It’s been a great year for cookbooks, but in case you missed them, here are some 2024 highlights…
1. Cooking with Anna
Born and bred Dubliner Anna Haugh has risen to culinary fame in recent years with appearances on the BBC revival of Ready Steady Cook, plus a guest judge on BBC's MasterChef, Sunday Brunch, and Saturday Kitchen.
This year saw the publication of her debut cookbook and it’s a banger. She shares her journey through food growing up, her professional kitchen career (at one time working for Gordon Ramsay) and how far Irish food has come from the ‘meat and two veg’ of a few decades ago.
“Irish food has everything to offer: wonderful ingredients with impeccable provenance and rich traditions, as well as a dynamic approach to modernity,” the 44-year-old writes. “Irish food is just as worthy of praise, and of study, as that of our more renowned neighbours” – like Spain and Italy.
Haugh’s collection of recipes aims to demystify the secrets of great cooking, with many ‘tricks of the trade’ scattered across the recipes – this chef is all about practical, usable advice.
Long gone are the days of cookbooks only being divided into sections of starters, mains and pudding – and Haugh has tapped into the need for time-saving and convenience too. Her 20-minute dinners chapter includes coconut cod curry, while her lunch and brunch section has an ultimate cheese and ham double decker toastie. There’s plenty of vegetable-centric dishes, like pea and cheddar burgers and Jerusalem artichoke vegan risotto, along with heavyweight fish and meat recipes designed for dinner.
Haugh’s love for Irish classics is peppered throughout. Coddle – a boiled sausage and potato stew – is a cherished supper from her childhood, rack of Irish lamb and double cauliflower, dedicated to her dad, perfect fluffy scones with her mum’s homemade gooseberry jam (a regular treat in her house) and soda bread – made using a baked bean can.
With beautiful whole-page photographs, and nearly all recipes shorter than one side, this usable book has a right balance of simple and ambitious-enough food to keep you learning.
2. One Pot One Portion
It was only a matter of time that someone had the great idea of a recipe book for people living on their own. Content creator Eleanor Wilkinson started her Instagram series One Pot One Portion when she began cooking for just herself after a relationship break-up and realising the culinary and cookbook world caters for couples, families and large gatherings – and rarely for one person.
“Those of us who cook for just ourselves must either fill our freezers, feed our friends and be forced to ensure reheated spag bol for the next three days,” the 28-year-old writes. She also got tired of being the only person around to do the washing-up, so one portion wasn’t enough, it had to be made in one pot too.
Her debut cookbook became a Sunday Times bestseller this year and the concept is really clever; split into sections of comfort, fresh, simple, special and sweet – so readers tap into how they’re feeling rather than chained to the constraints of eating breakfast for breakfast, for example.
One key concept is that every recipe in the book has a ‘partner recipe’ to go with it. So, if for example you fancy butternut squash, the other half of the vegetable won’t be sat rotting in your fridge for the rest of the week – Wilkinson has provided a second way to use said leftover butternut squash another day. Try the hash brown cottage pie one night and use the other half of that packet of mince in the smash burger flatbread, for example.
The recipes are short and easy, but look delicious; think chicken caesar salad with chicken-fat panko crumbs, pork and pineapple flatbread and lobster spaghetti with lemon and tomatoes, and a singular cinnamon bun recipe that you don’t even have to make a dough or knead for.
It’s not just practical though – Wilkinson wanted to celebrate the joy in cooking for one too (“a joyous act of self-care”), so there’s colour and in abundance and just enough creativity that means you’ll be eating new combinations but not stressing in the kitchen.
Anyway, who says you can’t have a lasagne, apple tarte tatin or beef wellington with all the trimmings, just because you’re only making it for yourself?
3. Bored Of Lunch: Six Ingredient Slow Cooker
If you haven’t heard of Nathan Anthony yet, where have you been? The Northern Irish cook rose to fame on social media after setting up his account Bored Of Lunch in lockdown – focusing on healthy food in an air fryer or slow cooker to make nutrition at home as easy as possible.
His fifth cookbook (having already done a few iterations of healthy, easy and quick) is all about only using six ingredients (each handily pictured) – aside from a few core things like oil, butter, salt, pepper and cornflour that you likely already have in your cupboard.
“I am all about fuss-free, minimal prep recipes that are full of flavour,” the 33-year-old writes. “There’s nothing better than a slow cooker, just stick all your ingredients in – or throw as I like to call it – and let the machine do all the work.”
As with all his previous books, the recipes are calorie counted, if you want to keep an eye on your intake, and there’s even breakdowns for protein and carbs if you want to get really technical.
Handy, easy-to-use chapters include fuss-free fakeaways (think beef brisket coconut rendang curry), set and forget midweek meals (like creamy butternut squash and lemon linguine) and soups and lighter lunches (the harissa and chorizo shakshuka sounds delicious).
Anthony has also included a helpful guide grouping together recipes you need one of the same ingredients for, to avoid waste and wasting money.
It’s all about making life – and health – as easy as possible, so rather than an elaborate introduction and beautifully written prose about each dish, expect bold, loud lettering and white space, because, well, the recipes are so easy there’s no need for more instruction.
