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Food52 Big Little Recipes: Good Food with Minimal Ingredients and Maximal Flavor [A Cookbook]
Fewer ingredients, big-time flavors--that's the magic of Big Little Recipes. Inspired by Food52's award-winning column, this clever cookbook features 60 new recipes that'll deliver wow-worthy results in five, four, three . . . or, yep, even two ingredients.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
Put down the long grocery lists. Food52's Big Little Recipes is minimalism at its best. From pasta sauce you'll want by the gallon to chewy-dreamy oatmeal cookies, this cookbook is packed with crowd pleasers and smart techniques--showing just how much you can accomplish with essentials you can count on one hand.
Can long-winded classics, like chili or eggplant Parmesan, work for busy weeknights? Why, yes. Will chicken noodle soup taste even more chicken noodle-y with just three ingredients? Absolutely. Does subbing in olive oil for butter in lemon bars really make a difference? You bet. With Emma Laperruque by your side, you'll learn how to make every step count and flavor sing. (She'll even prove that water--yes, water--can be invaluable in everything from ultra-tender meatloaf to veggie burgers.)
There's no shortage of extras, too. You'll find tons of need-to-know tips, mini-recipe spreads, and choose-your-own-adventure charts to give meal-planning a burst of energy: A fervent case for simpler homemade stock, a loving ode to canned tuna, a very good reason to always have bananas in your freezer, and more. This'll be your new sidekick for every meal--fresh-as-heck salads, brothy comfort foods, brawny meats, briny fishes, and hearty vegetables that'll take center stage. Big Little Recipes shows busy home cooks how to turn less into more.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
Put down the long grocery lists. Food52's Big Little Recipes is minimalism at its best. From pasta sauce you'll want by the gallon to chewy-dreamy oatmeal cookies, this cookbook is packed with crowd pleasers and smart techniques--showing just how much you can accomplish with essentials you can count on one hand.
Can long-winded classics, like chili or eggplant Parmesan, work for busy weeknights? Why, yes. Will chicken noodle soup taste even more chicken noodle-y with just three ingredients? Absolutely. Does subbing in olive oil for butter in lemon bars really make a difference? You bet. With Emma Laperruque by your side, you'll learn how to make every step count and flavor sing. (She'll even prove that water--yes, water--can be invaluable in everything from ultra-tender meatloaf to veggie burgers.)
There's no shortage of extras, too. You'll find tons of need-to-know tips, mini-recipe spreads, and choose-your-own-adventure charts to give meal-planning a burst of energy: A fervent case for simpler homemade stock, a loving ode to canned tuna, a very good reason to always have bananas in your freezer, and more. This'll be your new sidekick for every meal--fresh-as-heck salads, brothy comfort foods, brawny meats, briny fishes, and hearty vegetables that'll take center stage. Big Little Recipes shows busy home cooks how to turn less into more.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published November 9, 2021
101 people are currently reading
288 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 5, 2022
Easy to follow recipes...check! Great pictures...check! Well organized sections...check! I don't ask for a lot out of a cookbook to consider it to be a good one. This book checks all of my boxes! I am, much like others, looking for easy recipes that are tasty. Big Little Recipes delivers. The pictures are drool worthy, the recipes approachable, and there is a good variety. In particular, I have my eye on the crunchy-shell cauliflower tacos. Definitely recommend!
Find it today: https://ent.sharelibraries.info/clien...
Ashley C. / Milton Public Library #CheckOutMPL
Find it today: https://ent.sharelibraries.info/clien...
Ashley C. / Milton Public Library #CheckOutMPL
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January 9, 2022The salads looked good but the rest just didn’t seem particularly appealing to me. I mean, even the cover photo is something that I cannot see myself cooking (fried eggs and strips of bacon on spaghetti).
March 17, 2022
I love Food52 recipe books. While I probably won't buy this one, I loved looking at it from the Library!
January 24, 2022
Big Little Recipes is new to me but the concept for this book evolved from the column (of the same name) that she writes for Food52. While there are myriad recipe sites and cookbooks out there trying to find the gimmick to hook home cooks -- less prep/cooking time, trendy ingredients, making use of particular kitchen equipment, etc. -- as I listened to Emma talk about the concept behind Big Little Recipes, there really was no gimmick. Her aim is to create flavourful meals by using ingredients to their best advantage and to distill ingredient lists to the most crucial parts. Yes, these recipes have 5 ingredients, but the number is not a hook, rather it's an indicator. And since I bought this cookbook, I've cooked some of the most delicious meals! One of the things that Emma commented about during the talk that really struck me was that when people have the urge to add to the recipes, don't. Enjoy the recipe for what it brings instead of focusing on a perceived lack. While it seems like there are so many recipe developers out there that keep adding ingredients to build flavour, it is a different kind of flex to take a more minimal approach. And, with Emma's approach, she's looking to use ingredients to their fullest potential to capitalize on flavour and texture.
