• Soulkitchenjen on February 22, 2023

  This cookbook is not good. Save your money. The recipes are either recipes everyone knows (Marcella Hazan’s sauce, yogurt sauce with lemon and garlic, a salad with oil and vinegar) or they’re actively bad. There is not a single thing in this book I’d make again. Most didn’t even qualify as ok. There is almost zero spices used in the entire book and it suffers for it. I don’t think anyone actually tested these or they like extremely bland food that just looks pretty. I tried 3 paired meals and I will not be going back to try more.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• A fancy egg snack

  • jenmacgregor18 on September 30, 2022

    I loved deviled eggs. But this is very good too. And a bit quicker.

• Garlicky yogurt sauce

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 20, 2023

    Delicious, but not exactly revolutionary.

• Tahini sauce

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 22, 2023

    This is in fact the most basic of tahini sauces. Nothing revolutionary here.

• Slow-roasted harissa cod with Sungolds

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 20, 2023

    Very solid, but kind of underwhelming. Lacks depth. Without the yogurt sauce, it would be rated much lower. Designed more to look pretty than taste excellent.

• Charred broccolini with radicchio and lemon

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 20, 2023

    Designed to look beautiful and little else. Nothing about this goes together. The radicchio too bitter and underdressed. The charred broccolini should have been left alone and eaten as is. Very, very underwhelming.

  • FlowerGold on August 22, 2025

    Modified - used broccoli and also roasted the radicchio. The roasted broccoli and radicchio were complimentary and went well together. Go lighter with the olive oil on the radicchio as it is more delicate. Is also a pretty dish. Super easy and nice dish. Would definitely redo and would serve to guests.

• Braised chicken thighs with white beans, prunes, and olives

  • FlowerGold on April 15, 2026

    A pretty dish and straightforward to prepare but bland. I like all the ingredients but there just wasn’t much synergy that made the dish greater than the sum of its parts. Maybe if I had marinated the dish for several hours… did have a little more flavor the next day.

• Lemon-dill lentils

  • Jehhearn on February 03, 2024

    This is the best lentil dish I have ever made, and I have made many. A lovely brunch dish, especially served with roast salmon and a bitter green salad.

• Gorgonzola baked polenta

  • FlowerGold on November 26, 2024

    Yum. Rich and tasty.

• Spinach and ricotta dumplings in spicy tomato sauce

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 21, 2023

    This cookbook is a dumpster fire and yet I press onward with my weekly challenge. I just threw away at least $10 worth of ingredients, because these dumplings do not work. Maybe if they got colder, but she says 30 minutes. They were in the fridge for an hour and they fell apart. Complete mush. They’ve been tossed and now I’m making linguine with what is basically a barely jazzed up version of Marcella Hazan’s sauce. I’m a seasoned cook. I don’t mess up recipes. No substitutions were made. This recipe does not work.

• Crunchy winter salad

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 22, 2023

    This is a salad in the sense that there are vegetables in a bowl. It’s really just 4 crunchy items with a minimal amount of vinegar on them and salt. It tastes like crunchy. Once again, this cookbook is all about aesthetics and not at all about flavor. This food is supposed to FEEL fancy, while tasting perfectly mediocre.

• Yogurt-brined chicken halves

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 22, 2023

    This is in fact yogurt brined chicken. 3 ingredients. Yogurt, salt and chicken. Very juicy, but it has no seasoning outside of that. Tastes like the chicken you purchased and little else. A lot of fussing for a less good roasted chicken.

• Spring greens with fried dates

  • Soulkitchenjen on February 22, 2023

    Ok. This is not bad. The dates get too chewy and are texturally weird. Chop them smaller. The radishes make no sense, but they’re whatever. I added almonds, which you should totally do. At least she bothered to make something resembling a dressing for this salad.

• Polenta-crusted deep-dish quiche

  • FlowerGold on January 20, 2025

    Very good. Like a light custard. Definitely need a deep dish. Rises like a soufflé and then falls. Is simple to make but takes advanced preparation and takes a while to form the crust and then the next day to cook and cool. The top of the crust is browned and crispy but the rest of the crust was a little too soft and moist. Would try baking on a lower rack to see if that helps firm the crust. Once it cooled you could slide onto a serving plate.

• Slow-roasted side of salmon

  • tarae1204 on August 10, 2024

    Very simple recipe and a dependable way to cook a large piece of salmon. Just be careful you are not over-salting as 2 teaspoons per side can be too much. An acid (lemon, lime, mild vinegar) is definitely a must for finishing the dish here.

• Hot summer spoon cake

  • jenmacgregor18 on July 08, 2022

    I saw this recipe on King Arthur Baking. It's the bake of the week. This came together quickly. Sort of a cross between a simple batter cake and cobbler. I like the use of almond flour. I used blackberries instead of raspberries. It smells amazing- brown butter, almond, blackberries & lemon. A great result for little effort. Between this great recipe and the others that I see in the index, I broke down and bought the book. You can find the recipe at: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/hot-summer-spoon-cake-recipe

  • FlowerGold on September 04, 2024

    Yum! It is like a cakey cobbler. Used raspberries. Didn’t know whether to add the left over fruit juices into the batter so I poured it on top of the ice team when serving. I shaved off the sugar amounts since I don’t like things super sweet; still plenty of sweetness. Made gluten free and was a hit.