Reddit reviews Jerusalem: A Cookbook

I highly recommend Jerusalem by Yottam Ottolenghi.

It is food found mainly in Jerusalem, but many of the dishes are served throughout the Middle East with slight variations.

Check out this book.

This is really really good, lots of suprising dishes and good tipps (but also not just turkish):
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1607743949/ref=mp_s_a_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487615654&sr=8-2-spell&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=yottham+ottolenghi

Yotam Ottolenghi has some nice cookbooks with great recipes and beautiful photos that I've given as gifts.

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/1607743949/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Ottolenghi-Cookbook-Yotam/dp/160774418X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Jerusalem and Zahav are Israeli food cookbooks that handle vegetables nicely, though neither is vegetarian. The former is coauthored by Yotam Ottolenghi, who also wrote Plenty (which /u/Osatomr has recommended elsewhere in the comments).

It's also worth looking into Indian cuisine, as some versions of it are both vegetable-centric and relatively easy to make (due to their one-pot nature). I don't know of any Indian cookbooks off the top of my head, but Serious Eats' recipe for channa masala is a fun starting point (if a slight departure from tradition).

may i suggest the Jerusalem cookbook? it's a really well put together look at the many diverse cuisines that make up 'jewish' food. i've made a number of the recipes in it and they are all phenomenal.

http://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-A-Cookbook-Yotam-Ottolenghi/dp/1607743949

It is from the Jerusalem cookbook. I am on the road now but will post the recipe in a little while. It was very simple!

Edit: it looks like user /u/weareabrutalkind linked to the recipe in this thread. That's the recipe I used, except I added white wine in place of arak, and I added marjoram from my garden and a little extra fennel seed. I realize it would have been better to use an anise liqueur but I just couldn't make it to a liquor store. However, it turned out perfect and I have no complaint.

The en vogue recipe is the one found in the Jerusalem cookbook, of which I have 2 adaptations with pictures on my site!

http://makebread.net/?s=babka

This is essentially a lazy day version of this recipe from the Jerusalem cookbook.

There's a whole lot of cookbooks in that space of "you know how to cook already, here's a slightly more advanced set of recipes" that you can dive into. Deep-diving into a single cookbook for a while will expand you "outward" and give you an understanding of a particular cuisine or technique and let you stock your pantry around that.

Just speaking personally about what i've done.

Taste and Technique: Recipes to Elevate your Home Cooking was one that i cooked a good deal of recipes from and it seriously upped my game. It's French/Pacific Northwest recipes that use (relatively) easy to find ingredients and provide seasonal variations on most of the dishes.

If you have access to a decent spice market, Ottolenghi's books are pretty good for expanding your repertiore. Jerusalem and Plenty More.

If you have access to good produce, i know people that rave about Six Seasons but i haven't used it yet. I also like Lucky Peach's power vegetables but the ironically kitschy photos are a little off putting (but the recipes are super solid).

People need to break this mentality that cooking knowledge needs to be "deep" like you're going to level up until you're gordon ramsay. Cooking knowledge past the basics is better thought of as "wide" wherein you expose yourself to a variety of techniques and cooking styles and work them into your repertoire, where it becomes an expression of your personal craft.

Couple of my favs are:

Good Fish

Jerusalem

For your dad - maybe a beautiful cookbook from a region your dad loves, or would love to visit, along with some of the unique spices called for in the cookbook. My personal favorite cookbook is Jerusalem, but I've also been drooling over this Basque cookbook.

Depending on her sense of humor, this could be great for your mom. Maybe something that makes her feel beautiful or pampered. I love getting my mom pretty earrings and scarves that she would never get for herself. Depending on the flavor of hippie that she is, an assortment of essential oils might be a nice gift.