PALTROW MAKES PIZZA
Latest cookbook from the Oscar-winning actress features simple recipes with accessible ingredients
Well, it’s not exactly pepperoni and mushroom. But it still tastes good,
Leave it to Gwyneth Paltrow to invent a recipe for gluten-free, cheese-free pancakes and call it “pizza.”
But the Mediterranean flatbreads known as socca, made with chickpea flour, are surprisingly good.
In her latest offering, It’s All Easy, the erstwhile actress has come up with new recipes with co-writer Thea Baumann that are similarly surprising: most involve only a handful of fresh and simple ingredients and are doable for the home cook who doesn’t have a GOOP-y army of assistants on hand.
Patron saint of detoxes, “living damn well” and celebrity cookbooks — as she has been christened by various media — Paltrow has taken heat for her pretensions. Her high-profile divorce brought the phrase “conscious uncoupling” into common usage. A recent smoothie recipe posted on her lifestyle blog included several ingredients that were impossible to pronounce as well as something called “moon dust.”
This cookbook is the opposite of that. It still includes the imagery of an enviable life: soft lighting, picnicking with perfect-looking children, shopping at European markets, not to mention Paltrow’s extensive collection of sweaters and linen aprons. There are a few lesser-known ingredients, but you can substitute agave or even — gasp — sugar for stevia if you must. For the most part, the meals are accessible for an average, stressed-out family.
“Food doesn’t need to be complicated to be good,” Paltrow insists in her introduction.
The book: It’s All Easy, $25 at Indigo.ca, covers breakfasts, light meals, afternoon “pick-me-ups,” quick lunches and suppers for warm and cool seasons, as well as vegan and sugar-free desserts. It’s a followup to 2013’s It’s All Good, which was basically a detox diet plan heavy on kale and juicing.
The author: Gwyneth Paltrow, U.S. Oscar-winning actress, founder of lifestyle empire GOOP, subject of critique and envy in equal parts.
The tester: I’m an unabashed Gwyneth Paltrow fan. Paltrow is polarizing: she has crowed about detoxing and the importance of an extreme workout regimen but admitted to the occasional cigarette and tanning without sunscreen. I find that just makes her more relatable. Plus, since I don’t always make time to cook, her “pizza” fits into my routine.
Recipes I’m dying to make: Savoury Congee, Crispy Polenta with Sauce, Cauliflower and Kimchi “Fried Rice”