5 Ways With . . .
Take one ingredient and create five fantastic family meals
by Christelle Le Ru
Rrp: $29.99 | Harper Collins NZ

Christelle Le Ru, author of four award-winning cookbooks, and a busy working mum to four preschoolers, is very familiar with the question wjat am I going to cook for dinner tonight, so she has selected 19 basic ingredients that her family loves, and used each one to create five family meals: 5 Ways With.

5 Ways With shows you how to cook meals using basic, inexpensive and nutritious ingredients while preparing them in different and interesting ways. So we have 5 ways with Eggs, 5 ways with bananas, 5 ways with pasta,5 ways with rice, 5 ways with dried fruit, 5 ways with broccoli and so on. For each of the 19 key ingredients there are five recipes.

Christelle wrote 5 Ways With as she wanted to show people how easy it can be to cook healthy and delicious dishes that won’t blow your budget and don’t require hours of slaving over the stove.

Last night from the 5 Ways With meat section I made Chorizo and vegetable casserole which proved to be both simple to make and delicious to eat and the publishers have kindly given me permission to reproduce the recipe on the blog.
It serves 6


This Spanish-inspired dish is both spicy and filling. I like the large
quantity of sauce that can be soaked up with a few slices of crusty bread!

1 onion
200g pepperoni stick
2 tablespoons oil
5 medium potatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 × 410g tin tomatoes in juice
½ × 410g tin peas
½ × 300g tin chickpeas
1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder
300ml water
salt and pepper

Peel and slice the onion. Slice the
pepperoni stick. Heat the oil in a deep
frying pan and fry the onion and
pepperoni slices over a high heat for a few
minutes.

Peel and quarter the potatoes. Peel and
grate the garlic. Add to the frying pan with
the ground cumin, and stir. Cook for a
couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes in juice, roughly
chopped, as well as the drained peas
and chickpeas. Dilute the vegetable stock
powder in the hot water and pour over the
vegetables.

Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for
30 minutes or until the potatoes are
tender. Season with salt and pepper, and
serve hot.


This is unlike any other cookbook I have come across with its themed approach using a particular key ingredient selection. It is a winner I reckon and warmly recommend it especially to  those with young families and on a budget but who want to give their kids nutritious,satisfying and enjoyable meals.          
www.harpercollins.co.nz