Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love: A Cookbook

by Samin Nosrat, Aya Brackett (photographer)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat—and one of America’s most beloved chefs and teachers—125 meticulously tested, flavor-forward, soul-nourishing recipes that bring joy and a sense of communion

A BEST BOOK OF THE THE NEW YORKER, BON APPÉTIT, WASHINGTON POST, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, LIBRARY JOURNAL, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

With all the generosity of spirit that has endeared her to millions of fans, Samin Nosrat offers more than 125 of her favorite recipes—simply put, the things she most loves to cook for herself and for friends—and infuses them with all the beauty and care you would expect from the person Alice Waters called “America’s next great cooking teacher.” As Samin says, "Recipes, like rituals, endure because they’re passed down to us—whether by ancestors, neighbors, friends, strangers on the internet, or me to you. A written recipe is just a shimmering decoy for the true the thread of connection that cooking it will unspool."

Good Things is an essential, joyful guide to cooking and living, whether you’re looking for a comforting tomato soup to console a struggling friend, seeking a deeper sense of connection in your life, or hosting a dinner for ten in your too-small dining room. Here you’ll find go-to recipes for ricotta custard pancakes, a showstopping roast chicken burnished with saffron, a crunchy, tingly Calabrian chili crisp, super-chewy sky-high focaccia, and a decades-in-the-making, childhood-evoking yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Along the way, you’ll also find plenty of tips, techniques, and lessons, from how to buy olive oil (check the harvest date) to when to splurge (salad dressing is where you want to use your best ingredients) to the best uses for your pressure cooker (chicken stock and dulce de leche, naturally).

Good Things captures, with Samin’s trademark blend of warmth, creativity, and precision, what has made cooking such an important source of delight and comfort in her life.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food and Drink, Audiobook, Culinary

467 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[Traci Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beloved chef behind Salt, Fat, Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat is back with another cookbook and it is a delight. As a person who loves to cook and loves to read cookbooks almost as much, it check my boxes: good storytelling without being a novel (though maybe this one pushes that boundary), a mix of simple and challenging recipes, gorgeous images, a strong perspective, and a variety that compels me to want to cook. The one thing that is a little confusing here is the organization of the book itself — the first section is sauces and there are parts that mix breakfast with pastas. It is a a bit chaotic for my sensibilities, but maybe I could be convinced this is the way all cookbooks should be. I’ve only made one recipe so far (French Onion Labne dip) and it was extremely delish.

[Hannah Duiven · Rating 4 out of 5]

You might find it strange that I like to read my cookbooks from cover to cover, but I find it absolutely delightful. Samin’s second book focuses in on her favorite recipes and on cooking and sharing food in community. I love her advice for creating and sustaining food rituals, and she has some super cool flow charts that are the bridge between recipe and creative freedom.

Some techniques were a little above where I see myself in the kitchen right now (like making noyau extract from apricot kernels) but maybe something to strive for!

[Sandra The Old Woman in a Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good "daily eating" cookbook for the modern foodie who desires to cook more at home. However, many suggested ingredients are expensive - this is a book about quality cooking, not budget meals. Many of the recipes have Persian origins, and Persian cuisine is both delicious and healthy (I, for one, will definitely try the faster, crispy-bottom rice recipe). I would make any and all of the breads and desserts. While the dressings look great, and keep for a while, they were more complicated than I would use (I'm a lazy, buy-my-dressings kind of cook). The chicken recipes also look easy and tasty. There is a long vegetable section, and I appreciated the range of cooking options and the planning charts provided. I would gift this book to a friend or family member setting up their first home, or working on becoming a competent cook.

PS: I went back to copy the recipes I wanted to try and there were so many I went ahead and bought the book, plus gifted one to my daughter. I mostly want to make the Myer lemon paste (I have a Myer lemon tree and am always looking at things to make with my lemons). I’ll post back as I make items.

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the essays and quotes Samin sprinkled through the book. They showed me how everything connects — that being a good cook, a good human, and a good neighbor all inform each other. And that making art comes from the same place as being a good friend. It really made me pause and think about what a good life means.

[bugonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really wanted to love this cookbook - i knew it wasn’t going to be another salt, fat, acid, heat, and i was perfectly fine with that - but the mix and match, improv styles of so many of these recipes just limits the utility of it for me.

nosrat talks a lot in the introduction about her struggle with the idea of writing a book of recipes when she doesn’t want cooks to have to rely on recipes, and to move beyond the recipe’s “mindless repetition”. as a result, the book is formatted so there are many smaller, explicitly written recipes, paired with ideas of how to combine them with ingredients or other recipes into larger dishes. this works better for some meal types than others - the salad dressings, each providing ideas for three different loosely described slaw/salad/veg/bowl pairings, work rather well (though not even samin nosrat can sell me on aquafaba). the section on boiling/roasting/sautéing vegetables (which had almost no distinct, vegetable-specific directions) on the other hand, did nothing for me.

i respect nosrat’s stance on not relying on recipe following, but i also think it misses the core draw of a recipe for people who are time limited, good but not great home cooks like myself: recipes are easy. i don’t have so much time or money that i want to spend a bunch of both trying to combine multiple different smaller recipes (or vague combination suggestions) in order to create one normal meal - especially when that meal is of middling quality because i don’t have a feel for the proportions or preparations involved yet. maybe i’m just a lazy cook who wants to think less and follow instructions more, and i don’t particularly want to “approach my everyday cooking as ritual” to sanctify it and infuse it with meaning (especially after a long shift), but the style of this cookbook just didn’t work for me.

i’d give it three and a half stars, rounded up to four for the obvious care and love put into it. it really is a beautiful and well-written book (though i wish the pictures had captions so you could identify dishes), and i’m really loving a couple of the smaller recipes from it. it’s just a bit too involved and complicated to be useful to my life.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really adore Samin and was really looking forward to this cookbook. And while I did enjoy it, I ultimately feel it was a little chaotic and lacking cohesion. It's a long cookbook, and Samin talks a lot, both in the book and in external interiews, about how she struggled with what she wanted this book to be, and even her relationship to cooking and her career, and I do think that comes across here. She attempts to pull it all together in her vision of gathering and good things, but ultimately that felt like too loose a structure, and I really feel like this needed to be edited down to reach its full potential. A lot of the format here really deviates from traditional cookbooks, because she doesn't really cook in that way. And while I can respect that, and what she was trying to accomplish, I think it often results in something that is just less useful for a home cook. There were a ton of recipes I bookmarked, and I'm looking forward to cooking from it, but it didn't quite live up to the hype for me.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only about ten recipes I would want or attempt to make, and most of those are salad dressings.The book is laid out very difficult and not in typical recipe format for ease of scanning or ingredient lists, portions, or cook times. Also have no idea which recipes are in the pictures because they're not captioned.

[Kaylie Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realistically, I'm not sure how many of these recipes I will make, but I love the way she writes and talks about food. The fresh produce section was very informative. Also the photos and design are gorgeous.

[Vjera · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's obvious that care and thought went into this book. From the honest vulnerability of dealing with depression to the focused illustration of how eating together can make a difference, this book is not just about making food but using it to bring us together. The recipes are a mixture of traditional recipes with measurements, suggestions of easy ways to do something, and flow charts guiding how to maximize vegetables. The photos are beautiful yet show glimpses of humanity. There's a source list of books that shaped Samin's thinking. I also liked that the book has a ribbon bookmark and is very sturdy.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Things is the collection of recipes that Samin Nosrat cooks when she cooks for herself or friends and family. It's not organized like a typical cookbook. The chapters are a little random - there is one about seven dressings with three ways to use each, one about yeasted bread, etc. There are lots of tips and suggestions for various ways to use many of the recipes. The recipes skew more ethnic than my personal taste but there were a few recipes I'd like to try. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of Nosrat.

[Gillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Samin has the great gift of possessing both a high level of skill and exceptional warmth. This cookbook is a joy to read and its recipes are incredibly appetizing, instructive, creative and encouraging. Truly a pleasure!

[Toby Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 thousand shining stars!
I checked this out of the library but loved it so much I bought myself a copy so I can mark it up. Then I bought a copy as a gift as it is that good! This cookbook is a book of inspiration!

[Hannah Briand · Rating 4 out of 5]

We still got just a bit of the pretentious/expensive ingredients and things going on here lol. So far I've made three recipes: the fried shallots, the ricotta pancakes, and the simple soba salad. They were really good! I definitely have more ideas on how to elevate my regular weeknight cooking thanks to this book. And I have plenty of other saved recipes to try :)

[Catherinealice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t say I have read cover to cover, but love the writing and recipes and photos. Salad dressings as marinades and sauces, pickled onions, chicken thighs…so many I have tried that will be in steady rotation. This is our Julia Child. Can’t wait to see her in SLO.

[E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treat. (You deserve it.)

[Anna Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to cook every single recipe in this book. For real. I've already started my spreadsheet.

[Alex Desmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing could beat salt, fat, acid, or heat, but this comes close!

[Josh Cleveland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kind of cookbook! Right down to the labneh miso caramelized onion dip. And soba salads and shoyu chicken. And aquafaba salad dressings and lazy bolognese and and and and. The commentary and stories in between. Just devoured and soon will put into practice and devour again.

