For this long weekend I decided to cook some of the recipes from my new cooking book, I Quit Sugar: Simplicious. I’m normally not one for reviewing cooking books, but as I’m trying to wrap my head around a really wonderful novel I’ve just read – this will do.
At the moment I’m not thinking about quitting sugar, only that the cookbook looked like an interesting space for healthy recipe ideas. Some things also looked a little bit out there (blueberry, basil and mozzarella toastie?!), but as a person who loves trying new things – I bought it as soon as it came out.
I’ve only tried 3 out of the 306 recipes found in this cookbook, but so far it looks rather good. And compared to the other books in the series, the recipes look easier and cheaper to make – thank you!
But to completely gauge how good this cookbook this is, let’s look at the individual recipes I tried over the weekend.
Bacon N’ Egg Porridge
This was easily my favorite of the bunch, funny considering it was the one I was the most apprehensive about. Savoury porridge? What? But it worked, oh so good. The basic porridge recipe is rolled oats, onion, chicken stock and water and it was beautifully creamy and salty. Add to that with soft boiled eggs, fried bacon and (mature) cheddar cheese – it was the best porridge I had ever had. It did take me about 25 mins overall to prepare and cook everything though, so it might be best for a morning when you have a good amount of time to cook.
Apple Cider Slow Cooker Chicken
This was another keeper. It was incredibly easy to make: just add chicken, soy sauce, apple cider, shallots, bay leaves and lemon juice into the slow cooker and cook for awhile. Come back and add the quinoa and then later the bok choy. And it’s pretty tasty, my favorite being the quinoa. Next time I think I will try some different greens, perhaps broccoli. (Note: For this and the bacon n’ egg porridge I used ready made chicken stock instead of the home made one the recipes asked for).
Green Apple Smoothie Bowl
Okay – this recipe wasn’t for me. It looks beautiful, but due to a few cooking dilemmas (on my part) it kind of was a disaster. The smoothie consists of green apple, coconut milk, spinach, nutmeg, cinnamon and almond butter and would have been nice on its own if I had added more ice, as it was rather lukewarm. It also would have been nicer if my blender was better (it couldn’t manage the spinach). The nut crumble to go on top was lovely (a mixture of almonds, coconut and rice malt syrup) but I forgot to cool it down before adding it to the smoothie bowl. And let me tell you, adding something warm to an already lukewarm smoothie does not taste good at all. However even if the smoothie bowl was colder, I don’t think I would have tried it again. So advice: try it individually. The nut crumble, I think, would work as a nice trail mix.
Overall I’m happy with this cookbook purchase. It has an interesting array of recipes: Lebanese roll pizza, bacon granola, strawberry chia jam, green smoothie cake with lemon cream cheese whip etc
It also has some neat sections on nutrition, how to store food, how to use leftovers and of course a guide to sugar.
On the downside, the sheer size of it makes for some difficult reading. There was no way in some sections, to have the book open whilst cooking even with something to hold the pages down. I think this is partly due to the fact that there is a fabric binding, and it’s rather annoying.
However with that said I would recommend this cookbook for anyone on the lookout for delicious, healthy recipes. But please be aware that some of the recipes ask for expensive equipment (food processors/slow cookers) and ingredients (nut butter, coconut oil etc).
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