London resident Yotam Ottolenghi, best-selling cookbook author and chef, has just released "Simple: A Cookbook" (Ten Speed Press, $35). The book concentrates on simpler, quicker recipes that showcase his creative, flavor-packed take on modern Middle Eastern cooking. His streamlined approach to Middle Eastern spices and other ingredients is highly appealing. He eschews hours in the kitchen and instead offers up an amazing array of delectable dishes that include vegetables, meat, fish and poultry.

As a Seriously Simple cook, I was particularly thrilled to read Ottolenghi's philosophy on simple cooking. He categorizes dishes into "Short on Time," "10 Ingredients or Less," "Make Ahead," "Pantry Items," "Lazy" and "Easier than You Think" bullet points for each recipe. This is such a helpful tip for the reader. Recipes are divided by courses (brunch, dessert) and ingredients (raw veg, cooked veg, etc.). In addition you'll find a chapter on Meal Suggestions and Feasts.

It was honestly tough to select one dish to share with you from this colorful volume of simple recipes. This rice dish was calling my name. I like Ottolenghi's technique for cooking rice. He explains, "Cooking rice perfectly is one of those things that shouldn't be complicated but can be surprisingly difficult, for some, to get right. Baking it in the oven, on the other hand, as I do here, is a completely foolproof method (and one that worked, incidentally, when feeding 700 people during two sittings at Wilderness Festival in 2017!). This is such a great side to all sorts of dishes, such as roasted root vegetables or slow-cooked lamb or pork."

Baked Mint Rice with Pomegranate and Olive Salsa

Serves 6

For the rice:

2 cups basmati rice

Salt

Black pepper

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

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