Every start of the year, many of us set the intention to eat more healthily and to prepare more home-cooked meals over the next twelve months. Because while eating out, ordering take-away, or taking something out of the freezer is easier, it’s not necessarily something our bodies or wallets desire. Yet just like with all good New Year’s intentions, it’s not as easy as it seems.
While some have a natural affinity for cooking, finding it easy to come up with a new meal every evening, others see it as a challenge that is hard to face. If you belong to the latter category of people, however, there is hope. Sometimes, one or two good cookbooks are all that’s needed to shift those hard-to-shake habits and to become a kitchen prince(ss) instead. We’ve selected five new(ish) cookbooks that might be able to lure even the least-inspired into the kitchen.
Something from Nothing: A Cookbook
by Alison Roman
You find yourself looking at your cupboard, wondering what to cook, convinced that you’ve got nothing useful at all. It’s late at night, the shops are already closed, or you simply don’t want to go out anymore after a long day at work, and so you order something from your favourite restaurant instead. Next time, you’ll do better. Or not.
Sounds familiar? Alison Roman’s Something from Nothing: A Cookbook is here to help. Over 100 recipes turn the contents of a semi-empty cupboard into a filling, creative, and often healthy meal. It also makes for the perfect cookbook to have at hand when returning from a trip abroad, when fresh produce in the fridge has gone to waste, and you’re left with the bare essentials only.
Boustany: A celebration of vegetables from my Palestine
by Sami Tamimi
Sami Tamimi is far from new to cooking. Amongst other things, he contributed to Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, thus proving his skills in the kitchen. For his first solo cookbook, Tamimi found inspiration in the dishes he enjoyed at home as a boy. And with ‘Boustany’ meaning as much as ‘My Garden’ in Arabic, it is clear that vegetables stand center stage.
Breakfast, sharing plates, big celebrations, simple breads, sweet treats, and easy dinners: Tamimi serves his readers over 100 different recipes to choose from. The ideal book for those who want to add some flavour to their daily cooking, staying far from any boring vegetarian dishes that might come to mind.
Mission Masala – Eat India
by Pavan Bajwa
While not all recipes included in Mission Massala – Eat India can be called healthy as such, the book does, without a doubt, offer a great opportunity to start taking pleasure from cooking. The print itself is bold and colourful, while the recipes inside are just as exciting.
Flavour explosions, creative combinations, and all kinds of unknown Indian specialties stand central in this easy-to-read, easy-to-cook book. Whether you opt for a quick bite or an hour-long simmering curry is up to you. A spicy treat for the eye and the taste buds alike.
Eat Yourself Healthy: Food to Change Your Life
by Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver has been a fixture in the culinary scene for years, and his latest cookbook, Eat Yourself Healthy: Food to Change Your Life, focuses more than ever on nutrition. As a chef, Oliver has been working towards a global food revolution since he first started, and he isn’t about to end his efforts just yet.
His latest cookbook includes 120 recipes meant to energise, satisfy, and nourish. Those wanting to eat more healthily and to cook more often in 2026 will find everything they need inside, even a nutrition-packed 2-week meal plan to kickstart their health journey. If healthy eating doesn’t come naturally to you, it is a great way to learn more about what to include in your diet without the book ever becoming too restrictive.
Lugma: Abundant Dishes And Stories From My Middle East
by Noor Murad
Noor Murad has long ago earned her stripes in the culinary scene. As co-author of two Ottolenghi Test Kitchen cookbooks, refining recipes and finding perfect flavour combinations comes as second nature to Murad, and now the chef has combined that knowledge with her roots.
In Lugma (which means as much as ‘Bite’ in Arabic), the London-based, Bahrain-raised author combines centuries-old traditional Middle Eastern dishes with flavour additions from around the globe. The result is surprising, never boring, and perfect for both culinary professionals and debutants alike.
