David Frenkiel - Green Kitchen: Quick & Slow: Joyful Vegetarian Recipes for Quick Weeknight Fixes and Slow Weekend Meals

It is Wednesday night, soon turning into Thursday. My family is asleep one floor up. I am not. Instead, I am in the kitchen with a tray of freshly roasted almonds and oats, and there is a deep nutty scent spreading throughout the house.

I lift up the baking paper while pinching together the ends, so it forms a sort of funnel, allowing me to pour the warm nuts and grains into our food processor without spilling. I am making one of our favourite treats, Granola Butter, a mash-up of granola and almond butter with sweet notes of cinnamon and raisins and a touch of espresso powder. Its creamy yet textured, and delicious on most breakfast items or for dunking carrots or apples. As I turn on the food processor and feel the kitchen bench shaking, I realise that now is perhaps not the best time to blitz nuts, and quickly look around for something to reduce the noise. In panic, I throw two kitchen towels over the food processor, but it of course makes no difference at all. I switch off the machine and consider my options: aborting my project or continuing with a risk of waking up the kids. Well, its worth the risk, I decide. I put another useless towel on top, switch on the food processor and watch the nuts being pulverized and then, slowly and somewhat magically, transforming into a liquid.

We dont actually need granola butter, especially not at this hour; we already have two jars in the pantry. But cooking is not always about the result. When I feel stressed or uneasy, or cant sleep, I often find myself drawn to the kitchen. Putting my hands to work and following a recipe ours or someone elses soothes my mind and grounds me like no other task. Even when the whole kitchen bench is shaking. Its often said that cooking for someone is an act of love. But it can also be one of self-care finely chopping carrots, toasting sesame seeds, kneading a pizza dough or folding cardamom buns just like my grandmother used to do. For most of my adult life, I have experienced various forms of anxiety, and cooking and baking has always been the cheapest (and most delicious form) of therapy for me.

This is a cookbook, not a therapy session. But I just wanted to remind you, before we get started, that even if we love the recipes in this book, cooking is not always a means to an end. The most joyful experience is sometimes the process itself. Embrace it!

The kids slept through the granola butter; Luise did not. But after thirteen years as a couple, ten years as colleagues, three kids, six cookbooks and countless nightly cooking sessions (on my end), little surprises her anymore.

Plus, Luise is an even more avid fan of Granola Butter than I am.

David

In this book, we have taken all we have learned through years of writing cookbooks, raising a young family and cooking for others and ourselves, and boiled it down into recipes that essentially capture the two very different cooking situations we find ourselves in throughout a typical week.

Weve got recipes for the fast-paced days: the QUICK. The easy before-work-breakfasts (). Quick, hands-off, low effort and big flavour!

But we also cover the special moments the SLOW. When cooking becomes the best part of the day; when you put on your favourite music and slice, roast and marinate aubergine (eggplant) for a pizza night ( the next week. Food you cook when you have friends coming over or when you just want an excuse to have a joyful moment in the kitchen.

Quick + Slow is not only about time; it is also about presence. One or two of the quick recipes might actually take longer than some of the slow ones, but they demand less work. When we cook quick recipes, we want tasty food with little effort, so with these recipes, there is not too much chopping or frying involved, and we use lots of shortcut ingredients that add flavour by the spoonful. Most of these meals come together within 1520 minutes. Some might take a little longer, but then the oven does most of the work so you can focus on other tasks.

Meanwhile, the slow recipes are just as much about enjoying the cooking process as they are about savouring the result. We are often slower on weekends than we are on weekdays, but sometimes a slow dinner is exactly what our Tuesday needs.

We want this to be a guide of sorts: how to balance the quick and the slow in the kitchen and in life. Its a cookbook, but also a conversation about how food can be our best therapy and ultimate joy.

One of the most creative and meaningful rules we follow is variety and balance. Cooking with vegetables that are in season; eating a range of whole grains; leaning towards vegan a few times a week; picking organic when affordable; choosing a variety of gluten-free, rye and wheat flours in our baking recipes and experimenting with healthier everyday treats, while still going all-out with the occasional sugar-drenched dessert. Variety is one of the key factors in healthy eating. Variety is also fun.

Here is a short explanation of the chapters in this book: in Flavour-Boosting Your Pantry we talk about what flavour bombs, condiments and prep we use to add flavour to every meal and make cooking during the weekdays easier. Some are easiest to buy and others can be prepped ahead. We love breakfasts and in the Morning Time chapter we mix quick and slow recipes to share inspiration both for early Tuesdays when time is short and delicious baking projects for relaxed Sundays.

The Quick Meals chapter are for days when you want to enjoy a special meal without too much work using pantry staples and flavour-boosting condiments to save time. Perfect on weekdays or home office lunches, these recipes are adapted for 24 servings, but can easily be doubled. In Slow Moments we focus on recipes where the cooking process becomes the best part of the day: meals that are made for family and friends and are best enjoyed together. Go to Mix + Match if you are looking for dishes that are great to make ahead for a buffet or potluck. Combine a few of these for a party or pair two of them for dinner. In Sweet Treats we share desserts that makes us happy. Some can be made in a few minutes while others take a weekend to bake. Many have a healthy twist and all of them are good for your soul.

All the recipes in this book are vegetarian, but apart from that, they are not restricted to labels. Hopefully, you will find many that are a good fit for you, regardless of diet.

In almost all our previous books, the recipes have been deeply influenced by our childrens preferences and family-style cooking. In this book however, we are focusing more on ourselves and on flavour. All the recipes have been developed with a flavour-first approach. We love Middle Eastern cuisine, and often reach for dates, aubergine (eggplant), harissa or a all with our own green twist.