It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed any cookbooks, so I accepted an offer to review a couple of them, one by an author of a different cookbook I’ve written about.

***

Five Ingredient Dinners

Five Ingredient Dinners is the newest cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen. If you’re not familiar, America’s Test Kitchen is a half-hour-long cooking show on PBS that tests recipes and cookware. Besides the show, it also produces magazines (e.g. Cook’s Country), a podcast and cookbooks.

The book ($29.99) is categorized into themes such as “Fresh Catch” and “Meatless Mondays.” Other than the staple ingredients of salt, pepper, oil and butter, all the recipes have up to five ingredients. You should know that many of the recipes include an ingredient you likely don’t have at home, such as harissa paste, barley and ponzu sauce, so plan your shopping ahead of time.

Don’t mistake five-ingredient recipes for meaning faster cooking. You’re going to still have to boil water, chop vegetables, etc., but at least the few ingredients lead to efficient cooking.

I know because I made the kimchi and ham steak fried rice (p. 93), the strip steaks with cauliflower and roasted garlic butter (p. 66) and the mustard pork chops with crispy cabbage (p. 78), among other dishes. I found these meals to be a delicious way of doing more with less.

***

The Complete Quinoa Cookbook

Catherine Gill, author of The Dirty Vegan Cookbook and The Complete Hummus Cookbook, is back with her latest publication, The Complete Quinoa Cookbook (Hatherleigh Press, $20). Unbelievably, it’s loaded with more than 100 recipes, many of which are vegan-friendly.

I had no idea quinoa was so versatile, as Gill has recipes for breakfast and dessert, in addition to snacks and main dishes. For example, I made the chocolate chip quinoa cookies (p. 160), which involved popping quinoa in coconut oil in a saucepan. The cookies were quite tasty, with a little bit of a crunchy nuttiness to them.

I also enjoyed the buffalo quinoa (p. 122). It’s a simple dish of cooked quinoa and garlic mixed with butter and hot sauce. According to the author, the buffalo quinoa works well in wraps or over pasta, but I liked it straight up.

Other recipes include quinwaffles (p. 24), pan sauteed quinoa veggie nuggets (p. 48) and quinoa lasagna (p. 112). Gill, a certified vegan nutrition health coach, also explains various ways to prepare quinoa.