{See below about winning Jules Clancy’s newly released book.}
I’ve been a follower and an admirer of Jules Clancy’s Stonesoup for years. Not only does she provide inspiring minimalist recipes and gorgeous, bathed-in-Australian-light pictures, but she also strives to innovate on the classic food blog format and keeps coming up with great projects and ideas, such as her virtual cookery school, her e-cookbooks (such as 30 Dinners in 30 Days or The Tired and Hungry Cook’s Companion*), or the handy list of variations (hotter! greener! carnivore! dairy-free!) that follows every recipe.
What sets her blog apart from the vast majority of others is that it is genuinely reader-oriented: you can tell she spends time wondering what issues the home cook struggles with, then sets out to devise clever and practical solutions to address them.
Chief among these issues is the lack of time: a lack of time to shop and a lack of time to cook no doubt stand in the way of people eating a home-cooked dinner every weeknight.
And this is where Jules Clancy’s fantastic new cookbook comes in: what if you had a plentiful collection of healthful recipes that required just five ingredients and ten minutes to make? Surely then you could gather enough of those five-ingredient sets during the weekend, and find the energy to spend ten minutes at the stove at the end of your long day?
5 Ingredients 10 Minutes: Delicious, Healthy Recipes for Tired and Hungry Cooks contains an impressive 130 recipes — snacks and starters, soups, salads, vegetables, pasta and noodles, grains and legumes, eggs and tofu, fish, meat and poultry, desserts — and upon receiving a review copy last week, I found myself tagging a good two dozen I want to try stat. Spiced pita chips, broccoli and green curry soup, eggplant with chickpeas, chicken and lime noodles, lentil burger, salt and pepper squid, fresh pineapple with mint sugar… the list goes on.
To keep within the ten-minute challenge, Jules calls for the occasional convenience item such as canned beans, cooked beets, or ready-made pesto, but her emphasis is definitely on real, fresh foods and nutritional balance. And of course, it’s up to you to decide if you prefer to cook your own beans, roast your own beets, and make your own pesto — and possibly freeze them for a future 10-minute execution.
The minimalist lentil burger
And now, for the giveaway!
I was so enthusiastic about Jules’ book that I asked her publisher if they would make three copies available for a giveaway, and I’d like to offer these as the prize in a little recipe contest.
If you’re game, please submit your own favorite five-ingredient weeknight recipe (don’t worry about the number of minutes, but keep it low-effort; use fewer ingredients if you like; salt, pepper, and oil don’t count) in the comments below before Tuesday, March 26, midnight Paris time.
I will pick the three that appeal to me the most (among these and the ones submitted in the French version of this post) and the three submitters will each receive a copy of Jules’ fabulous book. (Penguin has kindly agreed to ship the books to any mailing address in the world, so you’re welcome to play regardless of your location; please make sure you enter your email address correctly so I can contact you if you win.)
More information about 5 Ingredients 10 Minutes, including sample recipes and bonuses.
* The links to Jules’ e-books are affiliate links, so if you buy them you’ll be supporting Chocolate & Zucchini too. Thank you!
Aubergine with chickpeas
