Looking to expand your range of recipes?
Roll over baked beans!
Looking to expand your range of recipes, improve your cooking skills or just try something new, without expanding your waistline? Check out our top picks of cookery books specialising in recipes for one and one pot meals and give them a try. Watching the BBC’s recent keep fit and weight campaigns is a timely reminder that we do need to watch what we eat.
To be fair there aren’t that many good recipe books available but the ones we’ve picked cover every food preference from quicker meals like stir fry chilli wrap right through to more adventurous dishes like aromatic steamed fish with ginger, so there’s absolutely no need to resort to ping meals.
So have a look at these, get a few ideas, try some new recipes and let us know what you think. We’d also welcome your own personal recipes especially those that don’t involve Marmite on toast or baked beans, nice as they are sometimes!
OUR PICK OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS FOR ONE
FEATURED COOKING & RECIPE BOOK FOR ONE
Solo: The Joy of Cooking for One Signe Johansen
‘At last, a book of lovely recipes by someone who knows that cooking isn’t always for sharing. It’s just as important to eat well on your own.’ – Diana Henry
Voted one of The Sunday Times and Observer Food Monthly‘s food books of 2018 this book is packed with advice for keeping a streamlined larder and tips for late-night fridge grazing Solo: The Joy of Cooking for One will inspire you to cook delicious food, every day. Celebrating the joy of self-reliance and self-sufficiency, Signe Johansen shares 80 great recipes for happy solo cooking with a range of tasty and uncomplicated no-cook fast food and one-pot dishes to transform your daily routine. Also includes big batch recipes that you can reinvent and enjoy throughout the week with a chapter on more adventurous recipes for when time is on your side.
Good Food: Meals for One: Triple-Tested Recipes for Everyday Good Food. BBC Books Cassie Best
If you’re fed up with wasting food or trying to work out ingredient quantities for one serving or just looking for some easy recipes, Good Food: Meals for One has a really good range of simple recipes from snacks & light bites, to quick & easy weeknight suppers, dinner on a budget to special suppers … and desserts for all sorts of tastes and food preferences. Also comes with some really handy tips to avoid wasting food when you’re cooking for one.
All round cheap as chips, good little pocket book, good pics, good practical recipes and ideas that don’t break the bank…. and written especially for one. (Wouldn’t be without a well-thumbed copy).
SOLO FOOD: 72 recipes for you alone Janneke Vreugdenhil
‘Inspires you to spoil yourself’ The first cookbook that celebrates cooking for yourself.
How many of us love to spend hours in the kitchen cooking for family or friends then resort to frozen pizza in front of the TV when we’re on our own? This book shows that cooking without other mouths to feed and no other tastes to take into account can be extremely satisfying. Healthy, interesting recipes ranging from Netflix Dinners, Smart Cooking, Classics, Treats as well as helpful tips written in an honest, humorous style that make cooking for one a joy. An inspirational cookbook with 72 recipes that you ll love putting on the table.
The Roasting Tin: Simple One Dish Dinners Rukmini Iver
Pop your ingredients in a tin and let the oven do the work!
The Roasting Tin has recipes for 75 delicious one dish dinners ranging from chicken tray bakes to super grains. Like the ONE PAN: 100 Brilliant Meals book, the concept is simple: fresh, easy ingredients, a few minutes prep, and let the oven do the work. Each chapter also includes a helpful guide on how to build you own roasting tin dinner using whatever’s in your fridge tonight.
Includes quick, clever and delicious recipes are for anyone who wants to eat nutritious food made from scratch that fits around their busy lives. (And for anyone who doesn’t like washing up – we’ll second that!)
Just for One or Two: 80 Delicious Recipes You’ll Cook Again and Again Sarah Lewis
80 triple-tested straight forward recipes, inspirational photographs with handy QR code shopping lists and easy-to-follow instructions for gorgeous meals, desserts and bakes, all aimed at showing you that cooking for one or two can be a real pleasure. With recipes written specifically for one or two people, there’s no need to worry about wasted ingredients and problems, such as how to halve an egg! (has anyone got any ideas on that?)
Something to tempt everyone in three chapters: EVERYDAY EATING with everyday meals simple enough to make any time. EAT & FREEZE where each recipe provides several portions – eat one or two portions and freeze the rest, EAT OUT, IN which shows you how to create restaurant-quality food at home with a few ingredients and little effort.
SOLO: Inspirational Cooking for One Linda Tubby
‘Cooking for yourself is a most satisfying part of self-nurture when thought and care are given to the process. From shopping for ingredients to preparing a meal, you can take great pleasure in eating the results’
5 sections packed full of imaginative and inspiring recipes; Quick Fixes, Almost Instant, A Little Ahead, Give it Time and Those Little Extras making it simple to find the perfect meal for one for any occasion. From creating speedy meals to more difficult meals like Marinated Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb or Pea & Lemon Risotto Linda Tubby also gives handy tips for spicing up lacklustre dishes and keeping your larder stocked with ready-to-use ingredients. Ideal inspirational cookbook for foodies.
Slow Cooking for Yourself: Restaurant quality food-ready when you walk through your door Catherine Atkinson
A huge selection of simple, classic, slow cooker dishes that brings restaurant quality eating to your table at home. Packed with easy to prepare recipes that will appeal to everyone from soups like Winter Lentil Soup, Minestrone, Leek and Potato Soup through to Fish Pie, Kedgeree, Tuna Pasta Bake, Chilli Con Carne, curries and loads of great vegetarian recipes using beans and lentils all thoroughly tested and written for one.
ONE PAN: 100 Brilliant Meals Mari Mererid Williams
Yes, one pan is all you need. Although not only about recipes for one, could this be the next best thing? All sorts of recipes that use everyday store cupboard ingredients with simple cooking methods and creative twists to suit all appetites, – in one pan. No more expensive kitchen kit and hardly any washing up!One of the newest cookbooks listed, One Pan: 100 Brilliant Meals is packed with delicious pan-to-table recipes from breakfasts and mains to desserts and baking – comforting and warming or light and healthy, something for everyone.
So feed a crowd, whip up a meal for one, or impress friends with these tasty dishes from Pan fried Avocado and black bean quesadillas, Cheat’s frying pan lasagne, Sweet potato dhal and even Pizza – not to mention pudding treats.
The Essential Sugar Free Diet: Meals for One. A quick start guide to cooking sugar-free meals for one Quick Start Guides
Looking to beat the sugar trap for good, lose weight, feel great and discover what you can and can’t eat? If you’re ready to change your life for the better and eliminate sugar from your daily diet then this Sugar Free Diet Meals For One cookbook is for you!
With plenty of delicious, healthy tailor-made recipes for one to choose from, a great resource for anyone looking to start a sugar free lifestyle. Easy-to-follow book with plenty of healthy, calorie counted, sugar-free recipes plus a straightforward reminder and of what foods you can eat and how to avoid hidden sugars to kick start your weight loss. Recipes include Tomato & Mozzarella Chicken, Sausage Casserole, Chilli Bean Bake, King Prawn Wraps and Blueberry Breakfast Muffins!
Delia Smith’s One is Fun!
Solo-dining doesn’t mean scrimping on flavour or time. One is Fun is a wide collection of Delia’s recipes serving one person to make sure you eat well every day of the week.
And almost last, but definitely not least, a number one best seller and an original, tried and tested recipe books for one. A bit of a forerunner for cook books for one, breaking new ground at the time and still a bit of a bible and very relevant today Delia Smiths book provides easy-to-prepare recipes specially devised for the single cook, so that you don’t have to divide ordinary recipes for four into a meal for one. Great basics, ideas and recipes.
Everyday Cooking For One: Imaginative, Delicious and Healthy Recipes That Make Cooking for One … Fun Wendy Hobson
No need for the maths & having to divide everything by 4. Just get on and cook. Collection of simple, delicious meals especially designed for one and a touch of reinvention to help you enjoy your everyday eating. Includes useful tips for shopping and stocking your food cupboard and delicious recipes for everything from snacks to main courses and cakes. Also includes handy tips on creating 4 different meals from one single cooking session. Try Braised Tender Lamb, then reinvented as Lamb with Mediterranean Couscous, Lamb with Crisp Courgettes and Parsnip-topped Lamb in one session. Lots of good examples to ensure you don’t run out of ideas.
