2026 Winter (February-March) COTM / Cookbook of the Month + COOKING FROM thread – DIANA HENRY

Saregama · February 1, 2026, 3:36pm

Welcome to the reporting thread for our Winter Cookbooks of the Months for recipes by Diana Henry.

As the thread covers all recipes from the author, we will also use this going forward as a “Cooking From” thread.

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow (2023)
Roast Figs, Sugar Snow (2014)
Roast Figs, Sugar Snow (2009)
From the Oven to the Table – Prior COTM thread for this book is here.
How to Eat a Peach
Simple
A Bird in the Hand
A Change of Appetite
Salt Sugar Smoke
Food from Plenty
Pure Simple Cooking
The Gastropub Cookbook: Another Helping
Cook Simple
Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons
The Gastropub Cookbook

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The second thread for this quarter is SAMIN NOSRAT.

HAPPY COOKING – AND SHARING!

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Quick housekeeping notes:

To report on a recipe, please list the TITLE in ALL CAPS.
Please REPLY to a previous report on a recipe if someone tried it before you, so all comments related to the recipe are linked together.
Do add a LINK to the recipe if it is available online.
Feel free to list ingredients and summarize the method, but please do not copy the text of a recipe verbatim to respect copyright.
PICTURES are encouraged, and help recipe reports come to life!

Eat Your Books indices for each book are linked below. (To search for a recipe online if you don’t have access to the book, use for the exact recipe name “in quotes” and you may very well find that the recipe exists on the internet via a publication or a blogger reporting on it.)

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Last quarter’s COTM threads remain open, as do all prior COTM threads:

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Here is the COTM archive and here is the Master List of Cooking From threads.

Saregama · February 1, 2026, 8:53pm

Diana Henry is a prolific recipe writer, with many, many recipes available online.

For example, just on EYB, there are 372 recipes from her books and 3,313 recipes overall with online links.

519 of those are baking recipes, 25 of them from her books.

(Though some of those links may be old or broken, copying the recipe name over to a search engine should yield a working link.)

She also has extensive online collections available elsewhere:

pavlova · February 12, 2026, 2:29am

BACON AND EGG RISOTTO (Simple p.119)
This was a dinner I could cook without going shopping, and it was quite tasty. Bacon and onions are sautéed, rice is added, then chicken stock. It’s finished with parsley, Parmesan and a poached egg. Mine did go beyond the perfect texture while I poached the egg. It was quite rich, unsurprisingly, and a very generous 2 servings. The runny yolk on the rice was the best bit. Here’s a nighttime photo.

Saregama · February 15, 2026, 8:47pm

Seeking some inspiration:

Would folks who nominated and voted for Diana Henry share some of your favorite recipes from her books or elsewhere?

Thank you!

CaitlinM · February 15, 2026, 8:51pm

When I’m at my computer later, I’ll list some favorite recipes from her books.

CaitlinM · February 18, 2026, 4:19am

Still working on a list of recipes I’ve particularly enjoyed. She has many books, and I’ve cooked at least a few things from most of them!

Saregama · February 18, 2026, 4:36am

Thanks @CaitlinM.

Browsing her recipes, it struck me that some of her non-book recipes (on Telegraph etc) are recreations of other chef’s dishes, similar to Smitten Kitchen.

I’ve got two such chicken dishes marinating – Musakhan from Falastin / Sami Tamimi, and Catalan chicken from Penelope Casas.

stockholm28 · February 18, 2026, 4:49am

The cookbook a month blog has cooked from a number of DH books. These might give you a few ideas:

CaitlinM · February 18, 2026, 5:07am

CROSTINI WITH WHITE PESTO AND ROAST CHERRY TOMATOES

For the “pesto” I used walnuts. Instead of separately grating the cheese and garlic, I chopped up the parmesan and garlic and put them with the chopped toasted walnuts in the mini bowl of my FP and blitzed it all fine before adding the rest. I didn’t have lemon zest, and what I had in fresh herbs that seemed the best sub for oregano or basil was mint, so that’s what I used. I also used only 60 ml of olive oil. For the tomatoes, I didn’t really measure, just splashed and shook. As far as I can tell, the Mazzetti “white condiment” is what other brands call white balsamic, and that’s what I used. You definitely need a slotted spoon to pull the tomatoes out of the juices post-roasting.

I made bruschetta rather than crostini, using thicker slices of sourdough batard, toasted but not thoroughly crisp. I suspect that if one wanted to make 16 crostini per the recipe, it would mean a thinner spread of the ricotta mixture, but I slathered it on, and there’s enough for around four bruschette. Anyway, the whole is pretty delicious, the “pesto” a bit rich but with lots of flavor from the nuts, cheese, etc., and the tomatoes a nice contrast.

