Homemade Simple: Effortless Dishes for a Busy Life

by Amanda Haas, Ayesha Curry (Foreword), Kathleen Sheffer (Photographer)

More than 100 simple, healthy recipes to feed everyone in your family—from the picky eater to the voracious omnivore—by veteran cookbook author Amanda Haas, featuring full-color photographs by Kathleen Sheffer.

In Homemade Simple, veteran cookbook author Amanda Haas shares her joyful cooking eat well, connect with loved ones, and integrate healthy, stress-free family meals into your busy life. With more than 100 recipes that maximize flavor in minimal time, Haas provides pantry must-haves, meal-planning ideas, prep and cook times, and tips for transforming recipes into gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and dairy-free dishes.

In addition to including a foreword by acclaimed cookbook author and television star Ayesha Curry, there is also an entire chapter devoted to staple recipes, like Change-Your-Life Chicken Stock and Chimichurri, inspiring flexible meals using whatever is on hand. Haas offers delectable recipes for breakfasts, snacks, sides, mains, and desserts—such as Veggie Scramble with Goat Cheese, Buffalo Cauliflower Hot Wings, Chicken-Coconut Red Curry Soup, Sheet-Pan Halibut with Pesto and Spring Vegetables, and Pear-Blueberry Crisp—proving that making homemade meals doesn’t have to be hard, take a lot of time, or cost a lot of money to be simply delicious.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Cooking, Reference, Adult

216 pages, Hardcover

Published October 24, 2023

Reviews

[Lucky Me Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good addition to any busy family cook’s cookbook collection. As implied by the title, author Amanda Haas provides simple homemade recipes that span from basics, breakfast, salads, soups, mains, sides and desserts.

Haas includes a brief recipe header that explains why she likes each recipe. Each recipe includes guidance on how to store the prepared food. Helpful tips are sprinkled throughout the book.

Haas is herself on a gluten-free diet so she includes gluten-free options where possible.

Recipes I flagged to try are:

Classic Shallot Vinaigrette
The Every-Day Salad
Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Spiced Maple Butter
Rainbow Carrots with Brown Butters, Honey and Thyme
Moroccan-Spiced Root Vegetables with Couscous
THE Lasagna
Creamy Chicken Spaghetti with Lemon and Basil
Sunday Meatballs and “Sauce”
Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a little something for everyone, here. My biggest beef is that there are not photos to go with every recipe. I'm a visual person. I need to see it if you expect me to make it.

On an interesting note, towards the beginning of the book, there's a page called The Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen. Evidently, every year, a nonprofit organization by the name of Environmental Working Group (EWG) compiles a list of fruits and vegetables that contain the highest and lowest amounts of pesticides. The author has shared the list from 2022.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my go-to cookbook at the moment. I had another cookbook by the author (one family one meal) that I loved for many years so when I saw she was publishing this one I bought it. Anything I’ve made has turned out exceptionally well. And honestly, the recipes are the kinds of meals my family likes to eat. The chicken red curry soup is on our menu once per week on the winter. We love all of the salads. When I’m not sure what to make I check this book first to avoid falling down internet rabbit-holes. Not too fussy, healthy and very tasty recipes.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of these recipes appeal to me

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you only mark one recipe to remake