The ChopChop Family Cookbook by Sally Sampson

The ChopChop Family Cookbook

by Sally Sampson

This colourful, easy-to-follow, beginner cookbook from ChopChop Family magazine, a James Beard award-winning publication with a mission to get families to cook real food together, features more than 150 recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Specially designed to appeal to both adults and kids in budget- and time-strapped families, the recipes include favourites like Overnight Oatmeal, Double Vegetable Fried Rice, Free Form Lasagne, and One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream, along with simple cooking and meal-prep instructions. The book is packed with inspiring introductions to popular whole foods, such as All About Carrots (or Broccoli or Kale!), kitchen skills, such as How to Chop an Onion or Cook Rice (and why brown rice is better than white rice), Mix & Match charts (sandwiches, smoothies, and beyond), and nutrition sidebar (What are Omega-3's anyway?).

Every page of this rich resource is designed to help families develop the know-how and confidence to cook with whole foods and the many benefits of making and eating homemade meals together.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

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Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The ChopChop Family Cookbook is an exuberant and fun guide to cooking and creativity for the whole family together with recipes and ideas by Sally Sampson. Due out 4th April 2023 from Storey Publishing, it's 256 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats. 

Cooking is a great way for kids to exercise creativity, learn about physical science, gain coordination and life skills. Cooking together as a family is a wonderful activity and will provide special memories together. The author does a good job of covering both the safety aspects of cooking together safely -and- emphasizing the fun. The language is simple and accessible and the graphics and layout of the book are colorful and exuberant. Important tips and notes are provided in color highlighted text boxes throughout the text.

The chapters are arranged thematically: an intro which covers how/why to invite kids into the kitchen, as well as an overview over safety/tools/etc, followed by breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and dessert chapters. The author has also included a set of appendices which do a great job of explaining pantry & fridge essentials and a nice set of tutorials for building basic knife, measuring, and cooking skills. Tutorials are accompanied by clear, unobstructed photos and simple captions. 

Recipe ingredients are given in a bullet list sidebar for each recipe, followed by step by step cooking instructions. Measurements are given in imperial (American) units. They've included a metric conversion chart in the back of the book. Nutritional information is not included. 

It's beautifully photographed throughout, and the food is attractively styled and prepared. I was impressed with the range of inspiration from different cuisines as well as the inclusion of ingredients (bulgur, couscous, orzo) which are oft-ignored in kid-centric cookbooks. 

Four stars. Really really well done. This would be a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition as well as home use and gift-giving. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

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  • 25 February, 2023: Started reading
  • 25 February, 2023: Finished reading
  • 25 February, 2023: Reviewed
  • 28 April, 2023: Started reading
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  • 25 February, 2023: Reviewed