CUCUMBER POMEGRANATE SALAD WITH CUMIN & LIME

This happens to be the next recipe in the Waitrose lineup. I used one English cucumber, which doesn’t seem like the full weight in the recipe, but it’s not as if exact measurements are important in this kind of thing. I also used shallot instead of red onion, and definitely increased the pomegranate arils. After I started eating, I realized I forgot the toasted cumin seeds, but I will add them (in greater quantity than called for) when I have the rest. Because I wanted to be able to keep this in the fridge, I’ve left the salt and lime juice for individual servings, to avoid weeping.

pavlova · February 18, 2026, 2:09pm

This is helpful—thank you. I have 3 of her books, and I have not been inspired to make anything at all. I used to read this blog, so will revisit and hope for some inspiration.

riley · February 19, 2026, 7:40am

Wow, they’ve convinced me to dig out From the Oven to the Table. Love their sense of humor.

Saregama · February 22, 2026, 8:17pm

CHICKEN MUSAKHAN

This is a recipe from Falastin / Sami Tamimi, remade by DH for The Telegraph.

I didn’t get around to making pita as I had planned to due to a hand injury, but I had pita chips, so I made this stovetop and saucy so the pita chips could absorb the liquid to soften up.

Onions make this dish, along with sumac. I love the flavors of musakhan / m’sakhan; this one had more ground spices than my usual recipe, no garlic, and less sumac. Not sure I’d make this version again vs. the other, but it was tasty enough. (Or I’d adjust it to add garlic and more sumac.)

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https://archive.is/alSGD

CaitlinM · February 22, 2026, 9:43pm

Sorry it’s taken me so long…there may be more, but here’s a first pass at some recipes I’ve enjoyed. I imagine a lot of these exist somewhere online.

From Pure Simple Cooking/Cook Simple:

Chicken baked with sweet potato, smoked paprika, olives, and preserved lemons (an ultimate more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts recipe)
North African spiced poussins (made with chicken thighs)
Baked cod with a zesty crust (my most-made DH recipe)
Seared tuna with avocado salsa
Seared tuna with capers, chile, and lemon
Turkish baked eggplant with chile, feta, and mint
Hot and sweet roasted mediterranean vegetables with tahini dressing
Rhubarb cake

From Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons:

Pesto alla trapanese
Greek herb pilaf with shrimp and feta
Sour cherry, walnut, and dill yogurt mezze
Raisin, almond, and cucumber yogurt mezze
Salad of Middle Eastern grilled chicken, bulgur wheat, and pomegranate
Lavender, orange, and almond cake (with edits: half the butter, 8 oz sugar in cake; cream cheese and just 1 oz powdered sugar in topping)

From Simple:

Pasta all’ortolana
Roasted cauliflower with harissa and coriander gremolata (suggested variation on steamed broccoli)
Roasted cauliflower with Spanish flavors
Summer fruit and almond cake

From A Change of Appetite:

Persian salad
Persian saffron and mint chicken with spring couscous
Artichoke and ricotta salad with honeyed preserved lemon dressing
Japanese ginger and garlic chicken with smashed cucumber
Cherry, almond, and spelt cake (variation on gooseberry cake)
Hot chile-ginger stir-fried squid

From A Bird in the Hand:

Turkish-spiced chicken with hot green relish
Coriander-seared chicken with hot-and-cold cucumber relish

From From the Oven to the Table:

Chicken with miso, sweet potatoes & scallions (but better with red onion wedges)
Greek zucchini, polenta, feta & dill pie
Moroccan roasted vegetables with labneh

Aubergine · February 22, 2026, 10:38pm

I couldn’t find an online recipe for the Turkish eggplant with feta etc

Saregama · February 22, 2026, 11:05pm

Try this link:

https//thegaspespec.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spec-March-1-2017.pdf

Aubergine · February 22, 2026, 11:29pm

Tried twice

Server can’t be found

Saregama · February 22, 2026, 11:32pm

Try copying and pasting to your browser - it leads to a pdf download

stan · February 22, 2026, 11:47pm

it is missing the colon in the URL… try this

https://thegaspespec.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spec-March-1-2017.pdf

CaitlinM · February 22, 2026, 11:51pm

It’s on page 19 of that PDF, or do a control-f

Saregama · February 23, 2026, 3:12am

ROAST CATALAN CHICKEN WITH HONEY AND CUMIN

This says it is a Penelope Casas recipe from ‘The Foods and Wines of Spain’. I mentioned on the weekly planning thread that this sounded similar to a Pinchos Morunos recipe that I like (here or here), but this tasted a bit flat by comparison.

I roasted boned chicken thighs that had been marinated for a couple of days on the stovetop, then removed them and roasted potatoes and chunks of red onions to make it more substantial.

In the end, I doctored the chicken with more garlic, more cumin, and a pinch of smoked paprika to boost the flavor.

(Maybe this would work well for a nice chicken roasted whole, which needs little enhancement.)

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https://archive.is/IGAgG