BOOK REVIEW: “ONE POT ONE PORTION” BY ELEANOR WILKINSON

“One Pot One Portion: 100 Simple Recipes Just for You” by Eleanor Wilkinson is made for single people who want sophisticated recipes … but none of the extra food that comes from cookbooks made for two or more people.

The book is divided into five sections – comfort, fresh, simple, special and sweet – that are meant to be cooked in one pot or pan. Recipes include chicken parmy, chilaquiles with egg and feta, and roast pork belly with apple and shallot gravy. The book is gorgeous with photos and easy-to-read instructions and Wilkinson’s personal stories.

Since the editors at SoloList have limited cooking skills, we first tried the smash burger flatbread, which was easy to make and clean up (see top picture). We decided to go out of our comfort zone and try her version of lasagna, one of our favorite meals. The recipe, like many of the others, requires many ingredients than we’re used to.

We made a few changes from the recipes, such as buying minced garlic instead of having to cut up garlic. In our first attempt, we put the dish in the broiler as instructed, but it didn’t work out for our oven.

Our second attempt was much better, but our fault (like before) was buying oven ready lasagna pasta instead of fresh lasagna sheets as the recipe states. Our pasta came out harder than it should be, but the rest of the dish was delicious.

Still, this got us to experiment out of our regular cooking habits, which consists of simple recipes in which we dump ingredients in a bowl and put it in the oven.

Wilkinson has a terrific Substack newsletter that offers weekly meal plans for solo cooks and a YouTube channel with lessons. It’s refreshing to see there’s an outlet for solo people.