Fast and fabulous: Cookbooks with recipes that come together in a snap

Gone are the days of hours at home during the pandemic in which legions of people discovered the joys of making sourdough rounds. Rush-hour traffic is officially back and so is the pressure to figure out weeknight dinners on the fly. But all need not be lost to takeout defaults from the Before Times. Here is a roundup of newly released cookbooks focused on helping you return to life in the fast lane with simple cooking hacks. You might need to think beyond the everyday and seek out ingredients like grapeseed oil, garam masala, fresh ginger, and turmeric. But the fresh restart in the kitchen will be worth the effort. 

Creative riffs on dinner classics

If you have a steady rotation of pasta, tacos, burgers, and meatballs in your house Hay offers five riffs on each dinner classic. For example, settle a jeweled spoonful of caramelized balsamic onion onto a nest of spaghetti; fill warm flour tortillas with spiced pork and pineapple and top with feta and thinly sliced green chili. Amp up burger night with kimchi beef patties finished with spicy mayo. And don’t settle for ordinary fries with that: Try crunchy potato rosti, salt-and-vinegar smashed potatoes, or herbed hash browns. Hay offers plenty of vegetable-first dishes and delectable flourless desserts without saying “vegetarian” or “gluten-free.”