• “The Zero-Waste Chef Cookbook” by Anne-Marie Bonneau

Enjoy.

Comments

[Diane]

Ohmyword, so many great choices. Working my way through them, one-by-one!

[Rita]

Yes, it's an interesting list.

[Laurie Stone]

I want to try them all, but definitely Jane Goodall's!

[Carol Cassara]

With so much available online i have culled my cookbooks...still have my favorites though.

[Rebecca Forstadt Olkowski]

I always love to know about new cookbooks. Thanks.

[Rita]

Yes, new cookbooks are fun. I've written articles in the past about what new cookbooks to buy for holiday presents. Remember "The Moosewood Cookbook"? There's a 40th anniversary edition. And the "Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook"?

[s]

Did the forager cookbooks work for the Pacific Northwest? While dandelions seems to exist in many parts of the US, it would seem as though some edible plants/weeds would exist only in some parts of the US.

[Rita]

That's a good question. I read the introduction to the forging book online and it looks like it's written for people in the United States.

[Jennifer]

Thanks for sharing.

[Rita]

You're welcome. I thought readers would like the list and might order some of the books or get them from the library.