The best cookbooks to keep you inspired during lockdown

We understand these are strange times, but here in God’s Own Country, we make do! So, since we can’t go out to our favourite pub or restaurant for that perfect roast, sublime Tortellini or fragrant Indian, why not make it at home? We’ve compiled a list of the best cookbooks for the lockdown season that embody some of the same pleasures as going out to eat. You can bake with Jervaulx Abbey, one of the largest privately-owned abbeys in the UK, get your Vegan on with some of the North’s best, travel the French countryside with Rick Stein or take the Darjeeling Express with Asma, all from the comfort of your kitchen. So settle in and let these seasoned chefs guide you.

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Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks

Vicky Bennison – £20.00

Part cookbook, part enchanting tale of Italian Grannies, this sunny collection is born out of cooking for love, not profit. With more than 80 accessible, comfortingly Italian recipes, you’re in good hands here.

Tin Can Cook: 75 Simple Store-Cupboard Recipes

Jack Monroe – £6.99

All hail the Patron Saint of the Pantry! Jack has been showing us how to craft great-tasting food with staple ingredients long before it was en vogue. Frugality doesn’t mean bland here, with dishes including Catalan Fish Stew, Red Lentil and Mandarin Curry and the ever-intriguing ‘Tin-e-strone’ all created with Jack’s loving, thrifty hand. Perfect for the current climate of store-cupboard stocking.

The North Yorkshire Cook Book: Second Helpings

Now £12 with our exclusive offer (usually £18.90) saving you 37%

Celebrating the best of the area’s food and drink scene with over 40 recipes from a selection of restaurants, bars, cafes and producers. Featuring recipes from Michelin-Starred Chef Tommy Bank’s Roots restaurant in York, Grantley Hall, the region’s first-ever whisky distillery, Spirit of Yorkshire, fabulous cakes from Jervaulx Abbey Tearooms, plus much more. A must-have for any foodie who lives in or is visiting North Yorkshire.

Darjeeling Express: Asma’s Indian Kitchen

Asma Khan – £20.00

Indian food for the soul transported by the Darjeeling Express straight onto your table. Asma weaves the beautiful tale of her family and country, punctuated with aromatic recipes from feasts to less spicy dishes that children will adore. Winner of several awards and including the Indian Cooking category of the World Gorman Cookbook Awards, Asma’s passion and wisdom is wonderful.

Henderson’s Relish Cook Book: Strong & Northern

Now £16 with our exclusive offer (usually ££23.95), saving you 33%

Following the success of their 2014 cookbook, Henderson’s Relish’s follow up title showcases the spicy Yorkshire sauce in all its glory. Recipes include a selection of pies and pastries, family favourites, one-pot options, vegan dishes and sides; all the kinds of things that Henderson’s Relish mouth-wateringly enhances.

Bazaar: Vibrant Vegetarian and Plant-based Recipes

Sabrina Ghayour – £26.00

Sabrina takes inspiration from her Persian roots, painting an image of a table groaning under the weight of a plant-based feast. Her dishes will brighten your dining room as they will your mood, with spices, herbs and aromatics breathing eastern wisdom into grains, pulses and veggies. There are salads for every season and mood, along with bowl-food and mouthwatering meals, including Grilled Halloumi Flatbreads, Roast Veg Bastilla and Feta, Pul Biber and Oregano Macaroni Bake.

Relish North East And Yorkshire

Duncan Peters – £20.00 

Now in its third edition, this collaborative effort between the regions best chefs and restaurants is the perfect roundup of Yorkshire food. This collection is wonderful for a plate of nostalgia taken straight from the hearth-side wooden tables of Yorkshire’s favourite gastropubs. Dozens of recipes are covered, all with an onus on hearty food lovingly prepared.

Table Manners: The Cookbook

Jessie Ware and Lennie Ware – £22.00 

Mother and daughter team Jessie and Lennie believe that the best wine to pair with any food is family. The ease of their relationship and depth of love shines through these recipes as ingredients vie for space with anecdotes on the page, creating an uplifting read. These simple, tasty dishes are designed with real, busy people in mind – fitting them nicely within family life. Think Sausage and Bean Casserole, Beef Stifado and Orange and Pistachio Cake.

