The Minimalist Kitchen: 100 Wholesome Recipes, Essential Tools, and Efficient Techniques

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Melissa Coleman, creator of The Faux Martha, shares her refreshingly simple approach to cooking.

The Minimalist Kitchen: 100 Wholesome Recipes, Essential Tools, and Efficient Techniques is a cookbook, but more importantly, it’s a framework for creating a minimalist kitchen, a kitchen pared down to the essentials so you can create more. This framework will touch everything in your kitchen from your ingredients, tools, pantry, to your cooking techniques, meal planning, and shopping habits. Once the framework is in place, you can make 100+ wholesome, mix and match recipes. You’ll find Blueberry-Orange Breakfast Rolls, Banana-Coconut Baked Oatmeal, White Wine Spring Pasta, BBQ Black Bean and Quick Slaw Tacos, Crispy Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Chickpea Tikka Masala, Stovetop Mac and Cheese, and Two-Bowl Carrot Cupcakes.

It’s true what they say—less is more. But this is also true—achieving simplicity is difficult. How do you know what to keep and what to get rid of? This comprehensive guide will hold your hand through the process and make dinnertime (and the kitchen) feel doable again. For best results, read this cookbook like a novel, from the beginning. Chapter 1: The Minimalist Kitchen sets the stage for how to make and use the recipes in Chapters 2–8: Breakfast, Main Dishes, Burgers Wraps & Sandwiches, Soups & Salads, Sides, Drinks, Dessert. Melissa’s recipes are the practical application of the minimalist kitchen—using a pared down kitchen to its full potential. You’ll find them to be vegetable forward and simple without compromising flavor. They’re intentionally designed to fit the rhythm of the week and labeled weekday, weekend, and make ahead accordingly. Weekday recipes are quick and efficient, while weekend recipes are slower and celebratory. Some recipes have make ahead components to increase efficiency and break up prep times. You’ll find ingredient lists ranging from 3 to 20 ingredients. But don’t be scared by the longer list, as most of the ingredients are sitting in your well-stocked pantry. Look for Melissa’s minimalist tips offering recipe-specific advice, a seasonal produce guide, and a handy metric equivalents chart to take the stress out of cooking.

From the Publisher

White Wine Spring Pasta

This pasta recipe is salty from the bacon, sweet from the peas and wine, and peppery from the arugula and red pepper flakes. If I’m not serving a side salad, I like to go ahead and top my pasta with greens. They soften slightly from the heat but not to the point of wilty, a texture I don’t care for. I love the efficiency of this recipe—reusing pans and cooking asparagus in the leftover bacon fat. It just works.

Hands-on: 30 min. Total: 30 min. Yields: 3 to 4 servings.

Pasta: 3 cups short-grain pasta, Kosher salt for salting water, 1 cup frozen peas.

Bacon + Asparagus: 2 slices bacon, 1 bunch asparagus (about 1 pound), woody ends removed, and chopped into 2-inch segments, 1⁄4 teaspoon kosher salt.

White Wine Sauce: 1 tablespoon salted butter, 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour, 1 cup sweet white wine (like Moscato), 1⁄4 cup heavy cream, 3⁄4 teaspoon salt, A couple cracks of pepper.

Garnish: 1 cup arugula, Red pepper flakes (optional), Grated Parmesan (optional).

1. Cook the pasta. Fill a large saucepan two-thirds full with water; bring to a boil. Liberally salt the water just before adding in the noodles. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions until al dente, stirring in the peas with 4 minutes remaining. Drain, reserving ½ cup pasta water in a liquid measuring cup.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon. In a cast-iron skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy. Remove and place on paper towels. Once cooled, chop the bacon. Carefully remove some of the leftover fat in the pan with a paper towel and discard. Add the asparagus and salt to the pan; cook for about 5 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally.

3. Make the sauce. In the saucepan used to cook the noodles, heat the pan over medium and add the butter. Once melted, add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Whisk in the flour until evenly combined and cook for another 30 seconds. Pour in the reserved pasta water, wine, and all the remaining sauce ingredients, and whisk to combine. (If you forgot to reserve the water, it happens, use stock.) Cook for about 3 minutes until thickened. Add the pasta and peas back in. Cook for 2 minutes more to coat the noodles. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

4. To serve, divide the pasta evenly among plates. Top the pasta with the asparagus, bacon, and arugula. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and red pepper, if desired.

Notes:

Make this a vegetarian dish by leaving out the bacon. Instead, cook the asparagus in 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Ingredient Tip:

This sounds crazy, but I prefer the texture of frozen peas to fresh peas, so I stock and use them year-round. Frozen produce is picked at the peak of harvest season, so you can trust the flavor. As for asparagus, I typically only buy it in season. To remove the woody ends, break them off where they naturally break.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ TI Inc. Books (April 10, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 084875526X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0848755263
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.25 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches