Kitchen Sanctuary Quick and Easy by Nicky Corbishley

What Da Cover Says: Making dinner from scratch can feel like a chore – often half the battle is trying to find something that’s quick, nutritious and, most importantly, delicious. But delicious doesn’t have to mean demanding.

After their debut book, Sunday Times bestseller It’s All About Dinner, Kitchen Sanctuary is back – this time focusing on quick and easy meals, all made in 30 minutes or less!

With chapters such as Champion Chicken; Moreish Meat; Fantastic Fish; Vitally Veggie; Perfect Pasta; Rice, Noodles, Grains and Bread; Snack Suppers; Super Sauces – as well as a section dedicated to Smart Shortcuts containing Nicky’s top tips for speeding up dinner – you’ll be able to whip up a range of fabulous meals for the whole family, every day of the week, no matter how little time you have.

What I Says: I am pretty sure this book should come with a warning…”Danger this book is evil, the recipes held within these pages will result in all your existing cook books lying abandoned in the corner gathering dust”. Since this book has arrived we have only cooked items from this book, never has a book dominated our kitchen as much as this one. A sure sign of how good a cook book can be is by how many pages get marked with post it notes, after a quick flick through I knew this would be pointless as everything (bar the manky tuna and cauliflower dishes eeeewww) was going to be tried.

The book is crammed with many cool tips/ideas/cheats, I had never even considered buying a rotisserie chicken to use as a cooked chicken ingredient, this is genius as I haven’t bothered with some meals in the past cos I couldn’t be bothered to cook a whole chicken just for another meal. Since finding this tip I have told many people about it and claimed the idea as mine. My most favourite thing about this book is the statement on the cover “Delicious 30-minute dinners”, this is 100% accurate, I have been able to come home from work and actually have the ability to cook a tasty meal instead of staring at what I have usually planned whilst crying for a takeaway. Another nice little touch is with each recipe there is a QR code directing you towards a video of the meal being made, stuck on understanding the method? Corbishley has you covered, I found the instructions to be nice and simple but it is very handy having these links to videos nearby if needed. The tips with each menu offer suggestions for those who want a vegetarian option.

I have tried 6 meals from this book, the stand out dish was Pork & lemongrass meatballs with noodles. I have made meatballs many times and they always end up being a mess as they fall apart in the pan, being inspired from reading Corbishley’s tips I cooked them in the air-fryer and the whole meal ended up being an amazingly tasty meal without looking like I had dropped it on the floor.

The next success was Steaky Chips with Peppercorn sauce. I have spent a long time looking for that perfect peppercorn sauce and I had found one that was adequate, that has now been binned cos this one was a stunner, I’m not sure what makes it stands out more, maybe the sheer number of black peppercorns used, so many that it had me forehead break out in a sweat. This is one I’ll be making for the rest of all time. Again I diverted slightly from the recipe due to being too impatient to slice up the steak and display it professionally…

Others that I tried were Cajun prawns with noodles, my daughter who doesn’t eat fish actually ate this. Baked gnocchi with chicken & red pesto, tried this one as I found a random jar of red pesto in the cupboard, full of flavour and enjoyed by all. BBQ chicken pasta, the easiest one we made and seconds were had. Beef chow mein this one had a lot of prep to do what with all the veg, luckily my youngest was on hand to assist and not being a fan of beef I was impressed when she ate this one too. I wish my photos could do more justice to the food but with how quick I eat you’re lucky I managed to grab these.

Easily one of my favourite cook books and perfect for those just home for work needing to cook something easy for the family…and you don’t even need to be a talented chef or photographer to enjoy these recipes. Highly recommended.

This was my stop on the Kitchen Sanctuary blog tour, thanks to Kitchen Sanctuary, Octopus Books and Random things Tours for including me. Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour.