Dish – Fast Two by Sarah Tuck and Claire Aldous

As the festive season approaches, fresh, fuss-free food ideas are always welcome – especially recipes with short-cuts. Dish – Fast Two shares favourite fast recipes from Dish magazine over the past three years. Most of the ingredients are easy to find and many are likely already in your pantry or freezer.

Dish – Fast Two reflects the magazine’s style, with a soft cover and eye-catching photos. Editors Tuck and Aldous offer plenty of time-savers throughout nine sections. The Small Bites section, for example, includes quick and tasty fillings and toppings for store-bought bao buns, Turkish flatbread, and pita-like wraps. Pre-rolled puff pastry surrounds the Spiced Lamb Pie with Currants and Pine Nuts, and the Cheat’s Chicken and Mushroom Pie calls for a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken picked up from the supermarket.

Even if you’re not vegetarian, the recipes in the Veg section may encourage you to skip meat a few times a week. They include Roasted Cauliflower, Lentil and Date Salad on Whipped Feta, Cheaty-pants Pizza with Pears, Blue Cheese and Walnuts, and Red Curry Soup and Dumplings featuring fresh or frozen ready-made dumplings. There are many gluten-free options too.

As “fast” means different things to different people, Tuck and Aldous explain how long certain steps might take. For example, there’s no easy way to speed up a risotto so it will take around 20 minutes for the rice in one of their three risotto recipes to become tender and creamy. Other recipes – such as the Baked Spiced Basmati Rice and Lentil Pilaf with Kasundi, and Baked Rice and Lamb – also take a while to prepare and cook but are fairly low-effort as they bake in one pan.

The dessert section is small, with only six recipes. They all take time to prepare and are perhaps a little more fancy than fast. There are recipes for several puddings, a Vanilla and Lemon Cheesecake Tart, and even hotcakes. With a few tweaks, the Summer Nectarine and Mozzarella Salad in the Salads + Sides section would also make a great dessert.

The final section, Saucy Bits, has all sorts of sauces, salsas and dressings that Tuck and Aldous promise will perk up your meals, as well as a few surprises such as croutons.

Sometimes the simplest of dishes can be elevated to epic status with the addition of a cheeky little sauce on the side.

Unlike the other sections, the only photo is at the start of the chapter and it’s mostly for show. However, the lack of photos in this section allows more space for recipes and there are some great ideas. The super simple 15-minute Red Sauce can be frozen. It’s made with two tins of crushed tomatoes and a few other everyday ingredients.

The back of the book has handy conversion charts (such as metric to imperial) and a chart that shows USA ingredient names for the New Zealand equivalents. What we call rocket, for example, is known as arugula over there. The index groups recipes by key ingredient and by category and some recipes show up under more than one heading.

Dish – Fast Two’s magazine-style format means that the pages don’t stay open as easily as they would in a hardcover book. On the plus side, its slim shape means that it won’t take up as much room on your shelf, and it’s easy to reach for when you need quick, creative ideas for everyday meals or special occasions.

Reviewer: Anne Kerslake Hendricks

SCG Media