6 Cookbooks To Inspire A New Year Of New Meals

In 2020, housebound and seeking a creative outlet, even those of us who once used our oven as storage space decided to dust off our aprons and embark on a journey of bread baking, soup making, and everything in between. 

If you think the salty, smoky, sweet, soulful flavors of the South are not synonymous with veganism, Sweet Potato Soul will prove you wrong. Jenné Claiborne, an Atlanta native and chef, uses fresh ingredients to recreate Southern favorites like Coconut Collard Salad, Fried Cauliflower Chicken, Bootylicious Gumbo, and savory-sweet Georgia Watermelon and Peach Salad.

By now you know that the Mediterranean diet—based on the eating style of blue-skied places like southern Italy, Sardinia, and Spain—has been shown to promote heart health, increase life span, reduce cancer risk, and help you maintain a healthy weight. It also happens to be delicious and offers an amazing bounty of "approved" ingredients like olive oil, seafood, vegetables, herbs, spices, fruits, nuts, dark chocolate, and red wine.

Switching to a plant-based diet is one of the fastest ways to minimize your carbon imprint. In fact, research shows1 that greenhouse gas emissions in meat-eaters are approximately twice as high as those in vegans. Adding plants to your plate has also been shown to2 help you increase energy, boost metabolism, and reduce inflammation. In short, plant-based is good for the environment, and it's good for you. But it can feel like a daunting change at first.

In The Greenprint, NYT bestselling author and 22 Days Nutrition CEO Marco Borges unpacks the guidelines that will help make the shift you're craving easy. Borges has developed the groundbreaking "22 Laws of Plants" along with three simple, step-by-step plans that will help you implement them into your life, no matter where you are on your journey. Because it offers meal plans, more than 60 delicious recipes, countless tips, and inspirational stories to help you along the way, you'll feel in control and ready to do your part to save the planet we inhabit. 

Let's start here: Comfort food is no bad thing. In fact, taking comfort in food is what humans have done forever, and when the weather is frightful and our days are stressful, coming home to cook up a cozy meal for the family can be a healthy way to relax and unwind.

In True Comfort, TV star and NYT bestselling cookbook author Kristin Cavallari, shares gluten-free and healthified versions of her favorite comfort foods, from Oat Crust Chicken Pot Pie to Orange Olive Oil Cake. With over 130 recipes including breakfasts, lunches, dinners, desserts, and drinks, plus tips and tricks to put together a well-stocked kitchen, consider this a go-to for comfort food that is as nourishing for the body as it is for the soul.

Taste should not be sacrificed for good health. After all, the best diet is the one you can stick to. Rocco DiSpirito, NYT bestselling author and celebrity chef, has made a career out of this philosophy, transforming people's health with delicious recipes they actually want to eat.

In Rocco's Keto Comfort Food Diet, he takes on the ketogenic diet, sharing a four-tier program that incorporates meal plans and more than 80 keto-diet-approved comfort food recipes. From Cinnamon Roll Bites to Hot Crispy Keto Fried Chicken, from Spaghetti Squash Carbonara to Meat Lovers' Cauliflower Pizza, every low-carb, high-fat recipe checks a box on America's favorite comfort food list.

The ketogenic diet has been shown to stabilize weight and mood, increase energy, control blood sugar, and more, but even with that laundry list of benefits, when you're in a hurry to get dinner on the table, it can be tempting to order in or whip up whatever's around. In The Wholesome Yum Easy Keto Cookbook, Maya Krampf shares super-simple keto recipes that can be made in a flash.