Big Little Recipes is organized into 6 main chapters: 1) salads with or without lettuce, 2) bowls to dive into, 3) pastas, grains & bready things, 4) meats & fishes, 5) vegetables that aren't sides, and 6) sweet stuff to start or end the day. And in the section at the beginning of the book -- Big Little 101 -- Emma outlines the simple strategies that work towards keeping the flavour in the recipes without keeping a huge list of ingredients: Let the ingredient do its job; Wring each ingredient for all it's worth; Lean on two-for-one-ers; Blow an ingredient out of the water; Replace one ingredient for another; and Use the same ingredient but a different technique. So, when making the BLR for All the Cauliflower w/ Grapes, Gouda & Pecans for example, some of the cauliflower and grapes are roasted and some left raw, which is such a great idea. Both ways of prepping these ingredients offer different flavours and textures -- and, while I've enjoyed raw grapes in a salad before, roasting them brings other elements of flavour and texture. A roasted grape becomes softened like a roasted cherry tomato and their syrupy roasting juices can be used to dress the salad. In thinking about the cauliflower, this recipe is ingenious for its use of the cauliflower leafy stems which get sliced like celery so that instead of adding a traditional green to the salad (lettuces, kale, spinach, etc.), the cauliflower is that two-for-one ingredient where the whole has many parts that can bring flavour to a dish.
I've found all the recipes that I've made from Big Little Recipes really delicious! One recipe that I fought the urge to add more ingredients was the recipe for Crunchy-Shell Cauliflower Tacos. In my mind, the Platonic ideal of a taco usually included salsa, chopped cilantro, avocado (or guacamole), pickled peppers -- literally piled-high with fixings. And with this recipe I had to reconsider the essence of the taco, and what Emma offers is all the things a taco should be: spicy, meaty (not necessarily using meat), crunchy, salty, cheesy, with a fresh, vegetal/plant-y component. Here, a cauliflower is blitzed up in a food processor, mixed w/ oil, and chili powder, then roasted until the cauliflower bitlets become crispy and brown. In the end, it actually resembles a ground meat filling and when paired with shredded cheese and shredded ice berg lettuce, these tacos are fantastic!
Some other great meals I've made from Big Little Recipes are the Sweet Potato Skins w/ Tempeh Crumbles & Chipotle Yogurt and the Wheat Berries w/ Mushrooms, Sauerkraut & Gouda. Being able to use my pantry and fridge basics has been helpful during this current Covid wave that is going through Nova Scotia. I've been shopping less and making what I've got count!
And not having to use all my ingredients in one recipe is great too because each of the BLR are mindful of the ingredient list, so I can stretch my pantry and fridge stock. And if I'm running low on baking ingredients, there are minimal bakes that are just as good. Take the Low-Maintenance Oatmeal Cookies -- with three main ingredients (brown sugar, rolled oats, tahini), you can bake up an oatmeal cookie without the help of eggs or butter! Even the Whole-Wheat Cream Scones forgo the butter and use heavy cream to achieve a lovely fluffiness! With minimal ingredients, cookies taste like cookies and scones taste like scones -- it doesn't feel like anything is missing which proves that fewer ingredients doesn’t mean you've sacrificed flavour or texture.
I appreciate the variety of recipes that Emma offers in Big Little Recipes, and I've found so much to make for my family. And it's been such a great cookbook to freshen up how I use ingredients and think about building flavours in food. Emma Laperruque has taken the time to really think about the essence of what makes a great meal taste delicious and, in the end, what she offers are recipes where the ingredient lists are short but in no way does the flavour or texture of the final dish come up short. The fun of using Big Little Recipes is that I've started to look at my fridge and pantry contents in a whole new way.
