Pamela Salzman’s “Quicker Than Quick” Cookbook

(Gerry Furth-Sides) Who knew that home cooking would become so popular this year with an unexpected shelter-at-home mandate?  The perfect answer to family cooking ideas and techniques is Pamela Salzman’s “Quicker Than Quick” Cookbook.  It offers novel recipes and practical, fun, sophisticated ideas for the health-conscious, busy cook.  Her book is unique in that her recipes were already tried, tested and loved by her cooking class students and their families – 16 times, she told us!

As a certified holistic health counselor, with the Italian family background of abundanza comfort food, she combines the crisp lightness of fresh ingredients with techniques that add a sumptuous aspect as much as possible.   The 300-plus page book, with gorgeous photos, covers breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And almost everything can be made in thirty minutes or less.  (She also has a weekly planner in her website).

 

Pamela wrote the book for busy professionals who also want to cook at home more than ever now, potentially balancing jobs and full-time care of their kids.  Every recipe is quick and nutritious. In her second cookbook, Manhattan Beach-based cooking instructor Pamela Salzman shares  inventive sheet pan dinners, stovetop skillet meals, Instant Pot recipes, and quick versions of time-consuming comfort foods that require minimal hands-on time with novel ingredients. Techniques to save time  without sacrificing quality are also included.  These include ideas to make a dish more quickly by putting in raw nuts instead of toasting them first.  Coconut oil or coconut yogurt substitutes for ghee (clarified butter) to make a dish vegan.

Recipes are customizable for a range of diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, Paleo, and nut-free).  Suggestions for leftovers are also thoughtfully provided, as well as how to repurpose almost every recipe.

In Pamela’s words:  “I have loved good food and enjoyed cooking for as long as I can remember.  I bought my first cookbook in the second grade, “The Calling All Girls Party Cookbook!”).  I found my way into the kitchen as much as I could.  As a child, while other kids were at the playground, I was helping my father in the garden, watering plants and vines and watching miracles happen.  I come from a large Italian-American family with 28 first cousins on one side of the family, where sit-down holiday dinners for 85 people are the norm.  Some of my fondest memories are of simple family gatherings, both large and small, with long tables of bowls and platters piled high, the laughter of my cousins echoing and the comfort of tradition warming my soul.

The food I grew up with was never fancy, even though my mother always had a subscription to Gourmet.  But I knew where the food came from and it was always real.  It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned more about the nourishing and healing power of food.   And it wasn’t until I volunteered as a nutrition docent in an elementary school for Growing Great that it truly crystallized for me — our society has a big problem.  I knew I had to do something, but was unsure of where to start.

At the same that I was contemplating how I could help people grasp the importance of proper nutrition and eating real food (hint:  not processed or full of white flour), I was asked to teach a “healthful cooking class” for a group of young mothers.  The business grew organically from that first group and I knew I had a message — and a new mission — in life.

My hope for this book is that I can share what I have learned about what real food is and how to make it a part of your life.  Let’s get back to basics so that we can nourish our families, and ourselves, and enjoy balance and health in our lives!

Pamela Salzman is a Los Angeles-based natural foods cooking instructor, holistic health counselor, and cookbook author.  Her first book, “Kitchen Matters,” was published in June 2017, and her second book, “Quicker Than Quick,” was published in April 2020.  Pamela teaches both in-person in private homes, as well as through an online platform with hundreds of monthly subscribers.  She is also the culinary nutritionist for Clean Eating Magazine and serves on the Advisory Board of Growing Great, a non-profit organization which teaches nutrition and gardening in public elementary schools.   Pamela has appeared on numerous national television shows has been featured in publications, as well as websites such as GOOP.  Originally from Long Island, NY, Pamela makes her home in Manhattan Beach, California with her husband and three children.