Fast and fabulous: Cookbooks with recipes that come together in a snap

Gone are the days of hours at home during the pandemic in which legions of people discovered the joys of making sourdough rounds. Rush-hour traffic is officially back and so is the pressure to figure out weeknight dinners on the fly. But all need not be lost to takeout defaults from the Before Times. Here is a roundup of newly released cookbooks focused on helping you return to life in the fast lane with simple cooking hacks. You might need to think beyond the everyday and seek out ingredients like grapeseed oil, garam masala, fresh ginger, and turmeric. But the fresh restart in the kitchen will be worth the effort. 

Creative riffs on dinner classics

If you have a steady rotation of pasta, tacos, burgers, and meatballs in your house for weeknight meals, Australian cookbook author Donna Hay has some tricks to liven up the routine. In “The Fast Five,” Hay offers five riffs on each dinner classic. For example, settle a jeweled spoonful of caramelized balsamic onion onto a nest of spaghetti; fill warm flour tortillas with spiced pork and pineapple and top with feta and thinly sliced green chili. Amp up burger night with kimchi beef patties finished with spicy mayo. And don’t settle for ordinary fries with that: Try crunchy potato rosti, salt-and-vinegar smashed potatoes, or herbed hash browns. Hay offers plenty of vegetable-first dishes and delectable flourless desserts without saying “vegetarian” or “gluten-free.”

The food styling and photography is so gorgeous in “The Fast Five” that even reluctant cooks will want to venture outside their comfort zones. (If you can make your dishes look this appealing, no one at your dinner table should opt for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead.) For those who like to watch short recipe videos, QR codes are sprinkled throughout the cookbook that take readers to YouTube. In 90 seconds or less, Hay smiles her way through the demonstrations – from her stylish kitchen – with just the right touch to make featured dishes look easy and fast to make. 

Menu plans for busy families

Dini Klein had a revelation in the middle of her thriving catering business. She was so busy, some nights her young family was eating cereal for dinner. That wasn’t going to work. So she put pen to paper to figure out a system that would help her plan, shop, and prepare family menus for the week. The result is “Prep + Rally: An Hour of Prep, A Week of Delicious Meals,” a survival guide for parents who want to make sure their family is being fed without resorting to buttered noodles every night. As a mom to three young kids, Klein offers an approach she lives by. All the shopping is done on one day, and all the meal prep the next. When the busy week gets underway, just heat up the prepared food in the oven, and mix and match to make four meals. Each menu comes with a shopping list, kid-friendly substitutions, and vegetarian options. 

“Prep + Rally” offers menu plans for 10 weeks’ worth of meals, plus fresh approaches to leftovers and quick, last-minute dishes like veggie frittata and salami- and egg-fried rice. Klein professes to not be much of a baker, but she offers a few low-fuss desserts and snacks such as mango, pineapple, and dates blended with ice for a quick smoothie treat topped with a few toasted coconut flakes. There are dishes to satisfy grown-ups (BBQ-Rubbed Chicken with Chili-Spiced Sweet Potatoes and Zucchini) and the young at heart (tuna casserole topped with potato tots). 

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Inspiration from the pantry

Meal plans are a helpful strategy for solving the daily dinner dilemma, but there’s freedom to be found when rummaging through the pantry and fridge and making something up on the fly. And that doesn’t have to mean penne pasta and marinara sauce (again). Christopher Kimball and his Milk Street team strive to build confidence with “Cook What You Have: Make a Meal Out of Almost Anything,” their latest how-to for home cooks. Kimball starts from the premise that your fridge and pantry are decently full. Do you have tuna and eggs on hand? Try deviled eggs with tuna, olives, and capers. Is there shrimp in the freezer? Stir up Spanish-style shrimp with garlic and olive oil. Are there cans of beans collecting dust on a basement shelf? Make a chickpea and carrot curry. You get the gist.

But if your pantry is sparse or just plain uninspired, the Milk Street team offers its top “must haves” to liven things up. If your cooking doesn’t regularly look outward to world cuisines, this is an opportunity to get new condiments and learn how to use them. For example, fish sauce, miso, kimchi, and tahini add what’s called umami (savoriness), depth, and richness to any dish – even desserts. Make friends with these strangers if you haven’t already. Most of the recipes in “Cook What You Have” can be made in 40 minutes or less. 

Karen Norris/Staff

One-pot wonders

If you are striving to incorporate more vegetables into your meals, or cut out meat and dairy altogether, British cookbook author Alan Rosenthal offers 60 dishes with world cuisine flavors in “Foolproof Veggie One-Pot: 60 Vibrant and Easy-going Vegetarian Dishes” that can be cooked in one pan on the hob (stovetop) or in the oven. From pastas to pilafs, stews to stir-fries, and even desserts, Rosenthal brings his culinary creativity to showcase vegetables as the main event. 

Rosenthal has taught one-pot cooking classes for years; this is his fourth such cookbook, and he is precise and pedantic in his approaches and measurements. So pay attention. Making vegetables look appetizing after being cooked, braised, or sautéed is no easy feat, and Rosenthal emphasizes presentation alongside complex flavors. For instance, onion halves caramelized into a deep purple settled against the greens of cavolo nero (kale) amid pale Stilton (blue cheese) and accented with tawny cashews make a dish almost too pretty to eat. Some recipes may require more time than opening a can of soup (lots of chopping, grating, and slicing) but the reward of warm fresh vegetables accented by vibrant flavors is worth it. Rosenthal doesn’t cut corners, but he will offer shortcuts like using frozen vegetables in a succotash of sweet potato, edamame, and corn. Autumn into winter is the perfect time to spend with these recipes. 

Don’t skip dessert

This is the second time Molly Gilbert, a trained professional chef and pastry chef, has elevated the humble sheet pan. Her “Sheet Pan Suppers” helped launch a food trend for quick, easy dinners a decade ago, and now she is turning her attention to the best meal of the day: dessert.

A beautifully decorated cake is a marvel, but let’s be honest. Few of us have the time or patience to perfect the skills needed to make culinary masterpieces ourselves. Enter Gilbert’s “Sheet Pan Sweets: Simple, Streamlined Dessert Recipes.”  

Armed with just a rimmed sheet pan, Gilbert has simplified 82 recipes for cakes, bars, cookies, pies, and breads. She has honed a winning trifecta of high-volume plus quick baking and cooling times to deliver a different dessert for almost every night of the week. She explains the benefits of using a baking sheet over a deep baking pan and why a jellyroll pan is not a sheet pan. 

So the next time your third grader announces she needs a dessert to feed 28 in 12 hours, you are set with All-the-Cereal Treats. Just learned 40 people have RSVP’d to your Friendsgiving potluck and only one person is bringing dessert? Pumpkin Pie Bars will have you covered. 

It’s not all flatness either. Gilbert offers careful instructions for cake rolls and even how to make a layer cake with one pan. Dig in! You deserve it.