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The Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook
ISBN 9780470399125
770 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2006
15 people are currently reading
3187 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Fairchild
36 books7 followersBarbara Fairchild is a food journalist who was the editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit from 2000 until 2011.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 13, 2009
This is the PERFECT cookbook for someone who wants to make easy meals with lots of fresh ingredients. I'm a huge Epicurious.com user and realized that I'd already made a few of these recipes that are found on that website. I'm provisionally giving it 5 stars, though that number could change as I make more recipes. I feel so incredibly lucky to have won through GoodReads such a wonderful cookbook.
April 4, 2020
Oatmeal spice cookies - 4 stars - loved these
Warm Spinach Dip - 3 stars - easy and ok, not great
Fettuccine Quatro formaggi - 3.5 stars - easy and delicious grown up mac and cheese
cheddar cheese stuffed burgers - 4 stars - a little technique to stuff the burgers but these were so savory and tasty they didn't need any toppings
Chai spice almond cookies - 1.5 stars - not worth it at all
Red Pepper Pesto - 4 stars - this was supposed to be an appetizer but grill the chicken breasts whole and serve with pasta and it's a fantastic dinner with excellent leftover potential! Baby loved this too!
Lamb with pomegranate cumin glaze - 3.9 stars - easy - just need to plan ahead for marinating time - baby took chunks of the lamb and sucked on them like a pacifier
Pasta with chicken, curly endive and blue cheese - 2.7 stars - this was ok, a few simple things would have made it so much better, a spicy rub on the chicken, peaches or nectarines added in.
dilled chicken chowder - 3 stars - a nice easy meal
black and white bean salsa - 3 stars - easy - good in tacos or with shrimp
grilled steak with fresh garden herbs - 2.2 stars - the ingredient list for the herbs is massive, we didn't care for this but would we have liked a different combo of herbs better? not going to try again so we'll have to leave it to the philosophers
Spicy Asian Pasta Salad: 2 stars - easy but still not really worth it
Chicken Bouillabaise: 3 stars - to be fair, I got the ratio on this totally messed up so it could be better if done correctly
aromatic yellow rice: 4 stars - this was really good! we've made this several times.
spiced beef tenderloin steaks with spicy mango salsa: 4 stars - easy and delicious, a little kick from the jalapeno but not too hot
oatmeal buttermilk pancakes: 4 stars - the oatmeal makes these really hearty
sundried tomato burgers - 2 stars - these were good but not worth extra work and ingredients
potato leek and fennel soup - 3 stars, easy but not amazing
Lime fool with strawberries: 3.5 stars - refreshing on a warm day, came together in an hour. Utterly delightful
Root Beer Granita: 3.5 stars - easy, delicious thoroughly enjoyed it
Lemon Bread: 3 stars - not the best lemon cake I've ever had but easy and tasty - citrusy without being too tart
Goat Cheese and Herb Souffles: 4 stars - Surprisingly filling and rich without being heavy, would make a great lunch with a salad
Tomato Cucumber Sandwiches with Garlic BUtter: 4 stars - I wish I had used focaccia instead of ciabatta, but this was delicious and suprisingly filling
Warm Spinach Dip - 3 stars - easy and ok, not great
Fettuccine Quatro formaggi - 3.5 stars - easy and delicious grown up mac and cheese
cheddar cheese stuffed burgers - 4 stars - a little technique to stuff the burgers but these were so savory and tasty they didn't need any toppings
Chai spice almond cookies - 1.5 stars - not worth it at all
Red Pepper Pesto - 4 stars - this was supposed to be an appetizer but grill the chicken breasts whole and serve with pasta and it's a fantastic dinner with excellent leftover potential! Baby loved this too!
Lamb with pomegranate cumin glaze - 3.9 stars - easy - just need to plan ahead for marinating time - baby took chunks of the lamb and sucked on them like a pacifier
Pasta with chicken, curly endive and blue cheese - 2.7 stars - this was ok, a few simple things would have made it so much better, a spicy rub on the chicken, peaches or nectarines added in.
dilled chicken chowder - 3 stars - a nice easy meal
black and white bean salsa - 3 stars - easy - good in tacos or with shrimp
grilled steak with fresh garden herbs - 2.2 stars - the ingredient list for the herbs is massive, we didn't care for this but would we have liked a different combo of herbs better? not going to try again so we'll have to leave it to the philosophers
Spicy Asian Pasta Salad: 2 stars - easy but still not really worth it
Chicken Bouillabaise: 3 stars - to be fair, I got the ratio on this totally messed up so it could be better if done correctly
aromatic yellow rice: 4 stars - this was really good! we've made this several times.
