8 Best New Cookbooks to Gift This Mother’s Day

Alex Guarnaschelli wears many hats, including Iron Chef, Food Network star, restaurant owner and cookbook author. But to Ava Clark, she’s Mom. The two of them forged a strong bond around food early on, from making classic French omelets together in the kitchen to supping on cheesy gnocchi at Guarnaschelli’s NYC restaurant, Butter. With their debut co-authored cookbook, the mother-daughter duo cooked their way through 75 family favorite recipes, all united by their pursuit of bold flavor and supreme deliciousness. For our own Mother’s Day brunch spread, we’re bookmarking the luscious The Special Café Quiche, which Guarnaschelli’s mom says takes her back to her years in Paris, paired with Simple Greens with Mom’s Dressing. The book is also peppered with tips and culinary know-how that will pay dividends in your cooking for years to come. You’ll learn how to make the fluffiest frittatas, how to mix and season meatballs so they always stay juicy and discover their surprising secret to the most garlicky garlic bread.

This book practically begs for you to put on your coziest loungewear and curl up with a mug of tea to pore over the recipes, photos and stories in its pages. Molly Yeh, host of Food Network’s Girl Meets Farm, has penned another beautiful cookbook that reflects her homey yet elevated approach to farm-fresh fare and the flavors that make up her family’s cooking traditions, including her Chinese and Jewish heritage and her husband’s Scandinavian heritage. And because Yeh is also a mom, the recipes are designed to fit into schedules of all kinds but are still packed with flavor. For a hearty dose of comfort food, whip up a batch of Chicken and Stars Soup and pair a bowlful with the ingenious Mozzarella Stick Salad. For an easy dinner that rivals takeout, opt for the Hand-Pulled Noodles with Potsticker Filling Sauce. And for a Sunday brunch to build family memories around, blitz up Orange Blossom Creamsicle Smoothies to go with a sweet-and-savory duo of Ham and Potato Pizza and Doughnut Matzo Brei.

For the mom who loves to cook and try new recipes but is short on time comes this beautiful new tome from bestselling author and Food Network star Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman. Each of the book’s 112 recipes promises to be fuss-free yet full of flavor, and they’re organized around fun categories like Winner Winner Chicken Dinners, Pizza Party, Expecting Company and Pasta for President! We’re willing to bet that some of these clever dishes will become new family favorites in your house, too, especially the likes of Steak Frites Salad and Sticky BBQ-Glazed Pork Tenderloin. And why didn’t we think of Pimento Cheese Grits before? As a bonus, there’s a whole chapter dedicated to easy-to-make Flavorful Fridge Grabs — think Refrigerator Pickles, Five-Minute Salsa and Garlic Confit — that are like little flavor bomb gifts to give your cooking added oomph throughout the week.

Perhaps no one is more harried and hungry than moms, so this cookbook from Food Network’s Aarti Sequeria offers the ultimate remedy for depletion. As a mother, she understands innately the demands of feeding family and how that often comes at the expense of mothers sating their own hungers. Her book offers 50 heartfelt devotions and inspirational quotes paired with recipes from Sequeria’s own kitchen, offering home cooks the opportunity to reconnect to the joy of cooking amidst the dinnertime rush. Our favorite section just might be When You Need Sustenance, with a line-up of dishes that mingle Sequeria’s signature Indian soul food with global influences. Think Dal Makhani (Creamy North Indian Lentils), Sweet Potato Poutine with Red Eye Gravy, Jackfruit Kofta Curry and rich and soothing Laksa: Singaporean Coconut Noodle Soup. And for those days “when you need a helper,” there’s the alluring-sounding Drinking Chocolate with Chili, Smoke and Clouds.

When your name has the word ‘yum’ in it, you know you’re destined for culinary magic. And for her first cookbook, food blogger and social media favorite Yumna Jawad, aka The Feel Good Foodie, delivers a spell-binding collection of easy, healthful and flavorful Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes. The recipes reflect her early culinary influences growing up in Lebanese communities in Sierra Leone and Michigan by calling for simple, fresh ingredients and striking a chord between tradition and innovation. Mom can step up her summer grilling game with Harissa-Grilled Shrimp Skewers paired with Tomato Rice Pilaf or spruce up her roast chicken recipe with Seven Spice Roast Chicken & Pomegranate Potatoes. There’s loads of plant-based inspo, too, including White Zucchini Pizza with Garlicky Labneh, Tahini-Glazed Cauliflower and perfectly Crispy Falafel. We won’t blame Mom if she makes a batch of Three-Ingredient Mango Sorbet to stash in the freezer just for her.

If you and your mom’s most memorable moments can be traced to the kitchen, this cookbook is the ultimate Mother’s Day gift. Mother-daughter-duo Roya Shariat and Gita Sadeh pored over dishes, committed measurements to paper and obsessively tested recipes to produce a deeply personal collection of recipes that honor their Iranian-American roots. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at making tahdig, an essential Iranian rice dish with a signature crispy crust, head to the Rice & Pilafs chapter. It opens with a detailed primer and includes four different styles to try, with rice, potato, tortilla and spaghetti varieties. Since entertaining is a big part of Iranian culture, we recommend throwing a dinner party, laying the table with the stunning Morning Herb and Cheese Platter (Noon Paneer Sabzi), followed by an easy yet show-stopping main, Saffron Salmon with Ranch Dressing, paved with cherry tomatoes, flanked by Herbed Rice Pilaf (Sabzi Polo). Carrot juice and ice cream floats make for an unexpected, fun dessert option, but the no-bake, gluten-free Soft Almond Flour Cookies are a total crowd-pleaser.

Celebrated author Ali Rosen’s latest cookbook will suspend your disbelief that it’s possible to make a meal in 15 minutes, from start to finish. For her flavorful yet quick dishes, Rosen capitalizes on what she dubs “powerhouse ingredients,” the type of global pantry items that are easier than ever to source, including harissa, chili crisp, soy sauce and tamarind paste. And modern-day preservation techniques mean that ingredients like frozen broccoli, canned beans and tinned fish (hello, Spicy Tuna Rice Bowls) make top-notch meal anchors. Rosen is also a mom of three kids, who love joining her in the kitchen to make dishes such as Hummus Quesadilla with Spinach and Artichoke and Ground Beef with Kimchi Tacos (Rosen says that if you put anything in a taco or quesadilla, kids will naturally trust it). To sate her own cravings, Rosen turns to Soy Sauce Butter Noodles for comfort, and when she’s tired but wants something that feels fancy, she opts for Seared Tuna with Endive and Orange, which we think would make for an impressive but low-lift Mother’s Day dinner (hint, hint).

Celebrated author Salma Hage is back with another stunner of a cookbook, this time focused on the vibrant vegetarian cuisine from across the Levantine. It features 140 easy-to-make plant-based recipes, many denoted with symbols such as vegan, dairy-free, nut-free, five ingredients or fewer and 30 minutes or less. We can’t wait to make the gorgeous Lebanese Herb Omelette with tahini sauce and vow to serve Za’Atar Garlic Bread for our next pasta night. Some of Hage’s family’s favorite recipes include snackable Spicy Roasted Chickpeas (make a double batch so you have extra for sprinkling over salads and grain bowls throughout the week) and Red Lentil Soup with Spiced Cauliflower a crowd-pleasing soup that’s naturally vegan and gluten-free. Many of the recipes are easy enough for kids to help in the kitchen, too, like Cheesy Za’atar Swirls, ideal for serving as snacks or party appetizers, and Spiced Carrot Salad, a recipe her grandchildren help make to accompany a homey spread of cooked falafel and hummus.