I Quit Sugar: Simplicious Flow

by Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson encourages us to be the change we want. She liberated us from the health costs of processed food by helping us to quit sugar. She inspired us to reframe anxiety as an opportunity for personal transformation rather than as a frailty. Now she emboldens us to adopt 'zero-waste' cooking as the path to good health, creativity and an altogether more elegant life. Inside this book you will find the most instructive, practical and useful kitchen advice that you are ever likely to encounter. Sarah reacquaints us with Flow, an intricately crafted kitchen process that shows us how to cook gut-healing, nutritionally dense, delicious food in less time, for less money and with virtually no waste. I Quit Simplicious Flow is more than its 348 recipes, stunning food photography and intensely useful instruction. It is a manifesto for change, a challenge to us all to take charge of our kitchen, our expenditure, our time, our own health and the health of the planet.

Genres: Health, Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Environment

360 pages, Paperback

Published September 25, 2018

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good on Sarah Wilson for writing a book about sustainable, zero-waste cooking!
This is the first of Wilson's books that I've read. It is a beautiful, if heavy, book written in a chatty, authoritative tone.
Unlike Wilson, I'm vegetarian and I don't have (or want) a food processor or slow cooker. Nevertheless, I found SIMPLICIOUS FLOW very inspiring, useful and relevant to me, because this book's ambition is zero-waste, plastic-free cooking.
Wilson's goal is to help us cook in the most efficient way we can: economically in terms of financial cost, time invested and environmental impact. There are so many clever and creative ideas in this book and I found dozens of recipes that I want to try, and have already given several a go. Still, I think some of Wilson's ideas take "zero waste" a bit far: I don't feel the need to crush eggshells into a calcium supplement, or make another banana peel cake (which I think can only taste any good if you chuck in over half a cup of rice malt syrup) just to save these food scraps from the compost bin. And although Wilson encourages us to keep things simple by just cooking from this one cookbook, there isn't enough in this book that suits my family's fussy diet that I would abandon my collection of other low-waste recipes.
I do have some reservations about how Wilson executes zero-waste, plastic-free cooking. For example, she goes to the trouble of cooking beetroots from scratch and cooking corn on the cob when it's in season to avoid buying these vegetables packaged, yet one of her staples and favourite ingredients is frozen green peas. Sorry Sarah, but keeping a stash of frozen pea packets for reuse as bin-liners is not zero waste or plastic free. (One alternative is to buy loose sugar peas and snap peas from the supermarket in a paper bag or produce bag.)
Similarly, the front cover may state "zero waste", but on the inside we learn that the photo shoots still produced one bin of waste a week. Is perfect "zero waste" actually attainable? I applaud the book's transparency about how it was produced and how waste was minimised in the studio, but there are still gaps in the book's content as a zero-waste "how-to" guide (there are dairy products in many of the recipes, but how does Wilson propose we buy these dairy products without waste or plastic?). Of course, like "self-sufficiency", "zero waste" and "plastic free" are really a journey, and Wilson says that the goal is "to reduce what we send to landfill as much as we can". It is a matter of degree, rather than being able to just tick a box and lable your approach as "zero waste" and "plastic free".
While Wilson allows a lot of room for ingredient substitution, I think there is scope to expand the list of kitchen staples. Wilson clearly loves rice malt syrup and I presume she avoids honey because of its fructose content, but honey is a whole food and I think it is a sustainable choice because it can be bought locally and in bulk.
Nevertheless, this book is a real achievement in explaining how to be more efficient and reduce and avoid waste in the kitchen. I love that Wilson has offered so many challenges to her readers, like putting off shopping for a day or a week, seeing how long you can last, and using up every last scrap in the fridge and freezer instead.
I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a more efficient way to do things in the kitchen.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am thoroughly enjoying reading through and using this book that I was gifted. Sarah has taken Simplicious a step further and gone the whole hog on waste. I feel inspired when I read this and I've already implemented some of the practices! I have Genius Garlic Paste fermenting in the cupboard as we speak. This weekend past we went to a bulk, no waste food store, toting our own jars - no plastic used in our whole food shop at all! I feel like this is just the beginning for me and my family. I have read it cover to cover in just a few days. It's rare that I can't put down a cookbook.

Don't imagine that living the simplicious, #giveaflow life is costly either. In fact, this is promoting a lifestyle that's the exact opposite - use EVERYTHING you have. And then use it again, in a different way.

I can't wait to make a Master Stock that lasts for years :)

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even as an American, I found the lingo fairly easy to follow, or very easily googleable. I got this book on a trip to Australia in 2019 at a reading Sarah did. While the writing may not address it as much as I would like, she did speak about the privilege that comes with a lot of the book's content. That said, this is by far my favorite cookbook - sometimes I don't use it for months and come back to find new recipes or inspirations. When my eco-anxiety rises, this book brings me back to the basics.

I find the reviews that call out the unrealistic, hard to find/expensive ingredients kind of funny - the book literally says repeatedly "or whatever you've got!" because that really is the point. Every recipe is adaptable, which is what makes it accessible for all levels of cooking.

You will not regret buying this book for yourself and your circles.

[Opal Edgar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't expect to love this book so much!
It's beautiful, it's full of tips on how to consume less, better and healthier. And best of all it was fun to read. I just loved all the odd little bits and pieces and comments and details and the voice coming right out of the pages.
If you want a fun cookbook that also teaches you how to use everything, this is the book for you. I also would recommend it to the big kid leaving home so they can learn how to manage their own kitchen and get those insights we were never lucky enough to just be handed out.
Get book! Give this book! Read this book!

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish someone would write an American version because the foods available here are quite different and I think the approach would be slightly different too. She also used Australian lingo that I’d never heard before and weren’t explained.

One last gripe is that she uses large amounts of a sweetener called brown rice syrup and it’s super expensive.

But it’s a great concept with a lot of good tips and interesting recipes.

[Vanessa Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book! The ‘flow’ part of the book refers to cooking sustainably, minimizing food waste by doing a big cook up of ingredients and then using them in different way to make a weeks worth of meals.
Some of the flavour combinations aren’t my cup of tea but I really enjoyed learning about the flow principle.

[Raelene · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5