The Best Family Cookbooks

Bored of cooking the same old thing? This selection of the best family cookbooks will help inspire you in the kitchen, with loads of ideas for delicious family friendly meals.

We all search on Pinterest and Google for recipes these days, but there's still something immensely pleasurable about flicking through a cookbook to get inspiration for what's for dinner.

I have a bit of an addiction to buying best selling cookbooks. My kitchen shelf is brimming with some of the best home cookbooks, and I will happily spend half an hour browsing through them with a cup of coffee.

So here I share with you some of the best family recipe books out there. May they bring you as much pleasure as they do me!

Want to get your kids cooking too? Check out our pick of the Best Cookbooks for Kids!

Ottolenghi Simple: A Cookbook

I'm a little obsessed with all the books from British Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi. I have most of them and the recipes are devine - and usually no-fail!

His 7^th cookbook, “Simple”, is packed with 130 accessible recipes. It's great for families who enjoy modern comfort food with a twist; think veg, meat and desserts reinvented with spices, textures, colour and contrast.

Bright photography brings the chef’s vibrant cooking style to life as he guides you through soups, stews, salads and roasted dishes - of course using classic Ottolenghi staples, such as tahini and za’atar.

Jamie Oliver 5 Ingredients

British TV chef Jamie Oliver brings us his easy cookbook with recipes using only 5 main ingredients.

Jamie’s trademark enthusiasm oozes through each recipe and his love for food is contagious as he aims for “minimum effort, maximum flavour”.

All the bases are covered; salads, pastas, eggs, chicken, fish, meat, and desserts, with a range of tastes from British comfort food to Asian flavours.

All recipes are accompanied with photos of the 5 ingredients and the finished dish.

Reciptin Eats: Dinner

Everyone's favourite Aussie food blogger (except me, of course!) brings us 150 easy-to-follow fail-proof dinners in her inaugural cookbook.

Featuring a photo and how-to video for every recipe (available via QR code), it's easy to follow along.

Nagi's recipes focus on readily available ingredients and each one includes useful tips and notes to help you recreate the recipe at home easily.

Simple Bites Kitchen

Aimée Wimbush-Bourque, mom and author of award winning blog ‘Simple Bites’, regales us with her family attentive cookbook ‘Simple Bites Kitchen’.

The 100 wholesome recipes are centered on fresh, nourishing ingredients and getting the whole family involved in meal preparation.

Aimée’s introduction shows her conscientious and practical approach to the family kitchen, initiating us into a world of healthy family habits, a break down of 8 cooking steps especially for kids and the art of fridge management by season.

The cookbook is segmented into 6, easy to digest, chapters including ‘wholesome lunches and snacks’ and ‘home-grown vegetarian’.

Aimée’s organization of recipes with listed ingredients and numbered instructions makes them easy to follow, along with extra tips and colour photos.

River Cottage Family Cookbook

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall adds a family edition to the popular River Cottage cookbook series, this time co-written with Fizz Carr.

The Family Cookbook builds on the River Cottage ethos of simple, home-cooked food based on local and seasonal produce.

The (almost) 500 pages are filled with kid-friendly recipes and projects (how to start a kitchen garden!) that go above and beyond, teaching us valuable lessons about our connection with both cooking and eating.

The recipe presentation is comforting and clear, walking you through how to make basics from scratch (cheese, butter, yoghurt, bread) without feeling overwhelmed.

Fearnley-Whittingstall does a good job inviting us to discover (or re-discover) the joy of cooking together as a family, and the fun to be had in harvesting home-grown vegetables before transforming them into a tasty meal.

How to Cook Everything

New York Times columnist Mark Bittman turns his writing talents to food with ‘How to Cook Everything’... and with 2000 recipes, it’s literally everything!

Bittman’s view of cooking as an easy, everyday act is backed up through his recipes for all occasions, using fresh ingredients, straightforward techniques and basic kitchen equipment.

The simplicity-focused cookbook is a great resource for families, with many dishes that can be prepared in near to 30 minutes. Kids and adults alike will love the modern flavors of guacamole, grilled pizza and chocolate soufflé.

The inclusion of a glossary, measurement charts and menu suggestions ensure the 1000+-page cookbook is easy to navigate.

The Smitten Kitchen

Deb Perelman released her highly anticipated first cookbook in 2012. The New Yorker is a mom, self-taught home cook and the brains behind award winning blog, Smitten Kitchen.

The home-cooking guru - who doesn’t believe in bad cooks, just bad recipes - shows us how cooking can (and should) be a pleasure, with consistently delicious results.

Deb’s witty writing style feels more like an exchange with a friend, putting you at ease from the start. She uses her own gorgeous photography that not only shows how delicious the recipes are, but also their approachability.

One Pot

The One Pot cookbook comes from the editors at Martha Stewart Living, delivering easy and clever recipes with minimal clean up.

In a world where time is at a premium (especially with kids), we welcome the one-pot meal with open arms.

The book shares 125 simple yet sophisticated recipes in the form of soups, stews, mains and desserts, with options for meat-inclusive, gluten-free and vegetarian diets.

The chapters are divided up according to the cookware used (dutch-oven, slow cooker, skillet etc.), with a 2-page spread profiling each cooking vessel before a range of recipes to put it to work.

A great resource for a tasty yet easy family meal, and there’s something satisfying about it all coming together in just one pot.

Joy the Baker Cookbook

Joy Wilson, the baking blogger turned author and Queen of all that is sweet, brings us her self-titled cookbook of 100 simple and comforting recipes.

These are comfort sweets, may we add, with pizzazz – birthday cake with peanut butter for the kids and banana bread spiked with bourbon for the adults.

The cookbook (in the words of Joy herself) is “a celebration of butter and sugar”. That being said, some savouries also sneak in via flaxseed crackers and a tasty leek and asparagus quiche, amongst a handful of others.

The cookbook begins with some baking tips and how to measure, before blazing a decadent trail of easy to follow recipes.

With photos of each treat alongside Joy’s sweet and sassy writing style, the book itself is indeed, moreish (you’ll want to flick ahead to feast your eyes on pretty much everything).

Everyday Italian

Giada de Laurentiis brings her hit Food Network show ‘Everyday Italian’ to its long-awaited cookbook form, providing fresh, simple recipes that are quick, accessible and delicious.

The premise is to share essential recipes for Italian dinners, based on what you might realistically have left in the pantry and refrigerator. That means an Italian dinner is possible, tonight!

The book is categorized through types of food from stews and sautés to pastas. Within chapters you’ll find variations on preparations for pestos, cutlets and red sauce, alongside creative uses for prosciutto and leftover pasta.

Besides learning a trick or two about Italian cooking, Laurentiis will help you and your kids re-think how to incorporate leftover ingredients instead of throwing them out, a valuable family cooking skill.

The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook

Mary Younkin, from the popular cooking blog ‘Barefeet in the Kitchen’ presents The Weeknight Dinner Cookbook, schooling us in how to feed on-the go families during the working week.

The author transmits her love of food and cooking for others through recipes made from scratch, using fresh ingredients.

The cookbook is divided into categories based on the time it takes to prepare meals: 15-25 minutes, 30-45 minutes, or just 5-10 minutes, in the case of some oven- and slow-cooker-ready options.

Mary shares ideas for mains, sides and sweet treats that get dinner on the table, really fast. Plus there’s the adaptability factor; many recipes are gluten-free or offer gluten-free alternatives, while most mains carry notes for suggested side dishes and ways to customize the recipe.

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