Summer cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables can be immensely satisfying - if done right. That's where these new cookbooks come in. Most are as valuable as reference guides as they are recipe sources, which is ideal in summer. You want to play and experiment with whatever fresh local, seasonal produce you've got on hand. Here are 5 new favorites:
1. Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover's Guide to Vegetable Gardening by Willi Galloway: If you want to try starting a kitchen garden, it's not too late. Galloway provides straightforward planting and harvesting instructions along with basic recipes.
2. Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard by Nigel Slater: Growing fruit is not quite as simple, but Slater offers both gardening advice and mouthwatering recipes. His Rhubarb Custard Fool is amazing and I can't wait to try his Apricot and Pistachio Crumble.
Related: Easy Summer Fruit Recipes
3. Vegetables, Revised by James Peterson: If you're interested in eating vegetables, but not necessarily growing them, this is an indispensable guide. In this update to his original, Peterson provides an A to Z reference of vegetables including helpful how-to photos that show you preparation techniques for different types of produce.
4. Salad For Dinner: Complete Meals for All Seasons by Jeanne Kelley: Once you've got all those veggies, you should make a good salad. Most summer nights, all I want is salad for dinner and Kelley offers countless creative variations.
Related: Summer Entertaining Essentials
5. Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day: Of course, you have to have dessert. This Southern dessert collection has everything you crave from Banana Pudding and this peach and blueberry crisp to a killer Brown Sugar Bundt Cake. Each recipe has a little twist and many are portable and perfect for picnics and potlucks.
Of course, we rely on our own Good Housekeeping cookbooks too. If you're looking to go meatless this summer, check out our new Simply Vegan! book. Do you have any favorite summer cookbooks? Let me know in the comments!
- by Genevieve Ko
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