Please note that this is an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com
Big Little Recipes is organized into 6 main chapters: 1) salads with or without lettuce, 2) bowls to dive into, 3) pastas, grains & bready things, 4) meats & fishes, 5) vegetables that aren't sides, and 6) sweet stuff to start or end the day. And in the section at the beginning of the book -- Big Little 101 -- Emma outlines the simple strategies that work towards keeping the flavour in the recipes without keeping a huge list of ingredients: Let the ingredient do its job; Wring each ingredient for all it's worth; Lean on two-for-one-ers; Blow an ingredient out of the water; Replace one ingredient for another; and Use the same ingredient but a different technique. So, when making the BLR for All the Cauliflower w/ Grapes, Gouda & Pecans for example, some of the cauliflower and grapes are roasted and some left raw, which is such a great idea. Both ways of prepping these ingredients offer different flavours and textures -- and, while I've enjoyed raw grapes in a salad before, roasting them brings other elements of flavour and texture. A roasted grape becomes softened like a roasted cherry tomato and their syrupy roasting juices can be used to dress the salad. In thinking about the cauliflower, this recipe is ingenious for its use of the cauliflower leafy stems which get sliced like celery so that instead of adding a traditional green to the salad (lettuces, kale, spinach, etc.), the cauliflower is that two-for-one ingredient where the whole has many parts that can bring flavour to a dish.
I've found all the recipes that I've made from Big Little Recipes really delicious! One recipe that I fought the urge to add more ingredients was the recipe for Crunchy-Shell Cauliflower Tacos. In my mind, the Platonic ideal of a taco usually included salsa, chopped cilantro, avocado (or guacamole), pickled peppers -- literally piled-high with fixings. And with this recipe I had to reconsider the essence of the taco, and what Emma offers is all the things a taco should be: spicy, meaty (not necessarily using meat), crunchy, salty, cheesy, with a fresh, vegetal/plant-y component. Here, a cauliflower is blitzed up in a food processor, mixed w/ oil, and chili powder, then roasted until the cauliflower bitlets become crispy and brown. In the end, it actually resembles a ground meat filling and when paired with shredded cheese and shredded ice berg lettuce, these tacos are fantastic!
Some other great meals I've made from Big Little Recipes are the Sweet Potato Skins w/ Tempeh Crumbles & Chipotle Yogurt and the Wheat Berries w/ Mushrooms, Sauerkraut & Gouda. Being able to use my pantry and fridge basics has been helpful during this current Covid wave that is going through Nova Scotia. I've been shopping less and making what I've got count!
And not having to use all my ingredients in one recipe is great too because each of the BLR are mindful of the ingredient list, so I can stretch my pantry and fridge stock. And if I'm running low on baking ingredients, there are minimal bakes that are just as good. Take the Low-Maintenance Oatmeal Cookies -- with three main ingredients (brown sugar, rolled oats, tahini), you can bake up an oatmeal cookie without the help of eggs or butter! Even the Whole-Wheat Cream Scones forgo the butter and use heavy cream to achieve a lovely fluffiness! With minimal ingredients, cookies taste like cookies and scones taste like scones -- it doesn't feel like anything is missing which proves that fewer ingredients doesn’t mean you've sacrificed flavour or texture.
I appreciate the variety of recipes that Emma offers in Big Little Recipes, and I've found so much to make for my family. And it's been such a great cookbook to freshen up how I use ingredients and think about building flavours in food. Emma Laperruque has taken the time to really think about the essence of what makes a great meal taste delicious and, in the end, what she offers are recipes where the ingredient lists are short but in no way does the flavour or texture of the final dish come up short. The fun of using Big Little Recipes is that I've started to look at my fridge and pantry contents in a whole new way.
Please note that this is an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com
January 5, 2022
There were only two recipes that interested me. I ended up making one and it turned out just okay.
July 20, 2022
I almost bought this cookbook a few days ago but decided to see if I could borrow it from the library instead. I did and am somewhat glad I did not buy it. As I go through it I only see a handful of savory recipes that I want to try. There are another handful of sweet recipes that caught my eye as well.
I haven't made anything yet, if I remember I will come back and do an update after I try a couple. But, right now, I am very interested in trying the Sesame Chicken with Artichokes and Arugula, the whole wheat scones and the oatmeal cookies.
Most of the savory dishes contain some slightly exotic ingredient, many of which I am not sure I can source or that I would like. We shall see.
I haven't made anything yet, if I remember I will come back and do an update after I try a couple. But, right now, I am very interested in trying the Sesame Chicken with Artichokes and Arugula, the whole wheat scones and the oatmeal cookies.