spiced beef tenderloin steaks with spicy mango salsa: 4 stars - easy and delicious, a little kick from the jalapeno but not too hot
oatmeal buttermilk pancakes: 4 stars - the oatmeal makes these really hearty
sundried tomato burgers - 2 stars - these were good but not worth extra work and ingredients
potato leek and fennel soup - 3 stars, easy but not amazing
Lime fool with strawberries: 3.5 stars - refreshing on a warm day, came together in an hour. Utterly delightful
Root Beer Granita: 3.5 stars - easy, delicious thoroughly enjoyed it
Lemon Bread: 3 stars - not the best lemon cake I've ever had but easy and tasty - citrusy without being too tart
Goat Cheese and Herb Souffles: 4 stars - Surprisingly filling and rich without being heavy, would make a great lunch with a salad
Tomato Cucumber Sandwiches with Garlic BUtter: 4 stars - I wish I had used focaccia instead of ciabatta, but this was delicious and suprisingly filling
June 19, 2012
Update:
I've now had this book for two years. It's June 2012. I set it aside for over a year while struggling with finicky eaters. We still have the same eaters.....but this month I opened it again and tried some more recipes. I was not disappointed. It was so worth it to make a child's meal on the side, so that Perry and I could enjoy the meals. I tried the black-bottom peanut butter mousse pie for Father's Day, as well as the Chicken Cheddar Quesadillas with Tomato Corn Salsa. I actually dreamed about the pie, it was so good. I also ate a little more than I should...considering it was Perry's pie technically. I could not restrain myself. The best way to describe these recipes is that they are fast enough for any day of the week, yet still very special and unique. Both of the above meals were really something different and special, but they were easy to pull off in not much time.
(Original review)
I'm still in the middle of this book. But since this book has made me smile every hour of the day I'm writing a pre-review here.
Usually I have a one-night stand with a cookbook before taking it back to the library. This one is entirely useful to me. It contains 1,100 recipes, and although the first 62 pages are ignorable, at least for me and my tastes, the rest of it is proving to be outstanding.
The layout of the book is easy. The tips are actually helpful, and the recipes contain ingredients that I actually do use and that our family likes. They are quick to make but don't taste or look like hamburger helper. New twists on old things make some recipes extra special. New flavors put together also help a lot. In just one week, every single recipe I've tried, I've liked. Lemon-buttermilk ice pops for my children (took care of a bunch of leftovers in my fridge for me), spicy peanut chicken for me and Perry, cheese ravioli with old-fashioned meat sauce, and the Best Ever BLTs. Yum.
---
I've now had this book for two years. It's June 2012. I set it aside for over a year while struggling with finicky eaters. We still have the same eaters.....but this month I opened it again and tried some more recipes. I was not disappointed. It was so worth it to make a child's meal on the side, so that Perry and I could enjoy the meals. I tried the black-bottom peanut butter mousse pie for Father's Day, as well as the Chicken Cheddar Quesadillas with Tomato Corn Salsa. I actually dreamed about the pie, it was so good. I also ate a little more than I should...considering it was Perry's pie technically. I could not restrain myself. The best way to describe these recipes is that they are fast enough for any day of the week, yet still very special and unique. Both of the above meals were really something different and special, but they were easy to pull off in not much time.
(Original review)
I'm still in the middle of this book. But since this book has made me smile every hour of the day I'm writing a pre-review here.
Usually I have a one-night stand with a cookbook before taking it back to the library. This one is entirely useful to me. It contains 1,100 recipes, and although the first 62 pages are ignorable, at least for me and my tastes, the rest of it is proving to be outstanding.
The layout of the book is easy. The tips are actually helpful, and the recipes contain ingredients that I actually do use and that our family likes. They are quick to make but don't taste or look like hamburger helper. New twists on old things make some recipes extra special. New flavors put together also help a lot. In just one week, every single recipe I've tried, I've liked. Lemon-buttermilk ice pops for my children (took care of a bunch of leftovers in my fridge for me), spicy peanut chicken for me and Perry, cheese ravioli with old-fashioned meat sauce, and the Best Ever BLTs. Yum.
---
August 29, 2010
Another mammoth collection from Bon Appetit! I have made several of the recipes and have loved all but one of them (the cornbread recipe that I tried was bland and way too dense, but it said it's supposed to be more dense than regular cornbreads so maybe the recipe is okay and I just don't like it). I have only just scratched the service, but I can say that these recipes really are fast, easy, and fresh.
May 7, 2010
I really like this cookbook. I was somewhat intimidated at first because Bon Appetit recipes can be challenging, especially trying to find obscure ingredients that some of the recipes call for. I love the Coconut Basmati Rice recipe! I like the layout of the cookbook as well. I highly recommend this cookbook!
