Ottolenghi Simple

Ottolenghi taught a generation of home cooks that vegetables aren't side dishes — they're the main event. Simple is his most accessible book, and Jim cooks from it more than any other contemporary cookbook in the burrow. The labeling system is genuinely useful: a roast cauliflower with sumac and pomegranate that takes 30 minutes start to finish gets a "S" for short on time, and you'll be surprised how often a five-tag dish hits the table. The flavor profile is signature Ottolenghi — za'atar, sumac, harissa, dukkah, silan — but the technique is dialed back to something a tired Tuesday cook can manage. Caramelized onions, a sheet pan, a few weeknight basics. The miso butter onions and the curried lentil pumpkin tomato soup have entered Jim's permanent rotation. Buy this for the photographs alone (Jonathan Lovekin shoots Ottolenghi books like they're love letters), then keep cooking from it for the next decade. Five worms. The cookbook Jim hands to anyone who says "I want to eat more vegetables but I'm bored of salad."