Celebrate food this festive season with 5 creative local cookbooks (Plus: Free recipes!)

Spending a lot more time in the kitchen these days? Join the club!

Here are five cookbooks you must add to your collection this year. Plus, they make great gifts for aspirant chefs!

Check out the list:

Hosting with The Lazy Makoti: A Celebration of Food by Mogau Seshoene

This highly anticipated new cookbook from South Africa’s award-winning and bestselling cookbook author and chef includes a brand-new collection of over 100 delicious, easy-to-follow recipes. Learn how to host any occasion with stylish and tasty food, from soul-warming one-pot dinners, irresistible easy bakes, and hearty plant-based dishes to Mzansi favourites, flavourful seven-colour meals, decadent desserts, vibrant African cuisine, and much more.

Watch The Lazy Makoti share her delicious recipes with Anele Mdoda:

More about the book

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Armand’s Nude Food by Armand Aucamp

Armand’s Nude Food consists of 50 banting- and keto-friendly dishes. Step by step, and illustrated with beautiful photographs, Armand shows you how to create delicious dishes from fresh ingredients without making your scale or budget suffer. So add his keto herb rolls, marrow röstis and coconut milk panna cotta to your cooking arsenal and enjoy the stripped-down goodness.

Also available in Afrikaans as Armand kook kaal – with loads of free recipes!

(Video) Armand prepared a feast for the Afternoon Express team:

More about the book

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Home Cooking by Herman Lensing

Home Cooking is Herman Lensing’s sixth cookbook! Each chapter reflects Herman’s love of food and people, accompanied by entertaining anecdotes. The recipes are totally unpretentious, featuring ingredients that are available anywhere in the country. Home Cooking invites you into Herman’s kitchen, to prepare food anyone can cook.

Also available in Afrikaans as Huiskos – with scrumptious free recipes for doggie biscuits, fig jam and more!

Get a sneak peek inside Home Cooking:

More about the book

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Mynie Plays With Fire by Mynie Steffens

Mynie Steffens is a self-confessed braai addict and has been cooking over fire since the age of 10! From the menu themes, to the accompanying music playlists and fun facts, never forgetting the delicious and often quirky recipes themselves, Mynie invites you to have fun as you play with your braais in Mynie Plays with Fire.

Also available in Afrikaans as Mynie speel met vuur

Watch Mynie’s cooking demo for Brandy-marinated Prawns:

More about the book

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Jane’s Delicious Superfoods for Super Health by Jane Griffiths

Jane’s Delicious Superfoods for Super Health is a comprehensive guide to more than 150 delicious, nutrient-rich foods which, when eaten as part of a balanced diet, boost our immune system, improve our health and reduce the risk of disease. From asparagus to zucchini, maca root to shiitake mushrooms, chickpeas to pomegranates, buckwheat to brazil nuts, the book covers fruits and vegetables, seeds and grains, herbs and spices, nuts, seaweeds, mushrooms and more.

Watch Jane share some of her secrets on the SABC: