Summer Cookbook Club 2021

Welcome to Simply Recipes' second annual Summer Cookbook Club! Whether you're brand new to Cookbook Club or back again after last year's inaugural event, we're so glad you'll be cooking along with us this summer!

We've chosen three amazing cookbooks to focus on over the next three months, each covering a different region of the world, and all going deeper than just a collection of recipes to make for dinner. (Although you'll want to do that as well!)

Instead the cookbooks, and the authors behind them, show us how these recipes have evolved and flourished under the care of those who've passed them down and around their families and communities. We experience this food through the stories of grandmothers (In Bibi's Kitchen), third-culture cooks (To Asia, With Love), and migrants (Ripe Figs).

The result is not just inspiring; it's a deeply moving picture of how "recipes comfort us and nourish us through times of great celebration or terrible calamity," as Yasmin Khan writes; "a celebration of how flavor can so powerfully connect us to our past and create pathways to our future," in the words of Hetty McKinnon.

It's about "global flavors" that are deeply local; cultural identities that are intensely personal, propelled into unfamiliar places and forced to adapt. It's about family cooking, home cooking, community, and common ground.

Above all, these cookbooks are about people and places, and the ties – and recipes – that bind them together.

Our June Cookbook

"In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries That Touch the Indian Ocean" by Hawa Hassan with Julia Turshen

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Hawa Hassan's beautiful cookbook celebrates the histories, stories, and flavors of this East African region through the eyes (and recipes) of a group of bibis, or grandmothers. It's organized by country; it begins in Eritrea on the northeastern part of Africa, and then moves south along the coast through Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, ending on the islands of Madagascar and Comoros.

This cookbook celebrates home cooking. Every chapter begins with an interview with the bibi that gives us a real sense of place and invites us to the table. The bibis chose the recipes they wanted to share with Hawa, often because it was an easy recipe to make. "This is home cooking," Hawa writes, "which means you can make everything yourself with widely available and affordable ingredients." Many of the recipes are also vegetarian or vegan.

"In creating this book, we have come to understand more than ever that we all have more in common than separates us." -Hawa Hassan

Recipes We're Excited to Try

• Shiro (Ground Chickpea Stew), from Eritrea
• Somali Cilantro and Green Chile Pepper Sauce, from Somalia
• Chicken Biryani, from Kenya
• Crispy Coconut Dumplings in Cardamom Syrup, from Tanzania

Recipes You Can Make Right Now

• Kicha (Eritrean Flatbreads) from "In Bibi's Kitchen"
• Zanzibar Pilau (Rice Pilaf) from "In Bibi's Kitchen"
• Lasary Legioma (Tomato Relish) from "In Bibi's Kitchen"

Hawa Hassan, in Her Own Words

• Q&A with Entrepreneur and Cookbook Author, Hawa Hassan

Our July Cookbook

"To Asia, With Love: Everyday Asian Recipes and Stories from the Heart" by Hetty McKinnon

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Hetty McKinnon's fourth cookbook returns to the flavors of her childhood. As "a Chinese girl born in Australia," Hetty embraces a third-culture way of cooking, with recipes that are "Asian in origin, but modern in spirit," a melding of flavors, ingredients, and techniques that can only come from someone who has grown up in disparate cultures.

"To Asia, With Love" is a vegetarian cookbook that will leave you wanting nothing. Hetty's aim, as she writes in the introduction, is to show home cooks that it's possible to create "big-flavored" vegetarian and vegan Asian meals, with easy-to-find ingredients.

"The food that we grow up eating stays with us forever." -Hetty McKinnon

Recipes We're Excited to Try

• Sheet Pan Chow Mein, pg. 85
• Cold Peanut Butter Green Tea Noodles with Cucumber, pg. 85
• Tamarind Apple Crisp, pg. 229

Recipes You Can Make Right Now

• Seaweed Lettuce Salad, from "To Asia, With Love"
• Flourless Soy Sauce Brownies, from "To Asia, With Love"
• Grilled Cabbage with Peanut Sauce - a brand new recipe for Simply Recipes' readers!

