Cook As You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks and Messy Kitchens

I cried when I saw the description of this book and all the effort Ruby Tandoh put into making it accessible. I love cooking but chronic illness makes it much harder for me and this book means the world to me. I love all the ways to make it easier and variations that are included. I've now got a long list of recipes that I can't wait to try, with several ingredients I've never cooked with before.

This book is great! So far I've made 3 main meal type recipes and everything has turned out great. What I like best about this is that integral to the recipes is the thought that you can alter and adjust them to what you have/need and there is commentary on how you would approach doing it. So the recipes are inherently flexible but with enough guidance to timings and quantities to so you understand what you're aiming for. They are foundations to set you up to succeed with your improvisation! This is an excellent, reflexive, way to learn and then practice cooking. And I think builds a great cooking culture. I'm a fairly confident cook and will use this to help me try new things, for inspiration when I need it, but also to support days when cooking is hard because tiredness/sadness/executive function has vanished off somewhere! So far, until I'm more familiar with all the recipes in there I'm using ingredients I'm wanting to use as the starting point, so looking up carrots recipes when I had them to use up. But I think once you've had more flicks though you'd remember "oooh I spotted something good for pudding" and try other things because they sound tasty.

Delicious sounding recipes. Very refreshingly centred around accessible and inclusive cooking. Enjoyed the beautiful written portions and stories behind the dishes and I really like her inclusion of suggested reading for each chapter. I just love the whole ethos of "Cook As You Are".

This is the first cookbook I've owned since I was a kid, and it's absolutely fantastic. The directions are clear, simple, and tell you how much time it will REALLY take to make a meal. The book is organised so it's easy to find a quick dinner if and when you need one. The star of the show, in my eyes, are the substitutions available at the end of most recipes - I have a gluten allergy, and it's so nice to have a cookbook that says "you can replace X with Y to make it gluten free/vegan/less expensive/etc." AND that also notes when a substitution DOESN'T work. Tons of options for all dietary requirements. This book is pushing me out of my cooking comfort zone and I love it. Especially the gnocchi with capers and chili crisp oil, which is quickly becoming a staple meal.

Initially I wasn’t too sure about a cookbook without pictures - flicking through beautiful photographs of food is one of my favourite things to do when I’m looking for meal inspiration. However, I soon changed my mind when I read Tandoh’s reason why: it means you can’t be disappointed when the end result doesn’t look as pretty as the meticulously staged photograph on the glossy paper. The book provides recipes that suit everyone and every kitchen, which I love as it means I will probably cook many more recipes from this than other cookbooks I’ve bought in the past.There really is something for every taste and every cook and I cannot wait to try out some recipes!

This is a wonderful cookbook. It is inventive in the way it provides variations and substitutions for each recipe & the index at the back where it gives you options for meals which are based around “cheap ingredients” or “low energy” etc are brilliant. It really caters for a whole variety of people, and I think once I’ve re-read through it all it will become invaluable as I have chronic fatigue syndrome and often if I have no energy I just binge on snacks which are devoid of nutrients but this will help me make better decisions.

I usually don’t get along with recipe books and zone out easily/leave them on the shelf but this is actually useful, with practical and accessible recipes for every mood! There really is something for everyone and this book is so beautifully written and a true must-have for your kitchen

I’ve already selected the first recipes I’m going to try but it’s also a real fun read. I found myself laughing at the little asides and comments Ruby includes. I’m going to read this one in the bath.