Like many people in the media, I have enjoyed making a joke or two at Gwyneth Paltrow's expense. And when I announced on Facebook that I was looking through her new cookbook, It's All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook, one of my friends commented, "Your longstanding gripe with Gwyneth Paltrow is hilarious."
But not so fast, friends. I wanted to give the book a fair chance. After all, Gwyneth and I have so much in common now. We're both consciously uncoupled moms. We both have super hot boyfriends. We both have happening careers. And we're both way too busy to spend hours cooking dinner night after night (especially me). And we're both dark-haired daughters of Mexican immigrants raised in obscurity in middle America. Oh wait, that's just me.
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Anyway, I gathered my boyfriend and my son (who happens to be around Apple's age) and asked each of them to pick a couple recipes for us to try out. I picked two as well.
In total, I made six of the recipes and spent about $120. However, I didn't use up all of the ingredients, and I got leftovers on a few of the dishes. So we're not in $200 smoothie territory here. I found the recipes largely accessible in terms of cost.
So! First up was the avocado toast with spring vegetables: an open-face sandwich with avocado, radishes, lemon zest, olive oil and pea shoots "if available." I have none available, but that's OK. I made it right at the office in about five minutes. This sandwich was so transporting I didn't want another taste in my mouth for the rest of the afternoon. It's that lemon zest. I'm putting it in everything for the rest of spring.
On a cold, rainy evening, I made one of my boyfriend's picks, the ginger carrot soup. Let me tell you something about this man. You've heard that there are no picky children in India because they all grow up eating spicy food as babies? It's a lie. There are picky eaters in India, and my boyfriend was one of them. His mother cooked him a separate dinner of potatoes night after night. He is 80 percent potato at this point.
He doesn't even like carrot soup. But he liked this soup. "Wow, this really elevates it!" He especially liked how gingery it is.
My son chose the carbonara, which in It's All Easy calls for bucatino. Go ahead and use spaghetti, though. We made this together, whisking the egg yolks with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and tossing with diced, crisp bacon.
My son and I hadn't cooked together since Christmas, so this was especially fun. And the recipe makes enough for a feast, so he was noshing on the stuff for days after.
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We also made his second pick, pan bagnat, together. This is tuna in olive oil, arugula, red onion slices, sun-dried tomatoes, basil leaves and eggs, layered on a baguette with mustard. (At his request, we held the anchovies, capers and olives.) Having experienced the exasperation and dismay of falling layers, we recommend using a baguette wide enough for all that stacking.
I wrapped up this baby and cut it into individual sandwiches to pack in my son's lunch through the week. He loved it. "How was your sandwich, son?" "Beautiful," he said. For context, he regularly discards half his lunch, so this is a big deal. Also, what 12-year-old boy describes a sandwich as beautiful? We are so doing this sandwich again, every week, until he's sick of it.
A note: The recipe calls for 16 ounces of that olive oil tuna, which can be expensive. But we found that a 6.7 ounce jar was plenty.
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We make bibimbap almost every week because my boyfriend loves it -- surprisingly. He's addicted to the version from Lukas Volger's Bowl cookbook. The goop version is made with cauliflower rice -- or couscous, as she calls it -- and kimchee, but no gochujang sauce. It took longer than 30 minutes to cook because I was trying to get the cauliflower to brown like rice, which was a pretty delusional thing for me to attempt because: cauliflower. However, I am glad I used Trader Joe's cauliflower rice instead of making my own.
I didn't get paid for that TJ name-drop, but if they want to send me a crate of free cauliflower rice for no reason, I am 100 percent OK with that, just so they know.
Is this really even bibimbap? I don't think so. But whatever this is, it's delicious and I'd make it again -- with an egg on it. My boyfriend gamely tried one bite. My son had already filled up on leftover carbonara. Fine. More for me.
And then there were the crispy potatoes with lemon and parsley. Insanely easy. You boil fingerling potatoes for about 15 minutes, drain, smash a bit and cook until crunchy in olive oil. Once again, fresh lemon zest turns something pretty good into fantastic.
Alas, it was a little too easy for my boyfriend, who prefers his potatoes parboiled, then peeled, then thinly sliced, then cooked. That's the dish all of his family members ask if I've made him yet. And the answer is no, I love him but that's some high maintenance potato business there. Can't I just get him to start liking the peelings?
I liked the potatoes quite a bit, though, and quickly packed them up into little packets to freeze for future lunches. Once again, truly easy.
So there you go. I can't make fun of this book. Sorry, friends. I tried. But I like it so much I'm even keeping it for future use. Don't tell Gwyneth.
Keep reading for recipes from It's All Easy!
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All recipes excerpted from It's All Easy by Gwyneth Paltrow. Copyright © 2016 by Gwyneth Paltrow. Reprinted with permission from Grand Central Live & Style. All rights reserved.
Spring veggie avocado toast recipe
Vegan, like spring on a plate. We even eat this for dinner sometimes.
Serves 1
Prep time: under 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 slice of your favorite bread
- 1/4 to 1/2 avocado, depending on size, sliced
- 1 to 2 radishes, very thinly sliced
- Meyer lemon or regular lemon zest
- Olive oil
- Coarse sea salt
- Pea shoots, if available
Directions:
- Toast the bread.
- Top with the avocado, sliced radishes, lemon zest, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and fresh pea shoots, if you can find them.
Carbonara recipe
Carbonara is the perfect lazy dinner — it’s cozy, comforting and shockingly easy to make — not to mention the fact that everyone almost always has the ingredients on hand. Keep some cubed bacon or pancetta in the freezer so you can make this anytime, in just minutes.
Serves 4
Prep time: under 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- Salt
- 4 ounces pancetta or bacon, cut into small dice
- 2 egg yolks (or 3, to make it extra creamy)
- 1 large egg
- 1-1/2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
- 3/4 pound bucatini
Directions:
- Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil over high heat for the pasta.
- In an 8-inch sauté pan, cook the pancetta over medium heat until crispy, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Combine the egg yolks, egg, Parmesan and pepper in a large bowl.
- Cook the pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the hot pasta cooking water (the temperature is important because you are going to use it to cook the egg) and set aside. Next, drain the pasta, and add it to the bowl with the cheese and eggs, tossing immediately to mix everything together.
- Add the pancetta and any rendered fat from the pan to the bowl, toss to coat, and add the pasta water 1 tablespoon at a time until the sauce reaches a creamy consistency (this usually takes about 1/4 cup).
- Adjust with extra cheese, pepper and salt to taste.
Ginger carrot soup recipe
This ubiquitous combo has been around for ages, popping up at spas, restaurants and even the canned soup aisle at the supermarket. I’ve had a million iterations of this soup, but our (gluten-free) version, naturally sweet from slowly sautéed onion and bright with lots of fresh ginger, is particularly good (and easy!). Don’t bother peeling the carrots for this recipe — just give them a good scrub to remove any dirt.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
- Salt
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 pound carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2-1/2 cups)
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
- Heat the coconut oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt, cover the pot and sauté over low heat for about 20 minutes, until the onion is very soft and sweet.
- Add the garlic and ginger, sauté for 1 minute, then add the cumin, coriander and garam masala. Sauté for another minute, then add the carrots, stock and another big pinch of salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes, or until the carrots are very tender.
- Carefully transfer the soup in batches to a high-speed blender, or blend the soup directly in the pot with an immersion blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.