In their footsteps: Celebrating 25 years of baking at Jervaulx Abbey

Jervaulx Abbey – Now £12  with our exclusive offer (usually £18.95), saving you 37%

For 25 years, The Burdon family have managed Jervaulx Abbey, one of the largest privately-owned Cistercian abbeys in the UK. This book celebrates the wonderful cakes, bakes and chutneys they have become famous for in that time.

Prashad: Indian Vegetarian Cooking

Kaushy Patel – £25.00 

Vegetarian food can be bland in the West – but in the East, they have been making it for hundreds of years, and Kaushy has filled a book with it that will transform your ideas about vegetarian cuisine. Never happier than when feeding people, Kaushy carefully guides you through her recipes, whether it’s Cinnamon-spice Chickpea Curry, Green Banana Satay or Spicey Sweetcorn Chaat. Amidst this arsenal of flavours and tricks, there’s no need to eat meat ever again!

The Mymuybueno Cookbook

Justine Murphy – Now £19 with our exclusive offer (usually £28.95), saving you 34%

Much more than a cookbook – The mymuybueno book aims to inspire – with good, healthy, refined sugar-free food at its heart. Alongside 160 delicious ideas for healthy breakfasts, sharing platters, soups, curries, salads, mains and plant-based desserts, this is a guide for good living.

The Whirlow Hall Farm Cook Book

Now £12 with our exclusive offer (usually £17.45), saving you 31%

Whirlow Hall Farm Trust is a charity based on a 140-acre farm in Sheffield, offering therapeutic farm-based activities to help children.  This cookbook marks their 40th birthday and features recipes and stories from staff, local restaurants and supporters. Including Noosa, Brocco on the Park and the Michelin-rated Rafters. If you are looking for easy mealtime inspiration and would like to help a worthy cause at the same time, The Whirlow Hall Farm Cook Book is for you.

Pinch of Nom: 100 Slimming, Home-Style Recipes

Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone – £20.00 

Pinch of Nom is the best selling cookbook from the UK’s most visited food blog, giving its recipes a reliable pedigree. If you’re looking for delicious meals that will swell your heart but not your stomach, this is the book. Trailed by a group of dedicated online members, these dishes are simple to make, elegant to eat.

Rick Stein’s Secret France

Rick Stein – £26.00 

We all need an escape right now, so this was a must on our list of the best cookbooks. Sit at your kitchen table and let Rick Stein guide you on a foodie’s adventure through the boulangeries and over the valleys of France, from Dieppe to Cassis. Rick’s passion for food and evocative, poetic language gives this book equal footing as a literary piece and extravagant menu – including Chicken stuffed with Mushrooms and Comté, Grilled Bream with Aioli and the classic Croque Monsieur. Simple ingredients assembled with care and fiction.

Vegan North

Now £12 with our exclusive offer (usually £18.95), saving you 37%

The Vegan North Cookbook celebrates the best of the flourishing vegan food scene across the north of England. The recipes and stories of restaurants, cafes, small producers, bars and more are brought together in this book. Offering a fresh approach to regional vegan cuisine at its best.

Veg: Easy and Delicious Meals for Everyone

Jamie Oliver – £26.00 

With this book, never again deal with the tyranny of tiny Vegetarian Menus in restaurants. With over 100 sumptuous vegetarian recipes, it’s a tome of Meat Free delight that anyone can enjoy from home. The meals range from Bhaji Burgers to Veggie Moussaka and a deceptively vegetarian Stroganoff. The creative yet straight-forward dishes mean the flavourful veggies go unnoticed in little mouths – just perfect for children.

The Leeds & West Yorkshire Cook Book

Now £12 with our exclusive offer (usually £18.90), saving you 37%

Featuring the stories and recipes behind some of the region’s finest restaurants, café bars, growers, gastro pubs, farm shops, producers, delicatessens and food industry providers. Featuring Crafthouse, The Box Tree in Ilkley, Stockdales of Yorkshire and Leeds Indian street food institution, Bundobust. A must-have for anyone who lives in or is visiting West Yorkshire and has a love of food.

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