Hetty McKinnon, in Her Own Words

• Q&A with Cookbook Author Hetty McKinnon
• The Essential Ingredients of an Everyday Asian Pantry

Our August Cookbook

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

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

The eastern Mediterranean, which includes Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, bridges the cultures and continents of Europe and the Middle East. It's "a place where family is central, tradition is honored, myths are revered, and meals are meant to be savored, slowly, and always with good company."

It's also a region that has seen 5 million migrants move through it in the last five years, the biggest mass movement of people through Europe since WWII.

Through gorgeous photos and delicious, seasonally-focused salads, soups, and light meals, Yasmin Khan shares the stories and food that these migrants have carried with them on their journey, and the ways the food of this region has sustained - and even saved - them.

"[This] is a book about the people I met, shared meals with, and cooked alongside, in Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus. But most of all, I think, it's a book about the resilience of the human spirit." -Yasmin Khan

Recipes We're Excited to Try

• Herb & Paprika Chicken, pg. 224
• Halloumi & Mint Muffins, pg. 84
• Citrus Cake, pg. 258
• Hot Yogurt & Spinach Soup, pg. 184

Recipes You Can Make Right Now

• Halloumi Saganaki
• Lemon Chicken Soup (Avgolemono)
• Dakos Salad - a new recipe from Yasmin Khan!
• Turkish Braised Green Beans - a new recipe from Yasmin Khan!

Yasmin Khan, in Her Own Words

• Q&A with Cookbook Author Yasmin Khan

Live Cooking Demos with the Authors (and Us!)

Join us every Thursday at 10am PST / 1pm EST for a live cooking demonstration on Instagram showcasing a recipe from that month's chosen cookbook. Cook along with us or just pop in to see how it's done. And don't miss our special author cooking demonstrations!

What we're cooking in June from "In Bibi's Kitchen":

• Thursday, June 10: South African Iced Rooibos Tea with Orange, Cloves, and Cinnamon (pg. 214) with Senior Editor Summer Miller
• Thursday, June 24: Ma Halima's Beef Suqaar (pg. 84), with author Hawa Hassan and Editor-in-Chief, Emma Christensen
• Wednesday, June 30: Kicha (Eritrean Flatbreads) with Editor Milagros Cruz

What we're cooking in July from "To Asia, With Love":

• Thursday, July 8: Flourless Soy Sauce Brownies with Senior Editor Summer Miller
• Thursday, July 15: Sheet Pan Chow Mein (pg. 95) with author Hetty McKinnon and Senior Editor Cambria Bold
• Thursday, July 22: Life-Changing Udon with Soft-Boiled Egg, Hot Soy, and Black Pepper (pg. 89) with Editor-in-Chief Emma Christensen

What we're cooking in August from "Ripe Figs":

• Thursday, August 5: Dakos Salad with Editor Milagros Cruz
• Thursday, August 12: Cypriot Potato Salad with Senior Editor Summer Miller
• Thursday, August 19: TBD with Editor-in-Chief Emma Christensen

Cook On Your Own and Share with the Club

Show us what you're making from these cookbooks by tagging us on Instagram and using the hashtag #SummerCookbookClub.

Have questions for the author or a question about a recipe? Email us anytime at contact@simplyrecipes.com with the subject line "Summer Cookbook Club."

Sign Up for the Newsletter

From now through August, we're sending emails to the Cookbook Club email list every Monday and Wednesday sharing recipes (both published recipes from the cookbooks and new recipes developed by the author for Simply Recipes!), as well as interviews and ingredient guides.

You'll also get a (brief) email every Thursday morning reminding you about the Instagram Live cooking demonstration happening later in the day - basically, who's cooking what, and when!

>> SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER HERE.