Ester Davies had penned a Student Cookbook that will honestly help those recently-fledged young people. Why? Because they will read this book. It’s no good handing out copies of your favourite glossy, cheffy recipe book, or Xeroxed sheets of instructions for how to make your grannie’s foie gras-stuffed quail. Students (and this book works well for anyone of any age who is culinarily challenged) need to start with the basics.
Ester has a chatty, conversational style of writing that encourages you to feel that eating well isn’t, after all, going to be rocket science (or these days, media studies with a gap year in Nepal). It’s all easy stuff but you need to be pointed in the right direction by someone who knows about nutrition, but who equally knows that the food must taste good.
Student Cookbook – Healthy Eating starts with store cupboard essentials and equipment. There is everything here from saving money to avoiding food poisoning. The temperature and weight conversion charts are handy and Ester has thoughtfully added a glossary of cookery terms to demystify the whole process.
The chapters shepherd you from Cooking Basics to Entertaining, with all the nutritional information you will need to make healthy choices. There is plenty of advice on lifestyle changes to reduce stress and even what to do when you get a cold. The item on Improving Your Mood will be of particular interest to those who are in shared accommodation, and advice about eating take-aways indicates that the author truly does live in the real world.
The recipes are brilliant. They are easy to follow, well written and it’s just the sort of food that most of us would enjoy eating. There are plenty of dishes for vegetarians including Vegetable Toad-in-the-Hole, Chickpea and Spinach Curry (yes, you can use a can of chickpeas), Roasted Vegetables and Couscous, and lots more.
It’s a Healthy Eating cookbook but it’s not over-worthy and preachy. The ever-popular Spag Bol has its place but it’s a low fat version with whole-wheat pasta. Bangers and Mash and Cottage Pie are also given the low fat treatment and there is even a low fat Bacon Buttie!
Student Cookbook – Healthy Eating is a thoroughly practical but engaging book. It might well be more often used than the text books! Think about this as a Christmas gift for anyone going back to university or leaving home. Great value for money.
Student Cookbook – Healthy Eating
Author: Ester Davies
Published by: Need-2-Know
Price: £8.99
ISBN 978-1-86144-061-7
Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker © 2018