😎 Family cooking for Labor Day weekend, vibrant vegan recipes + back to school suppers 📚

🎁Student cooking sorted save 25% on ckbk subscriptions!🎁

A variety of vibrant vegan dishes for you

Vegan cooking is now rich in variety, via different cuisines from across the globe, and the use of all manner of cooking methods. We have three new plant-based books on ckbk, so whether you are a confirmed vegan, or just getting started, there are endless dishes to explore.

Ensuring vegan cooking is approachable as well as flavor-packed we bring you One-Dish Vegan: More Than 150 Soul-Satisfying Recipes for Easy and Delicious One-Bowl and One-Plate Dinners.

As author Robin Robertson puts it: ‘We all know those certain special recipes that we return to again and again, particularly the satisfying one-dish family favorites that make us feel good all over. These are the recipes that are so flavorful that they taste like you’ve spent all day in the kitchen. That’s what One-Dish Vegan is about—a comprehensive collection of vegan favorites filled with nourishing and delicious recipes for every season and every occasion.’

Find great advice about setting up your Vegan Kitchen, and recipes that will become your new favorites—try Japanese Eggplant and Tofu Teriyaki, or this Senegalese-Inspired Red Lentil Soup.

From the same author, Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker: 200 Ultra-Convenient, Super-Tasty, Completely Animal-Free Recipes takes the same accessible approach, adapted to that lazy-cook’s helper, the slow cooker. And of course there are a wealth of great recipes to add to your plant-based repertoire. Try Chickpea and Mushroom Tagine, or Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives.

If you are craving British comfort food, but without the meat and dairy, Aimee Ryan’s book Great British Vegan: Simple, Plant-Based Recipes to Cook the Nation’s Favourite Dishes has you covered. The food writer and photographer has created recipes for a Veggie Wellington, a meat-free Lancashire Hotpot, and a dessert trolley’s worth of Great British puds—find Bread and Butter Pudding, Sticky Toffee Pudding with custard, and a fruit-laden Eton Mess.

Browse our vegan bookshelf

Pictured above: Eton Mess from Great British Vegan by Aimee Ryan

Back to school or off to uni—we’ve got the food sorted

It’s that time of year again, school shoes are polished, satchels packed and pencils sharpened. The new school year means a shift to different family routines, likely with less time to get meals on the table, but an even greater need to fill hungry tummies and fuel long work days.

If they are off to college, that means cooking for themselves, sometimes for the first time. Chris Stark's Eat, Sleep, Rave, Reheat is the perfect book to survive and thrive in a student kitchen,

We’ve got plenty of recipes ideas and guidance for you, whether you are parent of school-age little ones, or a student on a tight budget. Nourishing food is the order of the day, and plentiful enough to feed mind and body without breaking the bank. Browse these Healthy Family Suppers—find Chicken, Courgette and White Bean Stew, Frittata with Leeks and Red Peppers, and other hearty, tasty classics.

Discover a whole collection Easy Meals for College & University Students, including Shakshuka with Baked Eggs, and Chilli con Carne. Pulses and legumes are always a good idea—filling, highly nutritious, and cheap. Spilling the Beans: Cooking and Baking with Beans and Grains Everyday is packed with bean knowledge and 142 recipes, so you’ll never run out of ideas. Don’t forget Tiny Budget Cooking, one of our most recent new additions, and your ultimate guide to great food that won’t empty your pockets. Try this Hearty Beef Stew, or this One Pot Pasta in Rich Herby Tomato Ragu. Here's to a new semester!

Find all 61 Recipes from Students' Cookbook by Sophie Grigson

Have a yummy Labor Day weekend

A federal holiday in the US since 1894, Labor Day pays tribute to American workers, and is celebrated on the first Monday in September each year. This September 1, enjoy the long weekend with loved ones—and some great food, of course!

Keep your barbecue game fresh with these Late Summer Barbecue Marinades. Find Peach Barbecue Sauce, Jamie’s Classic Tikka Marinade, and these Loaded Tater Tots with BBQ Bacon, BBQ Sauce and Cheese, and 13 more great grill ideas.

Accompany those with one of our Picnic Salads for Summer—think Macaroni Salad, Shaved Zucchini Salad with Pecorino and Almonds, or this zingy dish of Chickpeas with Feta and Preserved Lemons. Happy Labor Day all!

Tech tip: Track what you cooked with new 'I Cooked This' collection

The I Cooked This collection, newly added to the ckbk website and app, lets you see exactly what you cooked and when. You can order the collection in multiple different ways, making it easy to find and revist your favorite recipes. Read more...

Eat Your Books goes mobile

Our partners at Eat Your Books have launched Cookshelf, their new mobile app. If you have a large cookbook collection, Cookshelf offers a great new way to make the most of ckbk's linkup with Eat Your Books, so that you can search the recipes in both your print cookbooks and on ckbk.

From the announcement:
‘A mobile app has been a top Eat Your Books member request for years, and it’s finally here! We’re calling the app CookShelf, and you can subscribe in the app, or access it as part of your Eat Your Books Premium membership. You can download the app on the Apple App Store here and on Google Play Store here.’

Eat Your Books is a vast online index of cookbook recipes. Unlike ckbk, it doesn't offer access to the recipes themselves, but our collaboration means that if a recipe is on ckbk, there will be a link directly from Eat Your Books (or Cookshelf) through to the recipe on ckbk. To find out more about how ckbk integrates with Eat Your Books, read our announcement of the linkup.

Ingredient focus: figs

The fig is the descendent of a wild fruit tree that thrives in warmer climes, and was one of the first plants to be cultivated by humans. Fig trees are rich in folklore and have several unusual characteristics. Their lifecycle is partly dependent on a tiny variety of wasp, and the ‘seeds’ that make up the fleshy interior of the fruit are actually masses of tiny fruits. The fig’s sweetness, gentle aromatic taste, and soft yielding flesh, have made it a popular delicacy since ancient times.

A ripe raw fig is a delight, sliced thinly and dressed only with a little lime juice and sugar it is superb, and dried figs are a prized staple of lunch boxes and baking.

Figs are adaptable to many sweet and savory dishes. Explore these 12 Ways With Figs for a few ideas. Find Fig, Gorgonzola & Rosemary Pizza, a Turkish Fig and Hazelnut Salad, and Richard Corrigan’s Fig Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream and Tobacco Syrup.

6 of the best bacon recipes

They say that the sound of bacon sizzling in the pan is among the best of sounds, and the smell of that bacon among the best of smells. International Bacon Day is on August 30, so bring on the bacon!