September 22, 2009
I borrowed this from my library and tabbed so many recipes that I have to buy it. I tried a number of recipes already and they were good. A great book if you want to make something quick, but condensed soup scares you. These are recipes for real food.
August 31, 2012
There are some good recipes here, but there are also a lot that don't really meet the stated criteria of the book. I am not sure if it is worth the time to cull out the ones you want.
Yes, I found a few recipes that I might make again, but not that many.
Yes, I found a few recipes that I might make again, but not that many.
September 17, 2011
Outstanding cookbook. I've probably made 100 or more of these recipes and not a bad one in the mix.
May 19, 2015
A pretty good daily cookbook with TONS of ideas that work on busy weeknights. A lot of the recipes are good basics, but often come out missing something; my theory is that these recipes have been simplified quite a bit from more complicated, fuller dishes. This can actually be a good thing because it gives you a starting point, but forces you to think on your feet a bit and tweak on the fly. The two recipes that have become standards in our house are the butternut squash chili and the pork tenderloin with cherry chutney.
March 26, 2010
Absolutely fantastic! All dishes can be made in 30 minutes or less, and we're talking gourmet-level stuff. I have never had anything turn out poorly, and the elegent recipes are ideal for dinner parties. Highly recommended.
January 1, 2011
My first time through this, I didn't really like it - too many recipes can overwhelm. But I pulled it out again the other day and took a little more time looking through it, and am now loving it! Great recipes, mostly from scratch which is how I like to cook. ( :
Want to read
September 27, 2012recommended CL Oct 2012
September 16, 2020
actually the best thing you could do is get
the orange book and the green book
by Fairchild
The Bon Appetit Cookbook [orange]
The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh [green]
the pair are one of those books that the more you study it over time, the more you appreciate it
think of it as a mid-way point between Craig Clairborne's 1962 New York Times Cookbook
with the Green Martha Stewart one - The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day from 1995.
half-way between traditional and weird, but not too traditional, and not too weird
I think of the shiny orange and green set as probably the best collection of recipes by the ton for the 2000s decade
the orange book and the green book
by Fairchild
The Bon Appetit Cookbook [orange]
The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh [green]
the pair are one of those books that the more you study it over time, the more you appreciate it
think of it as a mid-way point between Craig Clairborne's 1962 New York Times Cookbook
with the Green Martha Stewart one - The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day from 1995.
half-way between traditional and weird, but not too traditional, and not too weird
I think of the shiny orange and green set as probably the best collection of recipes by the ton for the 2000s decade
January 13, 2021
Quite a resource for a wide array of newly presented recipes. Worth reading.
August 9, 2021
Lots of recipes to choose from.
September 10, 2021
Good! And shockingly easy recipes, especially compared with what I recall as the typical "norm" for Bon Appetit. Yay!
April 29, 2025
Not bad, but also not particularly interesting. (And massive and severely lacking in pictures.)
September 13, 2014
Good compilation that's reminiscent of Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express: 404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less. I've bookmarked a number of vegetarian recipes (though there are plenty of meat-involved ones) to make.
February 22, 2016
I haven't had the opportunity to try very many of the recipes in this book as many of the ingredients are hard to find where I live or expensive. However, the ones I have tried have been delicious and I hope to try more of them soon.
November 1, 2008
I ended up copying about 10 recipes from this book, but could've copied more. Some were very basic, so good for beginning cooks. Some were more complex.
November 20, 2008
From what I have seen so far, this is a great cookbook, one I will add to my to-buy list...
December 4, 2009
Who doesn't love a cookbook? And this one is sorted so well!
January 28, 2009
It could use more pictures, but other than that I am totally in love with this cookbook.
February 19, 2009
Good resource, lots of recipes, well indexed, but this one doesn't inspire me as much as many others. (More picture might help!)
July 16, 2009
I like the layout and have found a dozen recipes to try.
August 24, 2011
Collection of recipes from Bon Appetit magazine. Recipes for a mixture of skill levels are in this collection.
October 25, 2011
Almost too big to use. Modified a marinade for veggies which turned out nicely.
Currently reading
June 14, 2012This was a gift from my kiddos and have only tried a few of the abundant recipes in this tome but so far so YUMMY......
December 17, 2014
A little disappointed in this one. Of the recipes 9 I tried most were just O.K. Not bad but not outstanding either. Only 2 were good enough to copy for future use. I expected more from Bon Appetit.
June 7, 2009
Very good cookbook - so far I've made about 11 recipes -all good!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews