Book Club Tuesday: Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts

The parents of my daughter’s classmates know that one of my favourite things to ask when we’re standing around at after school pick up is: What’s for dinner? I’ve always been deeply curious to know what the go-to meals are, which are the favourites, or what are the dishes families fall back on when moments are busy (it feels like we’ve hit that age where the time after school is populated by myriad activities).  As Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer know, a good recipe gives us not only a delicious meal to share but it can also give a busy home cook the gift of time, which is one of the main motivations for their latest cookbook, Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts. As with their first book, Fraiche Food, Full Hearts (review here), this book offers “plant-forward” family-friendly meals that are imbued with a sense of community. While their first book offered recipes suited to family gatherings and entertaining, Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts is focused on helping home cooks to spend less time in the kitchen while being mindful of ingredient usage and reducing food waste.

Harris and Wesszer offer home cooks over 135 recipes, organized into nine chapters: 1) Breakfasts, 2) Baking and Breads, 3) Appetizers, 4) Salads and Soups, 5) Main Dishes, 6) Veggies and Sides, 7) Desserts, 8) Drinks, and 9) Staples. At the end of the book there are meal plans as well as a handy A-Z Fruit and Veggie Freezer Guide. One of the things that I appreciate the most about this book is that the recipes rely on “fresh, readily available whole foods” along with common pantry staples. With each recipe, Harris and Wesszer give dietary (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, or nut-free) and freezer-friendly indicators when applicable.

Can something be considered a “leftover” if you didn’t actually serve it to your family the first time around? While this may sound confusing, as I read the recipe head notes for their Pierogi Mashed Potatoes, I knew that I would 100% be making them only to then parlay the mashed potatoes into making the Pierogi Waffles. Growing up in a Ukrainian-Canadian family, pierogies were central to many meals my grandmother would make. Even my mum and aunt would get together once a year to have a pierogi-making bee so that all our pierogi needs would be met for the upcoming year. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the pierogi, they are potato-filled dumplings where the main flavourings come from potatoes, fresh herbs (chives and dill), caramelized onion, garlic, and sour cream; all of which are present in both Harris and Wesszer’s mashed potatoes and waffles. Since I wasn’t serving my family the mashed potatoes, I took the entire portion and made a double batch of the Pierogi Waffles. These are *the most delicious* waffles a person could eat – since I used butter to grease my waffle iron, the exterior of the waffles was crisp, golden, and buttery while the inside was cheesy and fluffy. I enjoyed mine topped with a fried egg, sour cream, and brown butter, and, these freeze so well that I was able to save some waffles for my mum, dad, and sister to try when they came to Halifax to celebrate my mum’s birthday (as a side note, they loved these waffles so much that my mum immediately purchased a copy of the book).

Is it possible for a dough recipe to be all things? Well, the recipe for Magic Dough can be used to make anything from pizzas and pita to rolls and cinnamon buns. This kind of versatile, back pocket recipe is so handy to have! Once the dough is mixed and kneaded, it’s ready to use after a 3-hour rise. When I made the recipe, I used it to make Harris and Wesszer’s recipe for Deep-Dish Sheet-Pan Pizza one Friday night (is it really a Friday night without pizza??). The dough was pillowy and generous, and sturdy enough for us to pile on our favourite toppings.

Magic Dough, p. 67

Deep Dish Sheet-Pan Pizza, p. 212

Make ahead recipes that can be frozen is a great way to get a jumpstart on things. For example, I found their recipe for Carrot Cake Breakfast Cookies to be the thing we enjoyed on busy mornings or as an afternoon snack. These spiced, not-too-sweet cookies are hearty because they’re filled with grated carrots and apples, almond butter, ground flaxseed, rolled oats, nuts, and dried fruit. The recipe yields about two dozen cookies and, Harris and Wesszer offer a nut-free version so that if you want to send these to school, they’ll be “lunchbox friendly.”  It’s an easy recipe for kids to help make too – my daughter enjoyed mixing the ingredients together as well as scooping the dough onto the cookie sheets.

Another meal we enjoyed from the book was the recipe for Lentil Soup because it’s such a cozy meal – perfect for these chilly, damp winter days. With just a handful of ingredients – green lentils, diced onion, garlic, diced carrots and celery, and chopped tomatoes – this soup is easy to prepare and makes enough so that you’ve got leftovers for the next day. I served our soup with warmed rolls and butter, which was a huge hit with my husband and daughter.

With their newest cookbook, Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts, Jillian Harris and Tori Wesszer continue to offer delicious, “plant-forward” recipes that are tied to the warmth of home, family, and friends. They developed manageable recipes for busy weeknight cooking while also understanding the seemingly complicated matrix of home cooking, meal planning, and minimizing food waste. Harris and Wesszer care about what joys and obstacles home cooks face daily and they’ve written Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts, with that in mind.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Penguin Canada for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. All links are given for informational purposes only, there are no affiliated links.