We are in a busy season of the year, and it is hard to spend a lot of time meal planning, shopping, and cooking. We saw the One Bowl Meals book and thought it might be a perfect option for some simple recipes. It was on a display table at our local gift shop, but I grabbed a copy at the library because that’s been my method throughout this experiment. So, let’s dive in and see if this book provides the type of recipes I’m looking for.
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Background of the Book & Author
The tagline reads simple, nourishing, and delicious, with the promise that every recipe goes into one bowl. The introduction tells us why one-bowl meals have been gaining in popularity, but it’s nothing that we didn’t already know. One-bowl meals are part of the contemporary food trends, but they really aren’t new. The book is written by Maria Zizka. There isn’t much information about the author, and it doesn’t seem like a personal book at all. It looks like she has written a lot of cookbooks, but this one doesn’t appear on her homepage, even though it was released just a few years ago, in 2021.
What Grabbed My Attention
With beautiful pictures and a simple concept, it’s easy to see why people grab this book. As I mentioned, we’ve been searching for some recipes that are easy to prep ahead of time and then take for lunches or put together for quick dinners. The recipes are split into breakfast, rice, other grains & legumes, noodles, and greens. I assumed we’d pick up some new tricks and fun flavor combos.
Buy your copy here and support an independent bookstore (or grab one from Amazon.)
Overall Cookbook Rating
Ease of recipes – 7/10
Knowledge of methods & ingredients – 8/10
Fits the theme – 8/10
Taste overall of test recipes – 4/10
Quantity of recipes that generated excitement – 2/10
Overall rating – 5.8/10
Feedback from a lazy cook who hates a dish pile up and making dinner decisions:
Even the most simple dishes in the book required quite a few steps for each section of the bowl. Swapping some premade things (like granola or seasoned rice) was easy, but if you follow the recipes as they are, it’s quite a bit of work.
Feedback from an aspiring cook who wants to impress herself and learn how to do more:
While the book says it’s simple, you’re putting together some fancy bowls with many components. Many of these recipes would be great for a fancy lunch with friends or family.
Recipes I Cooked from the Cookbook:
Dish 1 – Yogurt, Fruit, and Granola
This is a standard breakfast combo for us, but I’ve never added pineapple. It was simple and tasty. Broiling the pineapple really made the flavors pop. I don’t think I had the oven rack close enough to the broiler, so ours didn’t brown. I still loved the flavor.
Changes made – used fresh pineapple instead of canned, used Greek yogurt instead of plain
Suggestions for next time – use honey granola premade instead of making it at home to save time
Dish 2 – Pasta d Piselli
I love adding peas to my pasta. Some of my favorite spring recipes have peas, asparagus, and other seasonal greens added to noodles with cheese. But I have to be honest, I did not like this at all. The ratios were off. I only ate half and then switched to chips and salsa. It’s possible that the pancetta is very important to the flavor of this, but I won’t be making this again.
Changes made – left out the pancetta because I don’t eat meat
Suggestions for next time – nothing, I won’t be making this one again
Dish 3 – Shrimp Taco Rice
The first weird thing I noticed was that this isn’t under the “rice” chapter, but there’s definitely rice. I cheated and used the Super Grains Mexican rice I already had. I’m really trying to use up some of the pantry items I have before buying new things. This was a great way to use some cabbage. That’s a vegetable I’ve been wanting to use more. I also don’t mess around with tails on shrimp, especially not when they are mixed into a bowl. The description says to leave them because “they’re beautiful,” which seems impractical.
Changes made – I used frozen shrimp without the tails and premade Mexican rice.
Suggestions for next time – None, I really liked the dish exactly the way I made it. I don’t think it would be worth the effort to make the tomato rice the way the recipe calls for.
Lessons Learned
- Heating up fruit can help release more flavor from the fruits.
- Bowls are easy and probably don’t need recipes. The equation is simple: bowl = grain base + protein + topping + sauce.
- I really prefer cookbooks with a personal story.
Who Should Buy This Cookbook
This book would be a great gift for a younger couple who eat a variety of cuisines. It’s better for omnivores than vegetarians because there are quite a few meat and fish recipes. The book is small and doesn’t take up too much space, so it would be good for an apartment housewarming gift with adorable bowls like these.
Final Thoughts on One Bowl Meals
This was not the cookbook for me. It’s not the book’s fault. There were too many meat options, and it was hard to find recipes to make quick swaps. The shrimp bowl was so good, but that was the only real standout, and I didn’t really follow the full recipe.
I think I learned that I don’t really need a cookbook to put together one-bowl meals, but instead, I think of some of our favorite flavor combos and put them in a bowl instead of a wrap or sandwich. Deconstruct tacos or tasty sandwich combos and put them with whole grains. Does this sound like your kind of book? Have you ever tried a book that falls into this category that you’d recommend? I’ve been in kind of a slump with the last few cookbook reviews, so I’m hoping the next one is amazing.
Buy your copy here and support an independent bookstore (or grab one from Amazon.)
