Trader Joes, the Cookbook

Homemade Curried Chicken Pita (chicken, thai curry, ginger mango chutney, grapes, cashews, lettuce, scallions, whole wheat pita) | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist

This Trader Joe's-inpsired cookbook has been out since 2008, but when spotted on a bookstore shelf last night, we got a bit giddy inside. It's L.A.'s favorite grocery store (based on the amount of comments Trader Joe's posts receive), so maybe this will be our favorite cookbook. So far, we're loving it.

The 250-plus page-book has plenty of recipes to choose from, including sweet potato samosas, red curry halibut, pesto gazpacho, Korean Bool Kogi on Rice Sticks, spinach ricotta calzone, spinach and artichoke chicken crepes, peace and blueberry cobbler, sparkling pomegranate cocktail and mushroom basil frittata.

Many of them can be adapted for vegetarians by using Trader Joe's fake chicken and beef strips (see the photo above).

Cooking with All Things Trader Joe's ($29.95) is not an official publication of the company, but it's a well worth the space in any cookbook collection. And big news just came from the authors last Friday. The Trader Joe's Companion: A Portable Cookbook was released. The pocket-sized book is meant to be used while shopping at Trader Joe's. It includes a few recipes from the original book plus new recipes and ones published on their blog. Yum!