At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, husband and wife team Iliza Shlesinger (a comedian) and Noah Galuten (a chef) started an Internet cooking series, "Don't Panic Pantry," to entertain and educate people stuck at home with pantries full of food they didn't know how to cook. Hundreds of episodes later, Galuten brings these lessons to the page in The Don't Panic Pantry Cookbook. Galuten calls it the cookbook he's "always wanted to write (deeply personal, filled with pasta and lentils and beans)," informed by his experience making videos for home cooks of every background and comfort level in the kitchen. He encourages home cooks to start with what they can, promising a set of skills and dishes that will ultimately rival any "mediocre take-out place" that tempts with convenience and ease. This mindset is then combined with seven instructions for eating well. Easy-to-follow guidelines like "balance is good" keep these from veering into toxic diet culture.
This seemingly simple approach to home cooking is not to say that the recipes in The Don't Panic Pantry are basic, boring or bland--anything but. Flavors abound in the breakfasts, snacks, sides and mains offered up here (many of which are vegetarian by default, though there are a few meat-forward dishes): Jalapeño-Pesto Hummus for a hearty snack, Ginger-Cilantro Chicken Noodle Soup for a warming meal, Krauty Beans for a fast dash of something savory. "You can cook," Galuten insists in the introduction, and with easy-to-stock ingredients and simple-to-follow instructions, The Don't Panic Pantry is an excellent tool for any home cook to find out just how true that statement is. --Kerry McHugh, freelance reviewer