Best Jewish Cookbooks: The Ultimate Guide
Updated: Jan. 24, 2023These Jewish cookbooks have recipes for Jewish holiday comfort foods, easy kosher meals, Israeli dishes and more!
Our editors and experts handpick every product we feature. We may earn a commission from your purchases.
The All-Around Jewish Cookbook
The Jewish Cookbook
By Leah Koenig
If you’re only going to buy one Jewish cookbook, Leah Koenig’s The Jewish Cookbook is a solid option. The book explores the diversity of Jewish cuisine around the world, featuring recipes from Ashkenazi (Eastern Europe), Sephardic (Spain, Portugal and North Africa) and Mizrahi (Middle Eastern, including Iran and Iraq) communities. Among the more than 400 recipes in the book are Koenig’s versions of rugelach and pumpkin challah.
We Love This Cookbook For: Jewish Comfort Food
Bubbe and Me in the Kitchen
By Miri Rotkovitz
In her Jewish cookbook Bubbe and Me in the Kitchen: A Kosher Cookbook of Beloved Recipes and Modern Twists, Miri Rotkovitz features kosher recipes from her grandmother—or “bubbe”—as well as her own recipes and a selection of dishes from contributors. You’ll find instructions for charoset, matzo ball soup and kasha varnishkes, as well as watermelon gazpacho and Persian chicken stew.
Other Jewish comfort food cookbooks we love:
- The 100 Most Jewish Foods by Alana Newhouse
- Eat Something: A Wise Sons Cookbook for Jews Who Like Food and Food Lovers Who Like Jews by Evan Bloom and Rachel Levin
We Love This Cookbook For:Â Jewish Holiday Foods
Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook
By Joan Nathan
You can’t write about the best Jewish cookbooks without mentioning Joan Nathan. And when it comes to recipes for Rosh Hashanah foods and Passover meals, you can’t beat her Jewish Holiday Cookbook. The book includes multiple sample menus for all the major Jewish holidays.
Other Jewish holiday cookbooks we love:
- Perfect for Pesach by Naomi Nachman
- Kosher by Design: Picture Perfect Food for the Holidays & Every Day by Susie Fishbein
We Love This Cookbook For:Â Israeli Cuisine
Jerusalem
By Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
Co-written by Yotam Ottolenghi, an Israeli chef, and Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian chef, Jerusalem: A Cookbook highlights the complex cuisines of this shared city. Recipes include fattoush, roasted butternut squash with za’atar and tahini, lamb kofta, and a cardamom rice pudding with pistachios and rose water.
Other Israeli cookbooks we love:
- Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen by Adeena Sussman
- Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook
We Love This Cookbook For:Â Kosher Cooking
Joy of Kosher
By Jamie Geller
If you keep a kosher kitchen, you’ve probably already heard of Jamie Geller, who has written several other popular kosher cookbooks. In Joy of Kosher: Fast, Fresh Family Recipes, she shares accessible kosher recipes with suggestions for ways to “dress it up” for special occasions or “dress it down” for picky kids. Her recipes also feature kosher wine pairings and tips for easy kosher cooking.
Other kosher cookbooks we love:
We Love This Cookbook For: Insight into the History of Jewish Cuisine
The Book of Jewish Food
Claudia Roden
Winner of the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook of the Year award in 1997, The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York documents the history of Jewish cooking with hundreds of recipes, stories and photos. The book covers Jewish foods from both Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities. Claudia Roden has written multiple other books about Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking.
Other historical Jewish cookbooks we love:
We Love This Cookbook For: Jewish BakingÂ
Modern Jewish Baker
By Shannon Sarna
You may already be familiar with some of Shannon Sarna’s recipes—we’ve shared her Pomegranate Short Ribs and Chicken Matzo Ball Soup. But as we learned when she showed us how to make her Passover rainbow cookies, Sarna shines as a baker. In her book, Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More, she shares techniques, tips and recipes for making the most important Jewish carbs: challah, babka, bagels, rugelach, hamantaschen, pita bread and matzah.
Other Jewish baking cookbooks we love:
- Rising: The Book of Challah by Rochie Pinson
- Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking by Uri Scheft
We Love This Cookbook For:Â Jewish Fusion
Millennial Kosher
By Chanie Apfelbaum
From ramen shakshuka to beer-marinated London broil with arugula chimichurri, Millenial Kosher: Recipes Reinvented for the Modern Palate features globally inspired versions of classic Jewish foods. You may recognize Chanie Apfelbaum’s inventive cooking style from her Potato Latke Funnel Cakes recipe that she shared with Taste of Home.
Other Jewish fusion cookbooks we love:
- Molly on the Range: Recipe and Stories from an Unlikely Life on a Farm by Molly Yeh
- Peas, Love and Carrots by Danielle Renov
We Love This Cookbook For: Jewish Deli Favorites
The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home
By Nick Zukin and Michael Zusman
While it’s hard to truly recreate the experience of dining in a classic Jewish delicatessen, The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home will get you as close as possible. With recipes ranging from homemade dill pickles and potato latkes to knishes and pastrami sandwiches, the book shares the history of Jewish delis in America and highlights some of the most famous ones.
(Here are the best delis in every state!)
Other Jewish deli cookbooks we love:
- The 2nd Ave Deli Cookbook: Recipes and Memories from Abe Lebewohl’s Legendary Kitchen by Sharon Lebewohl and Rena Bulkin
- The Gefilte Manifesto: New Recipes for Old World Jewish Foods by Jeffrey Yoskowitz and Liz Alpern
We Love This Cookbook For: Global Jewish Dishes
King Solomon’s Table
By Joan Nathan
We couldn’t help but feature another one of Joan Nathan’s cookbooks. In her latest, King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World, she explores Jewish dishes from across the globe and demonstrates how Jewish food is as diverse as the Jewish people.
Other global Jewish cookbooks we love:
- Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel by Alon Shaya
- Jewish Soul Food: From Minsk to Marrakesh by Janna Gur
We Love This Cookbook For:Â Healthy Jewish Cooking
The New Yiddish Kitchen
By Simone Miller and Jennifer Robins
The New Yiddish Kitchen: Gluten-Free and Paleo Kosher Recipes for Holidays and Everday features traditional Jewish recipes like bagels and kugel adapted into versions that fit practically every dietary constraint. The recipes in this modern Jewish cookbook are kosher as well as grain-, gluten-, dairy- and refined sugar-free.
Other healthy Jewish cookbooks we love:
- Kosher by Design Lightens Up: Fabulous Foods for a Healthier Lifestyle by Susie Fishbein
- I Heart Kosher: Beautiful Recipes from My Kitchen by Kim Kushner
