10/05/2020

The prolific Oliver returns with a clever if not groundbreaking follow-up to 2017’s 5 Ingredients. The organizing principle is what Oliver calls “hero ingredients,” or commonly purchased grocery items (broccoli, cauliflower, chicken, etc), each of which here serves as the foundation for seven dishes. Recipes are vegetable-focused (a quiche’s bright-green pea filling, for instance, is enclosed in a crust that incorporates avocado and is topped with a tangle of salad), rely on packaged items (such as a bag of “mixed stir-fry veg,” and cooked rice for chicken meatballs), and ethnic-inflected but without much concern for authenticity (a calzone contains cheddar cheese and mustard). Dishes like a “Milanese” eggplant parmigiana call for three and a half ounces of rosemary focaccia to make breadcrumbs, teriyaki salmon is cut accordion-style and served atop rice noodles steeped in green tea, and the chicken chapter offers seven ways to roast a whole bird. Though the recipes aren’t overtly inventive, this does much to advance Oliver’s quest to make nutritious food accessible. (Nov.)