• rosehewetson on March 15, 2017

  Essential celebrates 20 years since Annabel published The Best of Annabel Langbein: Great Food for Busy Lives, which has been reprinted countless times, sold hundreds of thousands of copies and is known as ‘the bible’ in many NZ households. Annabel's easy, no-fail instructions, with variations and suggestions for changing out ingredients, provides you with a flexible, creative and resourceful cooking style to follow. In her new book, Annabel brings together a multitude of international cuisines including Asian, Mexican, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean as well as plenty of Kiwi classics. In it you will find something for everyone – recipes to suit today’s lives, appetites and dietary preferences, with indexes for gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan recipes. With stunning design, beautiful photography and quality production values, this outsize hardcover cookbook is a highly desirable coffee table accessory, a perfect gift for Mother's Day, weddings and birthdays.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Lentil, kumara and spinach soup

  • tui on July 09, 2021

    I didn't have any spinach or other greens so omitted it and the soup was still very nice.

• Bacon and egg pie

  • e_ballad on January 28, 2019

    Truly fantastic. This is a family go-to dish. Hate to think how many times this gets made!

• Pasta with clams

  • lou_weez on October 18, 2017

    I didn't have any cider or cream so used Calvados and mascarpone. The taste was really delicate.

• One-pot seafood pasta

  • lou_weez on July 04, 2021

    This was delicious and easy. Great way to use up some fish that had been lingering in the freezer.

• One-pot chicken, bacon and mushroom pasta

  • e_ballad on November 27, 2020

    I was always skeptical of these pasta dishes where everything is all cooked in the same pot, but this truly worked & was really tasty.

• Macaroni cheese with cauliflower or broccoli

  • e_ballad on March 15, 2020

    Excellent. Devoured by the whole family.

• Chickpea eggplant salad

  • Hellyloves2cook on December 05, 2017

    A lovely salad. The eggplants roasted in cumin were fabulous. The beautiful juicy sweet & sour beads of pomegranate added a nice contrasting zingyness to the rest of the components. An absolute keeper in my opinion. Perfect on its own or for the meat eaters chicken or fish. I served it with a veggie pattie.

• Spiced chickpeas with haloumi

  • Jane on November 04, 2024

    I loved this. So quick and easy to make but delicious. I got 3 servings from it and it was just as good on the third day for lunch as the first night for dinner. This is going to be a great store-cupboard standby dinner for me.

• Duck and mango salad

  • lou_weez on November 28, 2018

    A quick and delicious dinner. The dressing has the right amount of sweet/sour/heat.

• Chimichurri grilled steak

  • e_ballad on August 19, 2019

    I had only an hour to marinate the meat, yet the flavour was sensational.

• Pulled pork enchiladas

  • e_ballad on October 21, 2018

    With leftover pulled pork to use, this was a fantastically tasty & easy recipe to pull together.

• Osso bucco

  • e_ballad on September 03, 2020

    Very good flavours. It did create a lot of sauce, which made it too wet to be served alongside the suggested spinach saffron risotto.

• Roasted beet and blood orange salad

  • Hellyloves2cook on December 27, 2017

    Made for Christmas Day - Gorgeous combination of beets, oranges , feta and roasted hazelnuts-unable to find blood oranges here in NZ so used regular oranges.

• Eat Your Books

  Annabel's Essential volumes are indeed essential. Packed with photos and recipes for every day.

  Full review