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The family cookbooks you’ll want to cook from every day

by Malou Herkes

published on 7 August 2018

Running out of midweek dinner inspiration? Need more help with meal planning? On the lookout for failsafe recipes to please both kids and adults? Family cooking can be a chore but it really doesn’t have to be. These family cookbooks show how easy it is to put food on the table quickly, simply, cheaply, while never compromising on flavour. From Jamie’s five-ingredient dinners, to Mary’s quick cooking, to Nadiya’s creative twists, these family-oriented cookbooks will revolutionise your cooking.

Nadiya’s Family Favourites

A family cookbook from GBBO winner Nadiya Hussain, this book is packed with achievable recipes for every occasion. From quick midweek meals to weekend gatherings, expect dishes that are inventive but accessible, such as Fruit Salad Fattoush and Carrot Cake Pakoras, Avocado Pasta and Ginger Rice with Spiced Chickpeas. And, course, the big-hitter cakes you’d expect from a GBBO winner. Our favourite? Peanut Honeycomb Banana Cake.

Dominique’s Kitchen

With a successful business, three children, and now a successful career as a cookbook author since winning The Great Cookbook Challenge, Dominique Woolf understands a thing or two about being a busy family cook. It’s no surprise then that her first cookbook is packed full of fast and simple family-friendly favourites.

5 Ingredients Quick & Easy Food

Jamie’s super-accessible family cookbook is all about making the journey to good food simple. Every recipe uses just five key ingredients, proving that you don’t need a loaded fridge or a cupboard full of spices to create truly delicious meals. Quick and easy food is really what sets this cookbook apart, whether it’s finished and on the table in next-to-no-time or you’re letting the oven do the hard work for you. With dishes like Roast Tikka Chicken and Crazy Simple Fish Pie, it’s amazing to discover what you can make with so few ingredients.

Easy

by Chris Baber

Chef Chris Baber is on a mission to make cooking as easy as possible for everyone, including time-pressed families. His cookbook, Easy does what it says on the tin with a set of simplified crowd-pleasers for all occasions, from fakeaways to brunches, midweek meals to gatherings.

The Quick Roasting Tin

If you loved Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin and The Green Roasting Tin cookbooks, then you’ll love her third follow-up. Featuring straightforward, wholesome and flavoursome recipes with just a bit of hands-on prep, this cookbook offers more of Rukmini’s genius ideas. Our favourite recipes? Summer Sausage Traybake, Spiced Sweet Potato Curry and Pecan Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

One

In One, Jamie turns his hand to the family cook’s secret weapon: the one-pan meal. With over one hundred new recipes all made in a single dish, there are plenty of family favourites, from frying pan pasta to sumptous stews.

Simple

If you want Ottolenghi’s big-on-flavour dishes but with a focus on simplicity, this is the cookbook for you. Ottolenghi SIMPLE caters for everyone, offering up clever flavour combinations and inspiring ideas, all categorised with a simple key – from ‘Short on Time’ to ‘Pantry’ to ‘Lazy’ – so you can choose what you cook according to the time and ingredients you have. Favourite recipes include Pappardelle with Rose Harissa, Spring Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemon and Spiced Apple Cake.

Mary Berry Cook and Share

Mary Berry’s Cook and Share was made with entertaining in mind. Whether that be casual brunches, family roasts, or afternoon tea catch-ups for two, Mary has 120 fuss-free, accessible dishes to choose from. Find lots of inspiration for home cooks which take the stress out of cooking and bring a little joy to your kitchen.

5 Ingredients Mediterranean

For those who couldn’t get enough of Jamie’s first book of five-ingredient wonders, this cookbook takes its inspiration from the flavour-packed dishes of the Med with over 125 super simple recipes.

Eat Well for Less: Quick & Easy Meals

by Jo Scarratt-Jones, Gregg Wallace, Chris Bavin

This is an incredibly useful cookbook those who want to shop and cook with budget in mind. Peppered with tips and techniques to eat well and spend less at the supermarket, the book includes a meal-planning guide, a family budget planner, advice on freezing and storing food, ways to use up leftovers and tips to get kids involved in the cooking too. A practical cookbook, these recipes are not only full of flavour, they’re easy to prepare too. Favourites include Chicken Tikka Skewers with Wholemeal Chapatis, Red Lentil and Aubergine Moussaka, and Sweet & Sour Plum Chicken.

Mary Berry’s Quick Cooking

If you enjoyed watching Mary’s no-fuss cooking on the BBC Two series of the same name, then this cookbook is for you. Find 20- and 30-minute recipes that’ll show you how to make midweek cooking a doddle, all with Mary’s signature flair for reliable, accessible, delicious family food.

Together

In Together, Jamie Oliver focuses on how to reconnect with your favourite people through good food and the joy that it brings. Together is organised by eighteen different menus for different types of occasion from picnics, to brunches, lunches and feasts, you’ll find a whole host of new recipes to add to your repertoire and wow your loved ones with.

The Green Roasting Tin

Following on from the best-selling success of The Roasting Tin, Rukmini Iyer created an equally brilliant vegetarian and vegan family cookbook. The premise is the same: simple one-dish dinners that you can throw together with minimal prep, letting the oven to do the work for you. The only difference, of course, is that it’s all meat-free. Perfect for the vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians among you, dishes include Warming Sweet Potato & Mushroom Polenta with Tomatoes, Crisp Cauliflower Steaks with Harissa & Goat’s Cheese, and Oven-Baked Shakshuka.

Good Food

by Chris Bavin

Perfect for anyone on a tight budget, this practical guide to everyday eating is full of recipes and invaluable advice on how to plan, make the most of your freezer, batch-cook and use up leftovers all in the name of good, wholesome food that won’t break the bank. Inspiring, down to earth, easy to navigate, and refreshingly practical.

The Happy Pear: Recipes for Happiness

Healthy, veggie meals are what The Happy Pear duo are all about. Hot on the heel of their first two best-selling cookbooks, this latest recipe book is packed with consistently flavoursome, kid-friendly, meat-free meals. Expect economical easy dinners, hearty suppers and plant-based alternatives to family favourites, from burgers to nuggets, as well as irresistible sweet treats.

One Pan. 100 Brilliant Meals

by Mari Mererid Williams

A family cookbook that does exactly what it says on the tin: 100 delicious meals that can each be cooked in just one pan. A simple idea, brilliantly executed, these are recipes that require no fancy equipment and only minimal washing up. With family-friendly recipes such as Cheat’s Frying Pan Lasagne, Sweet Potato Dahl and even pizza, it’s a cookbook the kids will love to eat from.

Eat Well for Less: Family Feasts on a Budget

by Jo Scarratt-Jones, Gregg Wallace, Chris Bavin

Another set of affordable and exciting recipes from the Eat Well For Less team, Family Feast is all about budget-conscious, kid-friendly cooking. Perfect for busy parents who want to sure their families are eating a range of wholesome and vibrant foods, this book is designed to take the fuss out of cooking. From healthy Breakfast Burritos to Ratatouille Lasagne and Southern Style Chicken, you’ll find plenty of to keep your cooking fresh, flavoursome, and pocket-friendly.

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