Cook, Eat, Repeat Is a Great Cookbook for the Hungry Reader
Welcome to Cookbook of the Week. In this series, I highlight cookbooks that are unique, easy to use, or just special to me. While searching for a specific recipe online serves a quick purpose, flipping through a truly excellent cookbook has its own magic.
There are only a couple of celebrity chefs that I can confidently say inspired me to pursue a career in the culinary arts, and only one whose gratuitous joy in cooking and eating I have admired since I was a teenager. This feeling was quite familiar to me, but I remained silent out of politeness. That queen of indulgence is Nigella Lawson, and this week I decided to take a look at her cookbook Cook, Eat, Repeat .
One of the first things I noticed after watching episode after episode of Nigella’s show was her unrivaled ability to describe. I especially remember her once calling pomegranate seeds “ruby jewels.” This was no ordinary cooking show. She showed her admiration for ingredients, demonstrating how to love the food you prepare, from every roast to the smallest seed. After all, you are nourishing yourself or the people you care about. Cooking is an act of nurturing and at the same time completely hedonistic. It was after watching her show and listening to her descriptions that I realized that this wonderful chef is more of a writer at heart.
A little about the book
Cook, Eat, Repeat has the same title as one of her BBC shows and is Lawson’s latest cookbook, although it was published in 2020, during the darkest days of lockdown. While there is certainly a reference to the state of the world at the time, and of course we all did many of the things the title suggests, the cookbook covers much more. There are stories in which she looks at a certain ingredient, like rhubarb, and recounts her development of a certain recipe – at which point she interrupts herself, with full awareness, and gives you that recipe step by step. After this, she will complete her reflection and the chapter of recipes will begin.
This cookbook is not structured into expected breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or other typical food classifications. Rather, each chapter feels written because it is a passionate topic that she needed to get rid of. You’ll see headlines like “A is for Anchovies,” “Pleasures,” and “Much Depends on the Dinner.” In this cookbook, you’ll be pleased to find a wide range of recipes, including all-day courses, single-serve recipes, vegan sweets, and gluten-free recipes.
A great cookbook for the avid reader.
Pun intended. Much of Nigella’s charm lies in the way she expresses her feelings about ingredients, their role in developing flavor and the resulting recipes. She is a true expert at writing prose, and you really have to be a reader to fully appreciate every word.
But not just any reader. Not even just a reader of non-fiction, but one who comes alive reading the chapter on anchovies, which add sweetness to meat, one who is delighted by the chapter on rhubarb and its unflappable tartness and reinforced by the section championing stews and other slow-cooked dishes . brown foods that aren’t “beautiful” on social media.
You must be happy with fewer photos. Although tempting food photographs are often glimpsed throughout the chapters, they do not demand attention. You know from some of my past cookbook reviews that I really love photographing food. And while I like a little eye candy, I was glad to trade this place for Lawson’s recipes and good sense of humor.
Recipes You Can Expect
You can expect a nice balance of hearty soups, light breads, vibrant salads, smooth sauces and delectable desserts. Nigella has a way of making dishes that are interesting, without overly complicated preparations or overloaded ingredient lists. In fact, this is not the typical recipe formula + glossy photo after the next one in this cookbook that is expected of us lately. What’s special about this cookbook is that it’s full of personal stories, thoughts, and culinary experiences. But of course there are recipes. These pages even have recipes hidden within recipes.
As I mentioned, I appreciate the ingredient lists are reasonably sized and the instructions are equally clear and easy to follow. She will tell you where you can make a replacement. Where you can’t, she will insist that you don’t. I’d like to acknowledge that sometimes you may come across “Britishness,” a word we don’t typically use in American English. This, along with her creative word choice, may take a while to figure out, but it’s not something that context and Google can’t figure out. If you watch Bake-Off or any British television – I’m partial to their murder mysteries and gardening maestro Monty Don himself – you’ll be fine.
I don’t always see clear instructions in cookbooks on how to store leftovers. At the end of Cook, Eat, Repeat , before the glossary, it includes a section detailing how to cook, freeze, or store each applicable recipe in the book. This is incredibly useful for large batch recipes or rich and filling recipes.
The dish I cooked this week
No matter the book is old or new, I always choose a recipe from it to give me a taste of my taste buds. This week I made Nigella’s Beetroot and Chickpea Sauce. I’ll admit, I’ve been dying to make her Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cake, but last week I featured a cake from the Milk Street Bakes baking cookbook, and I think cake needs a break.
Well, I’m glad I did because the beetroot and chickpea sauce was great. This is what you imagine beet hummus to be (a mixture of cooked beets, chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt), and she talks about it in the lead-up to the recipe. I chose this one because I already had the ingredients and the instructions were simple enough – and isn’t that how we choose recipes to make? It’s a testament to Lawson’s mindfulness about the average home cook.
For the most part I followed the recipe as written. I did a terrible thing and broke one of her warnings. She insists that the beets be freshly roasted and cautions against using packaged, cooked beets. Well, your girl loves Trader Joe’s steamed beets, so that’s what I used. Nigella, if you’re reading this, I’m happy to report that your recipe continues to turn out wonderful. The sauce is light but hearty, bright and balanced, with savory notes of garlic and chickpeas and the sweetness of beets.
I ate it during the day with crackers and again for dinner as a dip for fried chicken. This recipe is a versatile option that you can make just for yourself to snack on for a few days, and it’s also perfect for a dinner party. The flavor is subtle yet familiar, and the vibrant pink hue is absolutely worthy of presentation.
I already mentioned cake (sounds like a Saturday plan), but I’m really excited to check out more recipes from this book. Unlike any other cookbook I’ve ever owned, with this book I expect to cook a meal, sit down with it, and open the book again to read about a dish I enjoy.
How to buy it
Of course, you can order this gem online , but if you’re the type who loves a hardcover cookbook, you probably enjoy wandering the aisles of an actual bookstore. Visit your local store and if they don’t have it in stock, try to order it for you. You can likely buy it at Barnes and Noble , which seems to have copies near me even though the book is four years old, or simply place an order through them.