Mighty Spice Express Cookbook: Fast, Fresh, and Full-on Flavors from Street Foods to the Spectacular by John Gregory Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When I was little, I couldn’t stand spicy foods. They made my tongue feel like it was on fire, and I would start to sweat and get generally uncomfortable. A camping trip in high school resulted in a pepper-heavy pasta dish that had everyone crying and me wishing we could carry milk in our rucksacks. Thankfully, I’ve grown out of the can’t-eat-anything-spicy-or-my-mouth-will-burst-into-flames phase, but I still have a little fear of hot and spicy dishes. Then comes along a cookbook like MIGHTY SPICE EXPRESS. With a name like that, who can’t get behind spices?
This is actually a sequel cookbook, focusing on fast dishes using all kinds of spices reminiscent of what you might find on a food truck in some exotic locale. Reading the introduction and ingredient descriptions was like a mini world vacation. The pictures are delightful and well staged, and some recipes have a little story on the author’s experience with the dish. I want to go on a world tour with this guy! You’ll find Asian and Moroccan flavors, along with Indian and Mexican dishes.
Listed by every recipe you’ll find the number of servings and time to make–very little in this cookbook takes more than 30 minutes to prepare, and a graphic of what spices are used in it. Nothing seems too complicated for the average cook, though some of the more exotic spices might be hard to find outside of a specialty grocery. There’s a nice mix of vegetarian/vegan and carnivore recipes, from sides to mains to desserts, so there should be something for everyone. My only gripe is that there is no nutritional information, but none of the recipes seem like they’re overly fatty or full of empty calories.
If you’d like a taste of the exotic in your own kitchen, definitely take a look at MIGHTY SPICE EXPRESS. I never thought I’d say it, but I’ll be on the lookout for other cookbooks by this author!
Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.