Time to shine a light on one of my absolute favourite female cookbook writers: Diana Henry. I’ve been enjoying Diana’s brilliant cookbooks for years. Her recipes are all so thoughtful and appealing, but truly simple in execution. She plays with culinary influences from all over the world and the photography is beautiful. In this blog I share my personal top 3 of her cookbooks plus a few recipes I love!
A bird in the hand
I first got to know Diana Henry when her outstanding cookbook A bird in the hand: chicken recipes for every day and every mood was published in the Netherlands. This book is chock full of delicious and very versatile chicken recipes. Most of them are very easy to make, and dinner party worthy at the same time.
She has excellent instructions for perfectly roasting a chicken every time. There’s chapters for chicken with spices, in salads, as a festive main, as comfort food and from the barbecue. And so much more… If you love chicken and are looking for endless new inspiration: this is definitely a book for you!
Coronation chicken with mango and avocado
Combine juicy chicken with mango and avocado. As salad leaves you can use watercress or spinach. The dressing is a spicy sweet mix of yoghurt and mayonnaise, with curry, ginger, chili sauce and mango chutney. Top with red chili, mint and toasted almond flakes.
A few other recipes from A bird in the hand we love to make: Chicken Forèstiere (a delicious fall dinner with lots of mushrooms) and Chicken with riesling, leeks and grapes (very flavorful and you get to sip some riesling while cooking).
Simple
Simple is all about easy cooking methods. Not necessarily quick recipes – some require some time in the oven – but recipes that don’t require lots of preparation. Simple includes chapters on eggs, salads, pulses and grains, pasta, fish and sausages to name a few. You’ll never stop cooking from Simple. She uses a lot of classic flavor enhancers I love, such as lemon, parmesan, garlic and wine.
Salmon and fennel en papillote
This is such a chic dinner recipe! On baking paper, stack pre-boiled potato, thinly shaved fennel, dill and salmon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add melted butter and a splash of dry vermouth or white wine. Close the parcel and put it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 200 degrees celsius.
What puts Diana apart is that her recipes are so much more sophisticated than your average ‘easy cookbooks’. However effortless the recipes may be, some are still pretty impressive! Her Salmon, fennel & potatoes en papillote with dill butter and Spiced lamb cutlets with dates, feta, sumac and tahini are favorite dishes to make for guests!
A change of appetite
A change of appetite is more light and healthy than most of Diana’s other cookbooks. Or as she calls it: accidentally healthy’, because flavour comes first! The book is divided into seasonal sections and has small dishes, mains and desserts for every season. It has some helpful menu suggestions too.
This book is absolutely not a diet book. It’s never preachy. There’s just relatively more vegetable and fish dishes than meat dishes in this cookbook. And the flavour comes more from ingredients like lemon, chillies and spices – than from wine and cheese in this book.
Cucumber and yoghurt soup
I love this cold soup in summer. It has quite a long list of ingredients but you just put everything in the blender. It’s a combination of greek yoghurt, cucumber, walnuts, garlic, spring onions, mint, dill, chili flakes, taragon, torn white bread pieces, chicken stock, olive oil, white balsamic vinegar and lemon juice.
Some of our other favorites from A change of appetite: Spring barley couscous with harissa and buttermilk sauce (the sauce is amazing!) and the Greek yogurt and apricot ice cream (so chic!).
About Diana Henry
Diana Henry grew up in Northern Ireland and is one of the UK’s most beloved cookbook authors. She published her first cookbook in 2002: Crazy Water Pickled Lemons, a collection of recipes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa. She has since published 11 cookbooks and won many prizes for them. Other books by Diana include her food-memoirs with recipes: How to eat a peach. And her oven based cookbook From the oven to the table.
- All cookbooks by Diana Henry
- Follow Diana Henry on Instagram
- Listen to this wonderful podcast interview with Diana Henry with Waitrose or this one with Delicious magazine.
Diana also writes recipes for supermarket Waitrose and for newspaper The Telegraph (the latter are only for paid subscribers).
