Summer brings a fresh crop of colorful fruits and veggies so it’s the perfect time to hit up your local farmer’s market and prepare some delicious nutrient-dense eats. From no-cook salads and chilled soups for those sweltering days to refreshing ice cream treats and scrumptious snacks, these cookbooks provide a wealth of ways to savor the season and inspire your inner top chef. Check out our favorite new releases you’ll most definitely want to dig into.
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9 Cookbooks to Get You Cooking This Summer
1. N’Ice Cream: 80+ Recipes for Healthy Homemade Vegan Ice Creams
From creamy and thick chilled confections to refreshing paletas and mouthwatering shakes, food bloggers Virpi Mikkonen and Tuulia Talvio know what healthy vegan ice cream dreams are made of. Their recipes feature wholesome ingredients, including fruit, plant-based milks, avocadoes, bananas and natural sweeteners. Whether you’ve got a savory or sweet tooth, we guarantee you’ll love their luscious flavors: Salty Caramel Popcorn, Black Sesame-Licorice, Date-Cinnamon and Matcha White Chocolate, to name a few. ($14.53; available now)
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2. Pure Delicious: More Than 150 Delectable Allergen-Free Recipes
If you thought Crunchy Taco Salad With Spiced Ground Turkey and Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies are off limits on an allergen-free diet, think again. Classically trained Le Cordon Bleu chef Heather Christo’s new cookbook puts a safe spin on your favorite homestyle recipes. A melting pot of flavors and nutrients, Christo’s dishes will wow kitchen novices and foodies alike. ($17.44; available now)
3. Plated: Weeknight Dinners, Weekend Feasts, and Everything in Between
Plated’s head chefs Elana Karp and Suzanne Dumaine have made it even easier to cook wholesome and delicious dishes at home with their highly inventive and efficient recipes. Whether it’s dinner for one (or two!) or an outdoor fiesta for a crowd, their cook once, eat twice approach makes meal planning a breeze. Transform dinner leftovers into breakfast the next day and double batches of dressings and marinades into a tasty party dip. Now that’s what we call next-level meal prep. ($15.40; available now)
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4. Good + Simple
Your favorite British kitchen queens Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley recently released their second cookbook, which is divided into three parts to help newbie cooks prepare healthy, homemade meals with ease. It not only provides helpful info on how to stock your pantry with essential herbs and spices, but also meal plans that include breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts and snacks to help you follow a well-balanced diet. Two of our favorites: Cauliflower Rice Three Ways and Chocolate Avocado Frosting (because, chocolate and avocados). ($21.96; available now)
5. It’s All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook
Unlike It’s All Good, Gwyneth Paltrow’s earlier foray into fancy allergen-free cooking, the lifestyle guru’s new read includes recipes with much more accessible ingredients — all designed for the short-order cook. You might want to bookmark her Chocolate Cinnamon Overnight Oats (she recommends making extra batches for the week), and stock up on pita bread as your crust for a quick and delicious weeknight pizza, in lieu of delivery. ($19.88; available now)
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6. Green Kitchen Smoothies: Healthy and Delicious Smoothies for Every Day
David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl are the ultimate cooking power couple. The duo not only runs an award-winning food blog, but they have written three other cookbooks together and produce their own YouTube channel. In their forthcoming cookbook, they share their favorite post-workout smoothie recipes, energy-boosting breakfasts, mouthwatering dessert flavors, and more. You’ll also get tips on how to prepare your own nut milks, juices, muesli, toppings and granola, as well as tricks for layering smoothies and blending different colors. If not for the recipes, you’ll want to pick this cookbook up for the gorgeous smoothie art (more inspiration, here). ($11.79; available August 2)
7. The Perfect Blending Cookbook
Eating out of a bowl is a food trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Smoothies, acai, poke and Buddha bowls, the list goes on. But soups, the original inspiration behind the bowl, are back in the spotlight. Soups are more satisfying and nutritious than juices because they pack fiber and protein. This cookbook also celebrates the blender, the maker of hearty soups, antioxidant-rich smoothies and scrumptious dips. ($12.65; available June 7)
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8. Nutrition Stripped: 100 Whole-Food Recipes Made Deliciously Simple
McKel Hill, the brainchild behind the popular Nutrition Stripped blog, releases her debut cookbook in August. Unlike many food bloggers out there, Hill has the RDN credentials to back up her recipes. Her new cookbook features highly inventive recipes for those following a plant-based diet and are gluten-free and dairy-free. Carrot Gnocchi with Carrot Greens Pesto, Turmeric Milk, and Beetroot Burgers with Maple Mustard are just some of the delicious and creative recipes to look forward to cooking. ($13.47; available August 23)
9. The Love and Lemons Cookbook: An Apple-to-Zucchini Celebration of Impromptu Cooking
If you’re like most of us, you probably have a bunch of kale in your fridge you don’t know what to do with. Enter: Jeanine Donofrio, creator of Love & Lemons, who shows you how to make lemonade out of lemons…or rather, green mojito smoothies out of kale. Her cookbook is organized by ingredient so you get tips and tricks on how to prepare a delicious meal with what’s on hand. ($19.25; available now)
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