February 2025 Cookbook Reviews

 

Start With a Vegetable by Jessica Smith

I'm not a vegetarian but I do love vegetables and don't mind a meatless meal now and then. This book isn't pushing a vegetarian agenda - just showcasing how you can use vegetables in different ways. The recipes could be a side dish or a main dish. The author does include a chapter at the beginning about a few plant proteins but most of the dishes just focus on vegetables without pushing a specific diet agenda. I also liked that the recipes are organized by vegetable. There are also a few chapters at the end that were different - pizza night, sauces/dressings/extras, and meal plans using the recipes in the book. The author also gives some great tips at the beginning including a vegetable storage guide (which need to be refrigerated, best storage, etc.). Overall, I thought this was a great cookbook and there are several recipes I'd like to try.

The Modern Pioneer Cookbook by Mary Shrader

If you're looking to make more food from scratch this cookbook has a lot of info on making basics - stocks/bone broth, rendering fat, yogurt, pickles, and bread. There are also chapters on condiments and homemade drinks. While all of that is great, I agree with some other reviews I read that there aren't very many actual meal recipes - just one chapter at the very end. While you can do a lot with the basics that Shrader focuses on, I do think having more meal recipes would be helpful. I personally already can and make my own stock, bread, etc. I do think this would be great for someone starting out trying to make more homemade food but I do with there were more recipes using the basics. I also found the font and layout of the pages odd - it was almost large print and the margins seemed very small as well.

Simply Jamie by Jamie Oliver

I've always liked Jamie Oliver but I didn't love this cookbook. It's organized into normal cookbook categories - midweek meals, weekend wins, one pan dinners, pantry love, and delicious desserts. But within these chapters the recipes still felt kind of random or oddly organized. I also felt like the pictures of Jamie in the cookbook were weird - did he see these and approve them? The pictures of the food were great and a lot of the recipes did seem pretty easy to make. I just didn't find much that I wanted to try from this one.