A lovely cookbook, but it may not be for everyone. Many items you may not be able to get at your average grocery store, which might lead public libraries to want to stay clear from this title. However, those looking for a lovely book that seems to be a blend of prose, imagery, as well as recipes this could be the title for you.

A great book for simple everyday cooking......The ingredients used in the recipes are easily available in spring and summer.......

Every once in a while a new cookbook comes along that doesn’t feature much that really appeals. Although the pictures in this cookbook are beautiful, and the prose is well-written, Simple Fare: Spring and Summer is one such book. Many of the ingredients must be obtained from a specialty store, many are those that appeal to tree-huggers rather than mainstream every-day cooks, and many just don’t sound particularly appetizing. There are a lot of egg dishes in this cookbook (good for egg lovers, not-so-good for those who’d rather eat other things) including a Green Shakshuka (a very trendy dish) that doesn’t really look appetizing at all in the picture, and a lot of recipes using trendy grains, such as black quinoa, farro and toasted buckwheat. It has a fairly good recipe for the ubiquitous Avocado Toast (which is good, but is overly common in newer cookbooks). There are other “toasts” as well, some using mushrooms, ramps, and tomatoes.

If you happen to pick up this book, however, all is not lost. The Brisket Tacos were a fair amount of work, but the end result was delicious. Mordecai includes a great recipe for Dukkah (a Middle Eastern condiment that can be used in dozens of dishes, as well as a delicious version of schnitzel using that dukkah. And while most of the recipes in this cookbook sound less than edible, there are a few that sound appealing; those are the ones that I tried; the instructions are easy to follow and the dishes turned out as pictured.

One unique thing that this cookbook contains is several recipes for dairy products such as Crème Fraîche, Ricotta, Yogurt, and Marinated Labneh. Most of the recipes have Middle Eastern undertones, which is trendy in itself, and cooks who enjoy this type of cooking will most likely enjoy some of the recipes.

All told, this is a cookbook that will not appeal to most mainstream cooks and with the number of new cookbooks constantly being released, not one to rush out and pick up.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

SIMPLE FARE by Karen Mordechai is a terrific concept – I especially like the seasonality aspect of the selected recipes. And the images and pictures are beautiful. I just was not that excited about any of the recipes presented. They seemed, understandably, to use many natural ingredients , but making oat porridge with a topping of sesame seeds and chamomile flowers is frankly not simple – at least in terms of readily obtaining the ingredients. I did give SIMPLE FARE several tries, but the Bluefire reader also makes it difficult to skip around; there was no linked Table of Contents or Index, for example.

Simple Fare Spring and Summer by Karen Mordechai is a cook book published today by ABRAMS.
The author offer to the readers, thanks to her influences in term of food while she was living in Jerusalem from all over the world what it means to cook seasonally.

Not only it's healthier but it also means to help farmers.

Simplicity, velocity is another word I found functional.

For example Karen Mordechai propose a quick bread, able at the same time to make everyone happy without to lose too much time in the kitchen.

I liked the "Pickles suggestions" and the breakfast section.
It's of course the most important dish in the USA but... WOW! So inventive and yummy! thanks to diversified sweet and salt dishes with eggs or fruits, and the inclusion of fish.

Bowls a section loved for the meaning of just eating in a bowl, toasts couldn't be missed because very loved by everyone, and you will find the perfect recipe for every taste also in the vegetable section.

The author takes in consideration for elaborated dishes a quickest preparation considering that this edition is dedicated at the warmest time of the year.

At the end a section for making your own dairy products.

There is a lot of fantasy in these recipes and variations I love a lot and I am sure that this cookbook will be appreciated by every food-lover.

Highly recommended.

Seasonal simple recipes, each is 3-5 ingredients. Using ricotta, kale, arugula, yogurt, etc. great illustrations!

Simple fare by Karen Mordechai is a beautiful cookbook with a minimalist look. Minimal ingredients for recipes, sleek clean look and feel to the book through recipes and photos. This cookbook might be considered a bit "fancy" for our rural library system, but I think the book will still be useful and prompt some new ideas for recipes.

This book is amazing. I have a list of several recipes from this book that I ill be making. .I absolutely love that each recipe in the book lists variations. If you want to make Poached Salmon Toast but your store has no salmon or you just want to mix it up a bit you can use trout, sea bass, or cod and different types of salts.. This really makes the book unique. Most books tell you things you can add to the main recipe but with this one you get 4 recipes from the same one by changing the ingredients. The books is broken down by sections as well, there is also an alphabetical list of recipes.

I just don't understand why there are so many cookbooks like this. Sure the pictures are beautiful, but all I do is flip through looking at the pictures because the recipes are not really recipes. I can toast a piece of bread and put avocado on it, or ricotta, or labneh, without a recipe. I can put together a plate of greens without a recipe.

I would not spend money on this book unless I was very specifically looking for a coffee table book, and I am not.