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5-Ingredient Cookbooks (more or less)

12/21/2014

4 Comments

 
Now that I’m writing the Five-Ingredient Mysteries, friends give me cookbooks to plump out my collection of low-ingredient recipes. Here are three favorite books you might consider as gifts this season for yourself or someone else.

Cover of 5-10-15 Cookbook
Cover of Robin Takes 5 showing Robin cooking
Cover of Six Ingredients or Less, Third edition
If you have a favorite cookbook with recipes requiring few ingredients, please leave a comment and share your find. Here's why I like these three books. 

Readers Digest 5-10-15 Cookbook:  The book’s cover promises 5 ingredients, 10 minutes prep, 15 minutes to cook. This is a coffee-table cookbook with gorgeous food photos. The fifth ingredient in some of the recipes is a marinade, spice mix, or sauce for which there is a 5-ingredient recipe in the Basics chapter at the end. So combining two 5-ingredient recipes gets you closer to 10 than 5, but that’s a quibble. The vast majority of the recipes have only 5 ingredients, don’t rely on canned soup, and look scrumptious. Those I’ve tried taste good too.

Robin Takes 5 is one of many cookbooks by Robin Miller—food writer, nutritionist, and TV cooking-show star. The cover says the book contains 500 recipes, 5 ingredients or Less, 500 calories or less. The recipes in this collection really have five ingredients, often a combination of fresh food and convenience items like canned tomatoes, reduced-salt broths, and frozen dough. The dishes are influenced by ethnic cooking and are far from boring. Every recipe I’ve tried has been really good.

Six Ingredients or Less by Carlean Johnson is now in its 4th edition, which attests to its popularity. The book doesn’t contain photos of food, but the layout makes the recipes easy to read and follow. Sidebars provide tips and suggestions for varying the recipes. In most five-ingredient cookbooks, you’ll find a handful of cookie recipes. This six-ingredient book contains directions for making 30 different cookies. That makes it particularly useful this time of year.

Happy holidays!

4 Comments
Hank Phillippi Ryan link
12/21/2014 06:36:06 am

This is SO brilliant!
(Mine is parmesan chicken. Chicken. Parmesan cheese. Broil. Turn. Broil. Turn. Bake. YUM. And three ingredients to spare!)
Cannot wait to read your books!

Reply
Maya Corrigan link
12/21/2014 07:51:31 am

Thanks for your comment, Hank, and the 2-ingredient recipe idea. Have a great holiday.

Reply
Ellen Byron link
12/22/2014 10:24:33 am

Love this blog! And I'll share 1-2-3 Beer Bread. Pour one can of beer into three cups of self-rising flour, add one tablespoon melted butter, stir, and pour in a bread tin. Sprinkle the 2nd tablespoon of butter over the top, and bake at 350 until dark-golden brown on top. Or it is two cups of flour and 3 tablespoons butter? Uh oh. Oh well, you had to buy a six-pack anyway, so experiment!

Reply
Maya Corrigan link
12/22/2014 10:51:50 am

Thank you for commenting and sharing your recipe, Ellen. As a bread lover who doesn't get along well with yeast, I'm definitely going to try your recipe for beer bread. Have a joyous holiday!

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    Maya Corrigan

    This blog, like the books and stories I write, combines mysteries, food, trivia, and a bit of humor to leaven the grim subject of crime. Sometimes random subjects intrude here .

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