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lucyrider's review
5.0
Thrifty Kitchen by Jack Monroe
I bought this whilst in a daze at the supermarket after runclub. It's never a good idea to go food shopping at night, after a run, but I do this far too often and end up with many random food and non food items! I've followed Jack for a couple of years on Twitter and have found her tweets and insights really interesting, giving an insight into just how hard it can be to feed yourself and your family on very little money. I recognise that I'm in a hugely privileged position to not have had to go through such hardship; even as a student I was fortunate that my student loan, part time jobs and help from my family more than covered what I needed and I was fortunately taught how to cook and budget pretty effectively. It was the budget aspect and the food waste aspects of Jack's book that compelled me to buy it. (In particular the curious recipe for Banana ketchup including skin which I've yet to make!)
Synopsis from goodreads:
Thrifty Kitchen is Jack Monroe’s bumper collection of over 120 brand-new, delicious, low-cost recipes, plus household tricks guaranteed to save you money.
Number-one bestselling author and campaigner, Jack is one of the UK’s best-loved expert on budget cooking. Through the gorgeous recipes and straightforward advice in Thrifty Kitchen, she proves that you don’t need to sacrifice flavour or settle for lacklustre meals when you’re spending less.
Featuring everything from warming curries and a hearty pie to tasty sauces and indulgent puds, this must-have cookbook shows how easy it can be to turn basic ingredients into nourishing, mouth-watering meals that you and your wallet will love.
I'm not sure I've ever read a cook book from cover to cover in this way and I actually really enjoyed the process. It made me dig out and use long forgotten tins and packets that had been sat in my cupboards longer than they should have done as I was reading through. (For me I have a constant battle against my anxiety's desire to prepare me for an apocalypse with tins of pulses, fruit, vegetables and rice - I'm still not sure how effective this would be in reality, but none the less I'm all set for making my own hummus in the event of a world disaster)
I've so far made 3 recipes from the book - Chickpea, Chard and Lemon Pasta, Crab and Coconut Bisque (although I used Salmon paste instead as I couldn't find crab paste) and Chicken and Cannellini Soup. And they were all simple and had a greater depth of flavour to them than I'd have imagined. On a usual day to day basis I'm in a luxurious position of not really needing to think much at all about my cooking as I get recipe boxes delivered from either Mindful Chef or Gousto and so it's been useful to have recipes from the book to spark up new ideas. I especially like how Jack suggests easy substitutes for items as it encouraged me to embrace this approach to cooking that has long been ingrained on me by my family. (My dad has perhaps taken it too far in the past when he added banana to a vegetable soup, although swapping hot chocolate powder for gravy powder in a stew was actually delicious!)
It's hard for me not to read this book as an unbiased reader as I do agree with everything Jack stands for, but trying to push that aside I did find it a really useful and easy to follow set of recipes and lifehacks. Her quarterhack idea would be brilliant if I could be more organised as I am often guilty of buying things I already have squashed at the back of the cupboard. I bought this book hoping for ideas to save a bit of money on food as the prices are so inflated (£10 for a 750ml bottle of olive oil in Asda last week! At least I found another in Aldi for £5.79 so it's still worth shopping around!) The negative reviews on goodreads I suspect are more from people who dislike her and what she stands for than the recipe book itself, yes she's at times passionate in her attempts to eliminate poverty, but it's pretty bloody important, especially when so many children are going to school hungry. I am giving this book 5 stars because I've enjoyed all the recipes I've cooked from it, look forward to cooking more and enjoyed reading it and learned different ideas and techniques that will save me money and reduce food waste in the future and also because Jack is actually trying to do something positive to help people who are struggling.
I bought this whilst in a daze at the supermarket after runclub. It's never a good idea to go food shopping at night, after a run, but I do this far too often and end up with many random food and non food items! I've followed Jack for a couple of years on Twitter and have found her tweets and insights really interesting, giving an insight into just how hard it can be to feed yourself and your family on very little money. I recognise that I'm in a hugely privileged position to not have had to go through such hardship; even as a student I was fortunate that my student loan, part time jobs and help from my family more than covered what I needed and I was fortunately taught how to cook and budget pretty effectively. It was the budget aspect and the food waste aspects of Jack's book that compelled me to buy it. (In particular the curious recipe for Banana ketchup including skin which I've yet to make!)
Synopsis from goodreads:
Thrifty Kitchen is Jack Monroe’s bumper collection of over 120 brand-new, delicious, low-cost recipes, plus household tricks guaranteed to save you money.
Number-one bestselling author and campaigner, Jack is one of the UK’s best-loved expert on budget cooking. Through the gorgeous recipes and straightforward advice in Thrifty Kitchen, she proves that you don’t need to sacrifice flavour or settle for lacklustre meals when you’re spending less.
Featuring everything from warming curries and a hearty pie to tasty sauces and indulgent puds, this must-have cookbook shows how easy it can be to turn basic ingredients into nourishing, mouth-watering meals that you and your wallet will love.
I'm not sure I've ever read a cook book from cover to cover in this way and I actually really enjoyed the process. It made me dig out and use long forgotten tins and packets that had been sat in my cupboards longer than they should have done as I was reading through. (For me I have a constant battle against my anxiety's desire to prepare me for an apocalypse with tins of pulses, fruit, vegetables and rice - I'm still not sure how effective this would be in reality, but none the less I'm all set for making my own hummus in the event of a world disaster)
I've so far made 3 recipes from the book - Chickpea, Chard and Lemon Pasta, Crab and Coconut Bisque (although I used Salmon paste instead as I couldn't find crab paste) and Chicken and Cannellini Soup. And they were all simple and had a greater depth of flavour to them than I'd have imagined. On a usual day to day basis I'm in a luxurious position of not really needing to think much at all about my cooking as I get recipe boxes delivered from either Mindful Chef or Gousto and so it's been useful to have recipes from the book to spark up new ideas. I especially like how Jack suggests easy substitutes for items as it encouraged me to embrace this approach to cooking that has long been ingrained on me by my family. (My dad has perhaps taken it too far in the past when he added banana to a vegetable soup, although swapping hot chocolate powder for gravy powder in a stew was actually delicious!)
It's hard for me not to read this book as an unbiased reader as I do agree with everything Jack stands for, but trying to push that aside I did find it a really useful and easy to follow set of recipes and lifehacks. Her quarterhack idea would be brilliant if I could be more organised as I am often guilty of buying things I already have squashed at the back of the cupboard. I bought this book hoping for ideas to save a bit of money on food as the prices are so inflated (£10 for a 750ml bottle of olive oil in Asda last week! At least I found another in Aldi for £5.79 so it's still worth shopping around!) The negative reviews on goodreads I suspect are more from people who dislike her and what she stands for than the recipe book itself, yes she's at times passionate in her attempts to eliminate poverty, but it's pretty bloody important, especially when so many children are going to school hungry. I am giving this book 5 stars because I've enjoyed all the recipes I've cooked from it, look forward to cooking more and enjoyed reading it and learned different ideas and techniques that will save me money and reduce food waste in the future and also because Jack is actually trying to do something positive to help people who are struggling.
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