Time to Eat: Delicious Meals for Busy Lives: A Cookbook

by Nadiya Hussain

From the host of the beloved Netflix series Time to Eat and winner of The Great British Baking Show come over 100 time-smart recipes to tackle family mealtime.

Nadiya Hussain knows that feeding a family and juggling a full work load can be challenging. Time to Eat solves mealtime on weeknights and busy days with quick and easy recipes that the whole family will love. Nadiya shares all her tips and tricks for making meal prep as simple as possible, including ideas for repurposing leftovers and components of dishes into new recipes, creating second meals to keep in the freezer, and using shortcuts--like frozen foods--to cut your prep time significantly.

In Time to Eat, Nadiya teaches you to make recipes from her hit Netflix show, including Peanut Butter & Jelly Traybake, Instant Noodles, Egg Rolls, and zesty Marmalade Haddock. Each recipe also notes exactly how long it will take to prepare and cook, making planning easy. Helpful icons identify which recipes can be made ahead, which ones are freezer-friendly, and which ones can be easily doubled.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Reference, Culinary

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 11, 2019

About the author

Nadiya Hussain is a British baker, columnist, author and television presenter. The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters is her debut novel.

Hussain was born to a British Bangladeshi family in Luton, where she grew up. She developed her interest in cooking while at school and largely self-educated herself in cooking by reading recipe books and watching instructional videos on YouTube. She married and moved to Leeds, where she began studying for an Open University degree. In 2015 she appeared on the BBC's The Great British Bake Off and won the contest. She was subsequently invited to produce a cake for the 90th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II and to present her own BBC documentary, The Chronicles of Nadiya.

Hussain is a columnist for The Times Magazine and Essentials magazine, has signed publishing deals with Penguin Random House, Hodder Children's Books, and Harlequin. She is also a regular reporter for The One Show and a guest panellist on Loose Women. Hussain was named by Debrett's as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK in 2016. Hussain was on BBC News' 100 Women list in 2016.

Reviews

[Indieflower · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, and I love this inspirational lady.

[Book-Social · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been a loonngg time since I’ve bought a cook book. I find they end up sitting on my shelf gathering dust. However inspired by the recent television series of same name, I purchased Time to Eat by Great British Bake Off star Nadiya Hussain. and set about making it worth my money by cooking just about every recipe in the book.

The idea behind Time to Eat is to provide quick easy recipes to enable busy people to feed themselves and their families. The book is broken down into sections (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner etc) and features clear instructions, pictures and ingredient lists. On first read through I was surprised to notice the inclusion of Spaghetti Hoops and fish fingers. Yet not as surprised as I was when Nadiya suggested Naan breads for breakfast. Had I made a mistake?

To add to the naan bread/spaghetti hoop concerns, the amount of salt suggested seemed, to me, quite high. I never add more than a tiny pinch and don’t believe in putting a salt cellar on the table. So recipes requiring a tablespoon of salt alongside stock and marmite raised an eyebrow. There was also a slight lack of fruit and veg in the recipes. As the tinned spaghetti indicated, this book relied upon store cupboard ingredients and freezer prep. I was determined to not let the cobwebs win however so ignored the calling book shelf and set about with whisk in hand.

There were loads of recipes I wanted to try and my children were very excited at the thought of frying pan cookies. Within a week I had made the one-tray peanut chicken, prawn malay rice, chicken schwarma, fish finger enchiladas and yes, the naan pizza (which we had for lunch). All of which I found relatively easy to do and will make again.

Initially I was concerned about the level of spice as the recipes often included schiracha (chilli sauce). My spice sensitive hubby however and my 4 year old both managed easily enough.

My hubby’s favourite was by far the corned beef sub. The kids LOVED the cereal milk ice cream and the raw broccoli coleslaw was a revelation. It’s now being stuck into every salad I make! The recipes kept getting the universal thumbs up, which in my family of five is a rare thing. A lot of the ingredients listed were used multiple times, making it cost effective and the double up tips, where you make a meal and stick one in the freezer for later are very useful. Whilst it’s not the healthiest cook book out there, it’s the most family friendly and the recipes are a doddle to make. It’s well worth the price for the amount of recipes I’ve made and will continue to make.

I’m now casting a critical eye over the other cook books on my shelf. Few stack up to the multi recipe bringer that is, Time to Eat.

[Ilaria 🌸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Nadya and her down to heart approach on cooking then there is the fact that I grew up and live in a country where food is another religion and sometimes her tips made me cringe 😬
3.5 stars

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the show, put a lot of colorful tabs in my copy to earmark time-saving recipes for my midweek meals :-)

[Chessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one! I am a huge Nadiya fan, starting from her time on GBBO and then into her Time to Eat show on Netflix (and I can’t wait for her new baking show to come out!). Anyway, I was really happy to have all the Time to Eat recipes collected in one place and get a look at them.

My one quibble is sometimes it’s hard to feel confident that there is a 1:1 ingredient from England to America - I feel like I’ve had to google quite a few things to make some things (like, what kind of noodles for the instant noodles - rice? soba? vermicelli??? Is British chile paste the same as chili garlic sauce???).

I really liked this one, but I’m not sure I’ll buy it for my own collection - it’s the reality that a lot of her recipes are a little too outside my family’s comfort zone to necessarily justify the purchase. However! I will definitely be recommending my library purchase this for our collection there.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love her and was excited to flip through her cookbook but I don't think it's quite a good fit for me. I appreciate the format/approach in making extra portions to freeze/tips on repurposing leftovers, and I also liked that she didn't shy away from utilizing canned/pre-made ingredients in her meals as time savers. But ultimately this style of cooking doesn't really suit me (I mostly cook for one) and while I loved that there were a variety of flavors here, most of the recipes didn't really appeal personally, and I only ended up bookmarking a couple to make. I also was pretty disappointed by the lack of pictures--I might have been more tempted to try some additional recipes if there'd been a photo to tempt me and it's the first cookbook I've read with so few photos which seemed a very odd choice.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment purchase. I'd seen an article in Bon Appetit praising her recipe for Choc Bar Puffs and, of course, I thought all the other recipes must be amazing too. Sadly no. Nothing is truly horrible but they aren't worthy of putting into our regular rotation of meals. Recipes I tried that got thumbs up were her Egg Rolls and Chicken Shawarma. Recipes I didn't like Broccoli Slaw, Hasselback Squash, Burnt Garlic Rice, and Apple Palm Pies. I might pull this out and try more recipes once I see what other people liked and didn't like so I don't get stuck with any more duds.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a diet book. Lots of tasty foods to try

[Juli Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little more basic and family-oriented than I tend to like.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. So many things in it I can’t wait to make!! Love her no waste mentality and do ahead for the week and fill the freezer . My type of cookbook and cooking for the family!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUPER innovative, but some flavors I'm not brave enough to try also, so 3 stars for me. I can't wait to try some of the things she suggests though and a few of those recipes are still calling my name!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Certainly not my favourite cook book or even close. However there were a handful of great recipes that I will add to my repertoire. The shawarma chicken, a couple sauces and the noodle soup and a few breakfast dishes. Good for people who want a shortcut on timing for sure.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda crazy that I have so many thoughts on a cookbook but I feel mixed... I love that these recipes are meant to be doubled and frozen or halved if needed. Super flexible and unique formatting. (For example, there’s a breakfast trifle recipe with a yogurt layer. If you double that layer, you can turn the other half into chia and yogurt popsicles.) Just really fun for a cookbook to give you multiple recipes at once by simply doubling things and repurposing. Some recipes are easier than I would have expected, which is awesome too. However, there are a lot of recipes for things I’m not familiar with (which is cool!) and very little photos. I really love when cookbooks have pictures of everything inside them - I need it haha. Unlike a few other cookbooks I’ve read recently, I think this book has a lot of recipes I don’t see myself making for one reason or another.

[Jodi Geever · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book originated as a British cookbook. Many of the measurements are given in grams and other measurements not used in the States. There are way too many recipes for tuna, fish cakes, and other shamelessly British standard dishes. The remainder of the ideas are interesting and novel for adventurous eaters!

[Andrea Bearman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has really helped me think about freezing a meal and helping myself out later. She's basically also given me permission to use semi-homemade recipes; a step that I really needed to commit to with my increasingly busy life.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some great quick and easy recipes for family dinners.

[Jene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty cookbook and lovely ideas but there is only one recipe I plan to make. The dessert section was the best part.

[Hannah Moutran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great addition to my cookbook collection. I love the premise, that we can find more ways to cook smarter and save time. My favorite thing about the food is the creativity and the great balancing of flavors.  Nadiya definitely does unusual things, and she usually pulls it off.  Her sense of taste and balance is master level.  She also uses spices that aren’t my everyday go-to spices, which is fun and interesting for me. There is a LOT of spice when she says spicy, though, so this is not a book for a delicate palate.

Standout Star Recipe: Beef and kimchi instant noodles (p. 78).   The huge amount is great.  Once you have this paste (that keeps for two months in the fridge), you can throw a tablespoon in a jar with a handful of instant noodles or leftover cooked noodles or cooked rice, frozen peas and/or corn, cooked chicken or sliced beef jerky.  Five minutes later, you have a meal!  It’s really good, you know all the ingredients, and it’s as easy as can be!  Be warned, though, the spice paste is spicy as heck.
 
Runner up: Chorizo fish stew with garlic bread (p. 168).  I’m very excited when I find recipes for fish that aren’t too fishy.  This is a delicious spicy tomato broth, with chorizo and also smoked salmon in addition to white fish.  Fantastic.

I also do just wanna call out Grandmama’s Curry (p. 158). I am so happy to have this in my fridge (and freezer). The paste keeps for 6 months, and it makes it crazy easy to make a really healthy and delicious meal with whatever I have on hand.

Not every recipe was an A+ for me, but the ones that I love I really love. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone open to a wide variety of different cuisines and flavors.  It’s creative, which I find inspiring, and doesn’t mind breaking the rules (see Fish stick enchiladas, p. 143).  Also, anyone who’s a fan of Nadiya from her Netflix shows or the Great British Bake Off might enjoy getting it as a gift.  I personally think she’s adorable and am very happy to have this book.  

Pics on my blog: https://mykitchenscratch.com/2021/04/...
Happy cooking!

[Havers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nadiya Hussains Ansatz unterscheidet sich grundlegend von dem, was in den meisten Kochbüchern, die aktuell erscheinen, propagiert wird. Immer exotischere Zutaten, immer aufwendigere Zubereitungsarten. Ihr Anliegen ist es, Selbstgekochtes mit überschaubarem Zeitaufwand auf den Tisch zu bringen, damit noch genügend gemeinsame Familienzeit übrig bleibt. In ihrer umfangreichen Einführung weist sie auf die Vorteile von Getrocknetem, Konserviertem und Eingefrorenem hin, plädiert für Vorratshaltung und den Einsatz des Gefrierschranks. Ein weiterer Vorteil ist die Beschaffung der Zutaten. Diese muss man sich für ihre Rezepte nicht aufwendig in den verschiedensten Spezialgeschäften zusammensuchen, sondern erhält sie in jedem gewöhnlichen Supermarkt, falls man sie nicht eh auf Vorrat hat. Damit jetzt kein falscher Eindruck entsteht, natürlich wird mit frischem Gemüse, Früchten, Salat etc. gekocht, aber wenn es einmal schnell gehen muss, darf man durchaus auch auf gefrorenes Obst oder Gemüse zurückgreifen.

Auch die Einteilung der Rezepte unterscheidet sich von den üblichen Menüfolgen, denn diese richten sich nach dem Tagesablauf: Frühstück (Süßes und Herzhaftes, auch zum Mitnehmen geeignet), Mittagessen (eher einfache, dem britischen Lunch entsprechende Gerichte), Abendessen (hier dauern die Vorbereitungen und Garzeiten etwas länger, auch für Gäste geeignet), ergänzt durch Desserts (zur Abrundung, süß und raffiniert) sowie Grundlagen (verschiedene Gewürzmischungen und Grundrezepte). Die Zutaten sind übersichtlich aufgeführt, die Zubereitung wird detailliert beschrieben, ergänzt durch hilfreiche Tipps. Außerdem gibt es bei jedem Gericht einen Vermerk, für welche Aufbewahrungsart es sich eignet, wenn z.B. Reste übrig bleiben oder man die doppelte Menge gekocht hat. Abgerundet werden die Rezepte durch anschauliche Fotos des „Endprodukts“.

Ein empfehlenswertes Kochbuch für alle, die ohne großen Zeitaufwand lecker Selbstgekochtes essen und nicht auf den Lieferservice zurückgreifen wollen.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this because I love Nadiya Hussain (who doesn’t?) and I’m more a cook than a baker, so I wanted access to her savory recipes more than the elaborate “bakes” in Nadiya Bakes.

I have loved every recipe I’ve tried, and it’s no surprise that her desserts shine. What did surprise me was how so many of them involved crazy shortcuts I never would have thought of (candy bars + store-bought puff pastry = amazing chocolate croissants without much time or effort). For an insanely talented baker, she sure knows how to help the rest of us sandbag it with aplomb.

While I loved this cookbook, I am not its explicit audience. It’s aimed at parents feeding a number of kids on a budget and with little time. Most of the recipes have instructions on how to double elements for later use or how to repurpose them in other dishes. There’s a ton of info on freezing things and stretching scraps. She takes a lot of “kid food” ingredients or ideas and makes them into adult dishes, like fish stick enchiladas and a casserole using Spaghetti-Os (or “hoops,” as it seems the Brits call them). If you’re working on getting your kids to try new things by pairing them with familiar things, these dishes would be great. I’m just cooking for us, though, so I need to rein my cooking yields IN, not stretch them out. And I don’t see myself making enchiladas with frozen fish sticks over fresh chicken or shrimp or whatever. I really do think parents would get a lot out of this, though. If I had the budget, I’d buy copies for all my friends with kids at home.

[Tlwinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been exclusively using this cookbook for about a month and have made quite a few of the recipes. While all tasted good, I found that they did not leave very appetizing leftovers. The concept of the cookbook was appealing... time-saving... but Nadiya's definition of time-saving was not to have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes but rather to make a full meal but double the amount of ingredients so that you can eat part of it and freeze the other part for a later meal, so meal prep still took as long as usual. The only recipes I'd consider making a second time were the poke bowl and the salmon with mango salsa, neither of which would work well with saving and freezing for another day. There were ingredients I had never heard of, which my grocery store did not carry, so this cookbook was even more time-consuming while trying to figure out substitutes. Overall, I found this cookbook quite a bit more work than a typical cookbook, having to half the ingredients on many recipes since I did not want to freeze anything. My husband and I enjoyed most of the meals that I made, but our comment after every meal was "Good, but not a keeper." That is my opinion of this cookbook. I'm glad I checked it out at my library and gave it a try, but not a keeper.

[Carla Bayha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I avidly watched Nadiya Hussain's winning season of "The Great British Baking Show" (Season 6), I never really followed up on the "where are they now." In the subsequent five years, she has become a huge celebrity in the UK with television shows, cookbooks, a memoir, and an MBE.  She is one of the most prominent faces of modern Muslim womanhood. Her newest cookbook, "Time to Eat" is filled with delicious adaptations of her Bangladesh heritage, adapted for British family cooks, and excepting a few Britishisms, American ones. She has the rules you want: e.g. "every dish is two dishes'; "everything is an ingredient." Since she got her start as a baker, she has lots of dessert recipes (they tend to look healthier than most), but this is really a book of cross-cultural savory dishes (such as "pizza paratha")  and weird wonderful pantry dishes ("hoop fish Bake"--hoops are Spaghetti-Os to us) that will appeal to family members of all ages. but  not tax the abilities of the average cook.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid cookbook with lots of different flavors. Most of the recipes are for double the amount you'll need, to encourage freezing. A few of them were recipes where you changed the ingredients if you weren't batch cooking, and I found that to be a little confusing - the ingredients that changed were in bold type, but when I'm cooking I don't always notice things like that. Also, there isn't a photo for each recipe, which I would really have appreciated since some of these weren't that familiar to me.

The fish (haddock and potatoes!) and veggie recipes really standout here. The desert chapter is smaller than anticipated, but her ginger meltaway cake and most of the smaller things, like cookies, are really great. This is a solid cookbook, just not one I see making it into my regular rotation.

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Nadiya, but I found this cook book wasn't for me.

I like my cook books to have lots of pictures and the pictures this book has are beautiful, but there's not a lot. Especially since some of the recipes are unfamiliar to me knowing what the final product should look like would be useful. There's some very British recipes included in this book including a lot of fish, which isn't necessarily for me. The book is also written in metric, of course, so there's conversion needed for us Americans.

I like the recipes that are clearly inspired by Hussain's roots. I also like that this book focuses on recipes that can be frozen, modified, doubled, or whatever is needed to make them easy. Some are still a bit time intensive or require some work, but overall they're generally timesaving.

[Ashley Updike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cookbook was an online impulse buy that I soon forgot about. I wanted to support Nadiya as I enjoyed the TV series. This cookbook premise is about saving time. As the new mom of a newborn I really need to save time cooking. She does it by providing useful tips and ingredients/recipes that can be repurposed into other dishes. I've made the corned beef sandwiches/hash and sweet potatoes tart/soup. The recipes tend to be British cuisine with a Bangladeshi flair. Neither cuisines I am familiar with. I deducted a star because some ingredients I was unsure about (new potatoes in a can/rose harisha). Partly that is due to my American ignorance. Also there are a lot of bread recipes. Bread making is really intimidating.

[Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom and I went on a Nadiya kick when I was recovering from surgery, including her whole GBBO season and episodes from her other shows. She has a sense of fun and warmth and experimentation that's really entertaining and soothing. This is not my favorite kind of cookbook though. While I appreciate all the shortcuts, a lot of the recipes are fun to read about but still too fussy for me to make regularly. And the Americanization has some substitutions that don't really make sense. Nutritional yeast is not the same thing as Marmite or Vegemite, and both are available in many American grocery stores. I’m looking forward to trying a lot of the recipes though.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting author and cookbook. 2nd generation from Bangladesh (with an arranged marriage at 20), you can see the influence in her recipes. Winner of The Great British Bake Off, hugely popular in Britain, an author with her own series on Netflix, she also baked Queen Elizabeth an orange drizzle cake with orange curd and orange buttercream for her 90th birthday. Some very different recipes in this book with an emphasis on doubling the recipe to freeze for another day. I'll be trying the Harissa Bean Pizza and the Apple Palm Pies.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and colorful cookbook full of great recipes that I would love to try but probably wouldn't actually make myself. Not all of the recipes did have a photo, and I think that is important on trying to make foods you may not be familiar with. This is a nice companion to the Netflix show, but the recipes definitely seem easier when she is demonstrating on T.V. with her prepped ingredients, well-equipped and spacious kitchen, and beautifully stocked pantry. I love her energy and enthusiasm. I just want Nadiya to come and cook for me.

[Bart Verdeyen (cafeaulivre on Youtube) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I make two type of meals: the fancy ones you cook when you have visitors over and the every day meals you cook for yourself and family. The first takes time, the second time-management. So I have two types of cookbooks and Nadiya Hussain's Time To Eat is the queen bee of the everyday meal category.

The idea behind the book is simple, yet useful: providing recipes for time-pressed, busy people, who still want to eat a proper meal. It's a book for everyone who's sick of 'the takeaway solution'.

Full review on https://bartverdeyen.wixsite.com/cafe...

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the TV show, I'm following along "yes, yes, that sounds delicious" and then " wait, what? Spaghetti-o's? Fish sticks?" English muffins in cheese sauce baked in a loaf pan? (Is that a British thing?)
These moments of uncertainty make this not just a practical cookbook but also a fun read. So far I have made egg tortillas and pb&j sheet pancake and both were very tasty. She's also given me new flavor combo ideas for quick noodles, smoothies, and overnight oats.