I first discovered 6 Ingredient Solution by America’s Test Kitchen on one of my favorite blogs, Pinch of Yum. I tried a recipe that Pinch of Yum featured from the cookbook, Chicken Pizzaiola with Pasta. It was fairly yummy. I decided to go ahead and order the cookbook.
Ok people, I am in love!
This cookbook is fantastic! It hits me where I live. I might be a food blogger, but there are days I’m exhausted, or have been baking sweets all day, and I still need a good dinner to put down in front of my family. The kids and husband need to eat, rain or shine, baked goods or not right? Cue the 6 ingredient dinners.
For me the three coolest things about this are:
- 6 ingredients makes a recipe. (Duh thats awesome right!?)
- Despite having only 6 ingredients the recipes are full of interesting and exciting flavors. You don’t have to serve boring blah if you need to cook something simple! Love it!
- The recipes are so easy to adapt to skill level, connivence, ingredients you have on hand, and personal tastes!
The recipes are meant to be streamlined and easy so they feature pre-made ingredients which is a. great for a less experienced cook or b. the time crunched. But it’s certainly very easy to use the recipe as a starting place and use your own pie crust recipe or homemade pesto. A lot of recipes are very adaptable to your own pantry or fridge as well. Don’t have chorizo? Substitute italian sausage. The recipe will still turn out great. And of course it’s also fairly easy to customize the recipes to personal tastes. Don’t like spinach? Substitute another veggie. No biggie.
I actually used this cookbook on the very day I received it. I was pleased enough with the results that I decided I would try a little experiment, a week of 6 Ingredient Solutions. I picked six recipes to try, and while I know you generally follow a recipe exactly when testing it, I decided to let myself play and substitute as my heart so desired.
To give you a preview the seven recipes I selected are:
- Mushroom-Miso Soup with Shrimp and Udon
- Sweet and Spicy Glazed Chicken
- Rustic Chicken and Brie Tart
- Spicy Chipolte Steak Soft Tacos
- Sesame Pork Chops with Orange and Radish Salad
- Roast Beef Sirloin with Caramelized Carrots and Potatoes
- 7. Six-Ingredient Spaghetti and Meatballs
P.S. As you probably can guess I made quite a few adaptations to the recipes when it suited me, but I really felt like the recipes gave me a great starting place for flavor combinations and ingredients. I used my own tricks and homemade ingredients, and made substitutions when I desired to improve upon the recipe even further. I will admit that some of the recipes have enough adaptations that they turned into brand new recipes (which is what I will share with you in my upcoming posts.) However don’t let that scare you away from purchasing the cookbook if your interested because each recipe was fine the way it was originally. But I wouldn’t be much of a food blogger if I didn’t adapt the recipes I’m going to be sharing with you somehow.
P.P.S. I also feel like I should mention this post is NOT sponsored. I suppose it could sound that way… I’m just genuinely pleased with this cookbook! It really has been a great launching pad for me to get creative with my everyday weeknight dinners.
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