Review by Booklist Review
A proven commodity (this marks his twenty-fourth tome), Oliver (Ultimate Veg, 2020) is well in tune with cooking trends and his home-chef readers. With the pandemic in mind, he creates this circle of 100-plus recipes around 18 favorite ingredients, such as chicken breast, steak, broccoli, eggplant, avocado. All are geared to answer these plaints: No time. Stuck in a rut. Can't find fancy ingredients. Hate the washing up. Prefer take-away. Don't know how to cook. Occasional British-isms may leave U.S. readers a bit perplexed--but there's always Google. His suggestions add up to the ultimate in easy cooking. A five-item pantry to start; recipes that fit on one page, accompanied by color photographs; and ample choices: one-pan sausage hash, easy salmon en croute, Italian-inspired frittata, potato lasagna. Plus more than a few chuckles at his casual lingo ("This recipe is completely bonkers but, trust me, it's utterly delicious."). Includes nutrition notes.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The prolific Oliver returns with a clever if not groundbreaking follow-up to 2017's 5 Ingredients. The organizing principle is what Oliver calls "hero ingredients," or commonly purchased grocery items (broccoli, cauliflower, chicken, etc), each of which here serves as the foundation for seven dishes. Recipes are vegetable-focused (a quiche's bright-green pea filling, for instance, is enclosed in a crust that incorporates avocado and is topped with a tangle of salad), rely on packaged items (such as a bag of "mixed stir-fry veg," and cooked rice for chicken meatballs), and ethnic-inflected but without much concern for authenticity (a calzone contains cheddar cheese and mustard). Dishes like a "Milanese" eggplant parmigiana call for three and a half ounces of rosemary focaccia to make breadcrumbs, teriyaki salmon is cut accordion-style and served atop rice noodles steeped in green tea, and the chicken chapter offers seven ways to roast a whole bird. Though the recipes aren't overtly inventive, this does much to advance Oliver's quest to make nutritious food accessible. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Oliver's latest book, like 5 Ingredients: Quick & Easy Food, has a deceptively simple theme: 18 basic foods, each showcased seven ways. Here, the focus is primarily on entrées, which vary in complexity from eggplant and ricotta pasta to mushroom and chicken cacciatore. Oliver states that he wanted to center this newest book on ingredients already familiar to home cooks (e.g., cauliflower, sweet potato, whole chicken, and pork). Conveniently, each chapter focuses on one of the 18 ingredients and proceeds to feature variations. Cajun coddled eggs, Indian-inspired frittata, and easy egg and ham phyllo bake are examples of how a range of dishes build upon basic starters. Gorgeous photography by Biss is featured throughout. A nice touch is that photographs of each key component in a given dish are featured below the title, giving home cooks a quick feel of the flavors involved. Helpfully, the collection also includes basic nutritional information for each meal as well as a thorough index. VERDICT Another winning entry in Oliver's stable of hits; predict big demand from new and old fans alike.--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH
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