New Books to Relieve Cooking Fatigue

Late February and March can be dreary months when spring is still a ways off and the novelty of fresh snow and comfort cooking have worn thin.  While it may be some time before it’s warm enough for decks and grilling, a new cookbook can offer inspiration and help motivate weary home chefs suffering from cooking fatigue to try something new that will feed the soul as well as the family. 

When cooking fatigue hits, and a new kitchen tool or appliance won’t ease the burnout, a new recipe or style of preparing meals can throw a lifeline to exhausted cooks.  According to a recent Food52 blog post, Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food is a top cookbook released in 2021.  The book includes make-ahead dishes, vegan one-pot meals, and many other straightforward recipes for reluctant or weary chefs. Author Julia Turshen also offers online cooking classes every Sunday at 2 p.m. – each class includes a PDF of recipes and a grocery list as well as a recording of the class. 

Ready to try a new flavor profile?  To Asia, With Love:  Everyday Asian Recipes and Stories from the Heart is a leading choice among experts for 2021 releases.  Hetty McKinnon’s book includes her own 35mm photographs, from her home kitchen, and a sense of humor in her storytelling approach to sharing recipes and techniques. 

For those already planning their summer vegetable garden, Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower, by Gill Meller will help gardeners put their harvest to full use.  The 120 original vegetarian recipes use seasonal vegetables and fruits to create healthy, tasty meals that lessen environmental impact while boosting health and wellbeing. 

Because diet plays such a vital role in health and disease prevention, finding joy in preparing nutritious and delicious meals is a skill people of all ages can benefit from developing. Recent studies have increasingly made the case for treating “food as medicine” to help prevent, manage and treat illness. Learn more by reading a recent article in the Food for Thought collection of the British Medical Journal.