[Dory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered this audio version of this book, read by Samin herself, and thoroughly enjoyed it as an accompaniment to the hard copy. I love how she manages to convince me to make a few changes, try different approaches, and generally expand my cooking practice

[Melanie Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Samin writes and after reading Salt, Fat, Acid, heat, watching the show, and being a fan of her podcast, I could hear her voice while reading Good Things.
So good that upon return to the library I ordered the book so I could continue to replicate the deliciousness inside.

[Sarah Koppelkam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Thing: reading a Samin Nosrat cook book cover to cover

[Doug Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

My cooking crush and the chef I would most want to be like. Her books are both visually stunning and well-written - with amazing recipes thrown in for good measure.

[Jacquie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Samin’s approach to recipe writing and just writing in general. Perhaps especially because her last book encouraged us to not solely rely on recipes, this is well crafted with various and interesting recipe styles. I love the “choose your own adventure” type sections especially (dressings, vegetables). I’ve already made 5 of these recipes & look forward to working my way through the rest of the book.

[Debbie]

Not ready to rate this yet, but so far, I am not loving it. I don't find it accessible, and her approach confuses me. Plus, the recipes are all dairy, vinegar, beans, and nightshades, which I either don't eat at all or try to minimize. Oh, and then bread LOL (I'm gluten-free).

Then, there is so much filler. I don't need to know how to roast a vegetable. I want ideas for new flavor combinations.

The one thing that I want to try from this cookbook is the preserved lemon recipe. A bit involved, but it keeps for a year and I use lemon in almost everything.

I'm clearly not the audience for this book, so I don't want to rate it. People seem to love it.

[Margery Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annoying way of citing other recipes to make another recipe. That’s said I’d eat everything in this book.

[LocalLibraryReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad cookbook. It’s a very long one. I wasn’t familiar with the author or their cooking. There were a handful of recipes that I would be interested in, but overall it fell flat. Won’t be purchasing. I do appreciate a picture of the dish by the recipe though.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read, but not an exceptional cookbook, which is ok. It's as much about the author as it is about food, so you understand how deeply entwined the two are. I marked a bunch of pages to consider and maybe try the recipes, but I think maybe for now I will just return it to the library and simply absorb what I read, perhaps read again, as I did Salt Fat Acid Heat.

[Jacqui Busch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and thoughtful, but a lot of the ingredients are out of reach at my budget

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samin Nosrat begins this cookbook with an intro that states her dislike of recipes. She makes it clear that once you know what you like to eat and once you have put flavors together, you really only need the bare bones of a recipe.

But person after person has asked Nosrat to share her favorite recipes, and at last she has heeded their requests.

The recipes are, in general, simple, with a few ingredients and a few steps.

I bookmarked these (and I’m linking them here for easy future reference): Ricotta Custard Pancakes; Sarit’s Ashura Cereal; Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe; Creamy One-Pot Pasta with Ricotta and Peas (similar); Sky-High Focaccia; and Sparkling Banana Bread.

I decided to try Sparkling Banana Bread.

I thought I was ordering four bananas from Kroger’s last week, but apparently I accidentally ordered four pounds of bananas.

Three Things I Like About This Recipe:

This recipe uses five bananas in one small loaf. That’s one thing I like about it right away: it has a lot of bananas.
You make this bread in a 8 x 8 inch square pan. That’s another thing I like about this bread. It cooks better.

You put two whole bananas on top. I like this because it gives the bread a lovely appearance.



Ingredients
Banana Bread
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1¼ cups well-mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
¾ packed cup dark brown sugar
½ cup neutral oil
½ cup buttermilk or sour cream, at room temperature
1½ tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Topping
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp flaky sea salt
2 very ripe bananas, halved lengthwise

Directions
Yield: Makes 1 8" x 8" square
Make Banana Bread
1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat to 350°F. Coat 8″ square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line with parchment sling and spray parchment.
2. In large bowl, whisk together flour, kosher salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
3. In medium bowl, whisk together mashed banana, brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, vanilla and eggs until evenly combined.
4. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients and mix to combine, making sure to incorporate all dry flour at bottom of bowl.
Make Topping and Bake
1. In small bowl, combine granulated sugar, cinnamon and flaky salt.
2. Pour batter into prepared pan and let pan drop from height of 3″ onto countertop a couple times to release any air bubbles that might have gotten trapped inside batter. Sprinkle topping in thick, even layer over batter, then gently place banana halves, cut-side up, atop batter, cutting into pieces as needed to make fit.
3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until toothpick inserted around halved bananas emerges clean.
4. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely before slicing. (Alternatively, leave cake to cool in pan and serve it directly from there.)
5. Wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.