Most of the savory dishes contain some slightly exotic ingredient, many of which I am not sure I can source or that I would like. We shall see.
February 26, 2022
This is always how I want to cook: put great ingredients with other great ingredients and dig in. These recipes are so smart, too. Many of them use the same ingredient two ways in the same recipe, which just lights me up.
I tried reading Salt Fat Acid Heat and while I would eat anything Nosrat makes, that experience confirmed for me that I find the science behind cooking utterly joyless. Give me romance and fun in the form of pistachios and radicchio, any day of the week.
I tried reading Salt Fat Acid Heat and while I would eat anything Nosrat makes, that experience confirmed for me that I find the science behind cooking utterly joyless. Give me romance and fun in the form of pistachios and radicchio, any day of the week.
March 15, 2022
If you like Food52 recipes, you’ll like this. Obviously? I don’t always love their recipes, and this collection wasn’t an exception, unfortunately.
I appreciated how so few ingredients are used, but not at the sake of flavor. The reader gets educated on how to utilize ingredients to make the flavors or consistency pop. For example, mashing pinto beans in a chili so it resembles ground beef.
I appreciated how so few ingredients are used, but not at the sake of flavor. The reader gets educated on how to utilize ingredients to make the flavors or consistency pop. For example, mashing pinto beans in a chili so it resembles ground beef.
June 29, 2022
Disappointing compared to the site
I was disappointed with the limited number of recipes. I like the concept and the Food 52 site has some great "big little recipes", but this book didn't have the variety or much of the simplicity I seek, especially when seeking out minimal recipes usually consisting if some pantry staples. More recipes with meat than I expected, less vegetable or vegetarian choices other than salad and pasta.
I was disappointed with the limited number of recipes. I like the concept and the Food 52 site has some great "big little recipes", but this book didn't have the variety or much of the simplicity I seek, especially when seeking out minimal recipes usually consisting if some pantry staples. More recipes with meat than I expected, less vegetable or vegetarian choices other than salad and pasta.
August 8, 2022
Food 52 does a fairly good job of focusing on somewhat niche food types and bringing into focus new ways of combining tastes into great dishes. This book does exactly that. As an example, spicy corn soup w shitakes and green onions. easy, but novel.
March 28, 2025
I almost didn't pick this up because I do not need another cookbook. However, I'm glad I did. The recipes are simple but not basic, and are easy to substitute and customize. I can't wait to try the mushroom soup and the ribeye.
October 26, 2025
I'm actually really impressed how the simplicity of each recipe actually WORKS. I tried the charred carrot miso soup, tuna avocado toast, and the cheesey greens pasta--all of which are simple yet delicious and WORK even when they shouldn't.
November 20, 2025
This cookbook had me at the chapter on salads. Salads with no lettuce, cantaloupe, pistachio and salami, first one Ill try. Making the most of just a few ingredients, not a new concept but great recipes included.
December 30, 2021
Incredible book. Inventive but straightforward recipes requiring very few ingredients and basic equipment. Every single recipe has some clever new idea. Can't wait to cook more of these.
January 13, 2022
Lucky me - I received this book as a gift. I love the concept. The recipes feel inventive but not too wacky to try. I’ll definitely be taking this book for a test drive.
January 31, 2022
Its has the all Food52 vibe like their other books !
March 18, 2022
Found some new recipes!
April 13, 2022
Great book! Not your same old recipes. These are ultra modern and only require 5 ingredients each - other than things like salt and pepper. Lots of new things to try in here!
April 22, 2022
Only found two recipes that i would consider making Too far from mainstream cooking for me. Who wants spaghetti with bacon and fried egg on top? Not me
July 18, 2022
I'll have to try the recipe for the flourless brownies!
August 7, 2022
Not a ton in here I would try, but that’s more because of my own tastes. I did bake the brownies and they are very dark. I had to cut mine with some ice cream.
September 8, 2022
Looking forward to trying a few of these!
April 3, 2024
If you love Food52 you will love this collection. Lots of good recipes in this book!
September 18, 2025
Though not many of the recipes appealed to me, it's a lovely cookbook with some interesting techniques to maximize flavor from your ingredients.
October 27, 2024
I am going to borrow it again
I don’t think I would buy this. BUT I am borrowing it from the library again. I want to make the rye Dutch baby
I don’t think I would buy this. BUT I am borrowing it from the library again. I want to make the rye Dutch baby
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews