After study­ing at Le Cor­don Bleu in Lon­don, Eden Grin­sh­pan ulti­mate­ly found her call­ing in food by trav­el­ing the world and eat­ing her way through dif­fer­ent cities. Her father is Israeli, so while she already had a con­nec­tion to Israel, her love of tahi­ni came while she was liv­ing in Israel after culi­nary school. Grow­ing up in a close-knit fam­i­ly who sat down at the table togeth­er each night, Eden embraces fam­i­ly meals. But those meals don’t have to be for­mal — she encour­ages ​“dunk­ing, pick­ing, dip­ping, drib­bling, schmear­ing, and get­ting all up in with your hands.”

If you fol­low Eden on Insta­gram (@edeneats), you’ll sense a sim­i­lar vibe to her cook­book. Eat­ing Out Loud: Bold Mid­dle East­ern Fla­vors for All Day, Every Day is casu­al, play­ful, and acces­si­ble. This is not a cook­book filled with recipes that are extreme­ly com­pli­cat­ed or labor-inten­sive with out-there ingre­di­ents that you can’t find in most stores. The recipes are approach­able and per­fect to make on any giv­en day. If you have or take care of kids, these dish­es would be great for the nights when they want to be involved in the kitchen.

“If there’s any chap­ter in this book that dri­ves home the sense of play that I want you to feel when you look in your cab­i­net, and your fridge, it’s def­i­nite­ly this one,” she writes about her dessert chap­ter. It’s filled with her take on bakla­va, hal­vah, hon­ey cake and cheesecake.

The cook­book con­sists of many veg­e­tar­i­an dish­es but also takes meat and fish eaters into con­sid­er­a­tion. She pro­vides recipes for tra­di­tion­al Israeli dish­es, and often adds her own spin on them. There’s a clas­sic hum­mus along­side her sun­choke hum­mus option. And while you like­ly know gar­lic tahi­ni, she also pro­vides a recipe for a green tahi­ni with parsley.

The first six­ty pages of the book cov­er some essen­tials — dips, sauces, spreads, appe­tiz­ers to eat with your hands. Through­out the book, you’ll find beau­ti­ful pho­tos of her recipes — entrees, side dish­es and dips all meant to share. Eden’s hus­band, Ido, and daugh­ter, Ayv, as well as her par­ents show up through­out the book, too. She’s made it a pri­or­i­ty to incor­po­rate them into her cook­ing life, not just for them to eat her food.

At the top of most of the pages with recipes, Eden writes about why she loves the ingre­di­ents includ­ed in the dish so much. It’s often a reminder of her time in Israel and the dif­fer­ent tastes and smells she has expe­ri­enced in her life.

If you haven’t been to Israel and eat­en all of the amaz­ing, spice-enriched foods served there, this cook­book will cer­tain­ly get you to book a flight … or, espe­cial­ly right now, even just dream­ing about one.