Se7en Reviews: Super Food Family Classics by Jamie Oliver…

It’s been quite a while since we reviewed a Jamie Oliver Cookbook and we love Jamie Oliver Cookbooks. This one, Super Food Family Classics by Jamie Oliver, and published by Penguin Random House South Africa, is a real treat, fabulous, fabulous, fabulous…

1. This book is packed with masses of flavourful recipes… heaps of variety and hundreds of tastes that we tend to forget we can use everyday. If nothing else this book will pull you out of the rut.
2. This is genuinely healthy food, packed with vegetables, and no added sugar. There aren’t pages and pages of tempting desserts… just pages and pages of family feasts that my kids were dying to try.
3. The photography is brilliant, and even the youngest folk in the family spent hours pouring over it, saying what about this and what about that.
4. The recipes were surprisingly quick to prepare… honestly this was the best factor for me. I love reviewing cookbooks but so often trying a new recipe, with ingredients you don’t often use can often take all day… All of these meals we prepared from scratch and some of them took only twenty minutes to prepare… I kid you not. Twenty minutes from start to serving. I consider that time in the kitchen well spent!!!

5. Somehow ordinary food, with a little twist can become a feast… his page on a bazillion ways to have your avocado toast has to be my favourite… there is no end to the things you can do with avocado toast and just a little imagination.
6. There is a whole section at the end of the book on healthy eating and lifestyle tips, as well as tips for cooking with kids and coping with fussy eaters, budgeting and reading labels… not just a cook book, it is a good read too.
7. The inside cover plate… filled with tons of pictures of his delightful family, trying and testing and tasting great food… so good to see that he practices what he preaches.
8. You can take a look at a couple of recipes from this book at Jamie Oliver’s website here…

1. Pineapple Pancake Mess Yoghurt, Coconut, Cashews and Lime: We have a nut allergy, we just left out the nuts and got to work on this recipe… this one is lovely because there are lots of components for little people to help you with… Pineapple chopping, smashing cardamom seedpods, yoghurt dripping and honey drizzling… and since we still need to master the art of of beautiful wholemeal flour pancakes it was a good thing that this recipe called out for messy pancakes. And was it good? So good. Lots of delicious flavours and just delicious… this is a fun recipe when you are looking for something to make with a couple of short people on a rainy Sunday evening, who want to make something looks and tastes terribly grownup. You can trust me on this, their tummies will be full and they will be ready to head straight to bed…

2. Chicken Lollipop Dippers Pea & Mint couscous, Charred Asparagus: My family needs no excuse to have couscous… they absolutely love it and will eat it with anything. We couldn’t find asparagus but everyone loves green beans… Otherwise this meal is one we have fairly often, but adding the skewers and turning them into lollipops took just a little longer and added something fun and a little finesse to the meal.

3. Grilled Beef Kebabs Shredded Crunch Salad, Feta and Pitta: We loved this meal, it tasted like a holiday and the preparation felt like we were preparing for a feast in the best possible way… everyone doing their own thing and working together. The astonishing thing about the recipe is, that apart from the pita breads, which we make ourselves, the recipe took literally 20 minutes to prepare and cook… and those of my kids who are loath to eat coleslaw are extremely happy to eat shredded crunch salad, I am guessing that it is all in the lashings of lemon juice!!!

4. Super Shepherd’s Pie, Smashed Neeps & Tatters: There were so many vegetables popped into this recipe and hidden under that mash… and yes my one or two veggie avoiders dived in and loved alongside all of them. They did say that they noticed all the vegetables, but they continued to eat on… Also we made everything except the topping and left it cooking in the Wonderbag all day… so dinner was literally make the mash and serve. Quick and easy and lovely.

5. Chicken & Chorizo Bake, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes & Spuds: This is exactly the kind of meal that we all love, my family love a good taste sensation and I love things that I can be prepared, popped in the oven and forgotten about while it bakes. I love how he pops so many ingredients together into then blender and then just carries on from there. He certainly makes me make the effort and use my blender for new and interesting flavours. We loved this dish, there were so many different bits and bobs to try in it… literally something for everyone to love!!!

6. Alphabet Tomato Soup, Fresh Basil and Cheddar Cheese: About once a week we make a couple of jars of roast tomato sauce and pop the in the fridge… and use them for so many things. But honestly I have never thought of making soup with them… anyway I knew my gang liked the flavours so we mage a huge pot of tomato soup. We couldn’t find alphabet noodles anywhere, we just used the smallest pasta we could find. This recipe was a galactic win and may have started a new tradition, because we got home from a fiercely cold hike the next day and had the left overs and it was even better the day after… like so many good recipes are.

7. Proper Chicken Nuggets Sweet Paprika and Parmesan Crumb: I absolutely loved his chapter called Kitchen Hacks… a collection of recipes that are easy to prepare way ahead and then treat yourself too later when you need the quickest dinner ever. So simple… marinade the chicken in all sorts of delicious flavours, overnight, then toss in a mixture of parmesan and breadcrumbs and pop into the freezer ready to bake later. These were brilliant, and my kids have been asking for them again and again, ever since!!!

8. Amazing Stewed Orchard Fruit & Jam, Apples and Pears, Bay, Orange and Vanilla: So we do have something in common with the Oliver family, we also make a couple of jars of apple sauce one evening a week… it just makes the house smell so delicious and we use it for so many things… to make porridge more interesting, pop it on pancakes… in yoghurt, anything really. Anyway, I can say that while we have always done plain apples, they add a whole lot of goodies to take it to a whole new level… pears, orange juice, a bay leaf and cinnamon. Just delicious.

• Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube: Family Cookbook
• The Celebrity Chef Reviews the Ministry of Food
• Jamie Oliver’s Meatballs… Pass it On…
• The Celebrity Chef Tries Jamie Oliver’s Mega Chocolate Fudge Cake in Se7en Steps… Pass It On Recipe.

We would like to thank the publishers Penguin Random House South Africa who supplied us with a copy of the book for review purposes. We were not paid for the review and the opinions expressed are as usual, entirely our own.