Persiana Everyday

“When I wrote my first book, Persiana,” says Sabrina Ghayour, “my aim was to cut through the mystery of Middle Eastern food by simplifying the cooking process and using ingredients that were readily available in supermarkets.” Ghayour successfully expands on this idea in her follow-up effort, Persiana Everyday. It’s not that every recipe takes 15 minutes or only has five ingredients, but that the book makes it seem breezy to have homemade muhammara on the table as a regular after-school snack, or to have a week’s worth of fun salads—I’m particularly partial to her mix of fennel, orange, and pistachio. And I appreciate the simplicity of charred, tahini-marinated kebabs and the lamb kofta recipes in the book. They’ve become weeknight recipes that I return to again and again. —Noah Kaufman