Pamela Salzman, beloved Los Angeles-based cooking instructor and author of Kitchen Matters, is back with a collection of quick, delicious meals that don’t compromise on flavour or nutrition. In Quicker Than Quick, Pamela shares an arsenal of cooking class-tested, family-approved, easy, healthful recipes that will have you covered through breakfast, lunch, and dinner. These inventive sheet pan dinners, stovetop skillet meals, Instant Pot recipes, and quick versions of time-consuming comfort foods require minimal hands-on time and don’t use exotic, hard-to-find ingredients.

Equally useful are the techniques and tricks that teach you great ways to hack your meals, without sacrificing quality. With recipes customizable for a range of diets (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, Paleo, and nut-free), as well as suggestions for how to repurpose almost every recipe in the book and general ideas for using up leftovers, Quicker Than Quick will make your cooking like a snap — and your local fast food delivery obsolete.

Pamela Salzman’s Quicker Than Quick: 140 Crave-Worthy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Foods in 30 Minutes or Less is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.

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No-Bake Brownies

VG VE GF

MAKES SIXTEEN 2-INCH-SQUARE BROWNIES

A confession: These aren’t quite like a traditional cake brownie, but they are pretty remarkable. The texture is quite fudgy, and they are sweetened only with dates and fortified with walnuts. These are not just fast, but I could argue, good for you, too.  Store in the fridge or freezer for a chocolate fix anytime the craving strikes

Unrefined, virgin coconut oil, for pan

2 cups raw walnut halves or pieces

2 cups Medjool dates, pitted (about 25 dates or 1 pound)

1 cup raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon of sea salt

Coconut palm sugar (optional)

2/3 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons raw cacao nibs (optional)

Oil an 8-inch square baking dish with coconut oil and line with unbleached parchment paper.

In a food processor fitted with the metal S blade, process the walnuts to a fine crumb.

Add the dates, cacao powder, and salt and process until the mixture forms a smooth mass. Taste for sweetness and add coconut palm sugar to taste, if necessary. I have never found it necessary.

Stir in the pecans and cacao nibs and transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Press the dough evenly in the dish and refrigerate, covered, for a few hours to set, or in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to set more quickly. Store in the refrigerator.

Tips

Greasing a baking pan or dish helps parchment paper stick and makes it easier to press in the batter.

Recipe reprinted with permission from Hachette Books.