Overall rating
8/10
Price
$50
What I thought
This is a wholefood cookbook for use with the Thermomix. As far as I know, it is the best Thermomix cookbook for people with allergies. I am gluten intolerant and my sister is dairy intolerant, so whenever I need to make something to suit both of us I head straight to this book. Something I love about Quirky Cooking is that every recipe I make tastes delicious! It’s not just healthy food that tastes ok, it’s full of flavour! A common complaint with Thermomix cooking in general is that it doesn’t make a lot of food, however, a lot of the main meal recipes in Quirky Cooking produce large amounts of food, providing 6-8 adult-sized serves. Some of the recipes are a bit more time consuming and complicated than I like for a meal for just my hubby and I, so I mainly use these recipes when entertaining.
One of the things I don’t like about Quirky Cooking is that it doesn’t contain nutritional information. A lot of fitness and health minded people like myself like to know the macronutrient breakdowns in recipes. This would have especially been useful when I was competing and needing to hit my daily macros in My Fitness Pal.
In my happy place – cooking some gingerbread biscuits to enjoy with friends later that evening.
Some of the recipes I’ve tried
The recipe I make most frequently is the paleo bread recipe. It is so simple and quick to make and I love having it for breakfast with eggs or for a snack with cheese and vegemite or peanut butter. I am also a huge fan of all the soups. The one I’ve made the most is the Mexican black bean and chorizo soup. I like that it is so easy and has a really nice strong flavour. I’ve also made and liked the warm quinoa salad, American chop salad, spicy BBQ chicken ‘all-in-one’ meal, beef stroganoff with cabbage ‘noodles’ and lemon herb barramundi with cauliflower and sweet potato puree.
The treats and desserts do contain natural sweeteners such as honey and rapadura sugar. Whilst being more nutritious than table sugar, these sugars still can contribute to health problems such as diabetes, increased hunger and weight gain. Therefore, it’s important to remember to eat them in moderation even though they are in a ‘healthy’ recipe book. I made the cherry delight ‘cheesecake’ for Christmas last year and it was surprisingly easy for how impressive it looked. A really easy yet delicious dessert that I love to make when entertaining is the apple berry custard crumble. I’ve also made and enjoyed the spiced banana breakfast muffins, brown rice pancakes with blueberry syrup and gingerbread biscuits.
The only recipe I’ve made so far and not liked is the coconut milk. It was too fiddly and didn’t work out for me, probably because I tried to strain it through a sieve when the recipe recommended muslin cloth or a nut milk bag which I didn’t have. I’ve decided I would rather just buy store bought coconut milk for the convenience factor. I don’t have time to make literally everything I eat from scratch so just pick what is easiest to make such as granola and bread!
I hope you found this review useful if you have been trying to decide whether or not you should buy the Quirky Cooking Cookbook.
Holly x