The beginning of a new season is a great time to get reinspired in the kitchen. Along with warmer temperatures, Spring brings seasonal produce and a desire for bright, vibrant food to match the blooming flowers and trees surrounding us. Try a new cookbook to discover new flavors, techniques and recipes—these below are brand new and showcase an exciting array of cuisines from amazing chefs around the world. 

The Food of Oaxaca: Recipes and Stories from Mexico's Culinary Capital by Alejandro Ruiz with Carla Altesor

One of Mexico’s most revered chefs introduces us to the vibrant foods of his home state through 50 recipes both ancestral and original, along with thoughtful essays on dishes, ingredients, kitchen tools and local traditions.

 

 

Vegetable Simple by Eric Ripert

In Vegetable Simple, Ripert turns his singular culinary imagination to vegetables: their beauty, their earthiness, their nourishing qualities, and the many ways they can be prepared. From vibrant Sweet Pea Soup to Fava Bean and Mint Salad, from warming Mushroom Bolognese to Roasted Carrots with Harissa, Eric Ripert articulates a vision for vegetables that are prepared simply, without complex steps or ingredients, allowing their essential qualities to shine and their color and flavor to remain uncompromised. 

 

Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food by Julia Turshen

In Simply Julia, readers will find 110 foolproof recipes for more nutritious takes on the simple, comforting meals Julia cooks most often. With practical chapters such as weeknight go-tos, make-ahead mains, vegan one-pot meals, chicken recipes, easy baked goods, and more, Simply Julia provides endlessly satisfying options comprised of accessible and affordable ingredients. 

 

 

Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food: Deliciously Doable Ways to Cook Greens, Tofu, and Other Plant-Based Ingredients by Hsiao-Ching Chou; photography by Clare Barboza

Chinese Soul Food drew cooks into the kitchen with the assurance they could make this cuisine at home. Though a popular cuisine across North America, Chinese food can be a little intimidating. But author Hsiao-Ching Chou's friendly and accessible recipes work for everyone, including average home cooks. In this new collection, you'll find vegetarian recipes for stir-fries, rice and noodle dishes, soups, braises, and pickles.

Plat Du Jour: French Dinners Made Easy by Susan Herrmann Loomis

This is a long-awaited collection of classic recipes by Loomis, an American-born cooking teacher and author who resides in Paris. She has perfected these iconic dishes and shares what she’s discovered while living in France, cooking for family, friends, and students. In addition to the recipes, the cookbook includes helpful tips and intriguing details about French culinary history. It’s a must-have for any aspiring home cook with a craving for simple French cooking.

 

Ripe Figs: Recipes and Stories From Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus by Yasmin Khan

Traveling by boat and land, Yasmin Khan traces the ingredients that have spread through the eastern Mediterranean from the time of Ottoman rule to the influence of recent refugee communities. At the kitchen table, she explores what borders, identity, and migration mean in an interconnected world, and her recipes unite around thickets of dill and bunches of oregano, zesty citrus and sweet dates, thick tahini and soothing cardamom. Khan includes healthy, seasonal, vegetable-focused recipes, such as hot yogurt soups, zucchini and feta fritters, pomegranate and sumac chicken, and candied pumpkin with tahini and date syrup.

 

Jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes From a Modern Mensch by Jake Cohen; photography by Matt Taylor-Gross

Jew-ish is a brilliant collection of delicious recipes, but it's much more than that. As Jake Cohen reconciles ancient traditions with our modern times, his recipes become a celebration of a rich and vibrant history, a love story of blending cultures, and an invitation to gather around the table and create new memories with family, friends, and loved ones.

 

The Kitchen Without Borders: Recipes and Stories From Refugee and Immigrant Chefs by the Eat Offbeat chefs; photography by Penny De Los Santos; written and recipes tested by Siobhan Wallace

A cookbook with wide-ranging roots and a very deep heart: 70 authentic, off-the-beaten-path recipes for delicious dishes from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Venezuela, and other countries are shared by chefs who arrived in the US as refugees and immigrants and found work at the Eat Offbeat catering kitchen.

 

The Mighty Bean: 100 Easy Recipes That Are Good For Your Health, the world, and Your Budget by Judith Choate; photographs by Steve Pool

Legumes have been rediscovered by home cooks everywhere. From common classics like black and pinto to heirloom beans like Appaloosa and Dapple Greys, The Mighty Bean, written by established cookbook author Judith Choate, provides a never-ending collection of recipes to showcase these plant-based powerhouses including vegetarian, vegan, and meat-friendly recipes.

 

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Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.