anyone can cook

anyone can cook

Our Favorite Recipes for Every Day

PRESTEL
MUNICH · LONDON · NEW YORK
To home cooks, everywhere.
Table of Contents

Our Story 9 Acknowledgments309

Index313
About the Book 10 About our App 319

Essential Utensils 14
Our Pantry Staples 16
The Foundations 21
Salads & Soups 47
Vegetarian & Vegan 99
Pasta & Noodles 151
Meaty Mains 203
Out of the Oven 255
8 
Our Story

It all began with a simple idea: Encourage more people to get cooking at
home. Although eating is such an integral part of our lives, many people lack
the time, inspiration, and kitchen confidence to make their own meals. So, to
help others (and ourselves) overcome these obstacles, we founded Kitchen
Stories – a cooking platform to inspire any cook, filled with a range of recipes
from easy to more challenging, detailed step-by-step instructions, and
engaging videos. Our motto? Anyone can cook.

As recent college graduates, we had limited work experience. Potential

investors laughed at our idea: There were enough competitors on the market
already – what exactly would we do differently? Nevertheless, we had faith.
We decided to pursue our idea, selling our cars and borrowing money
from friends and family to get it started. Using a rental home as our set, we
produced the first 100 recipes in 14 days. Six months later, we released the
first version of our app. Today, we have more than 17 million users worldwide.

Although our home is the digital world, we’ve always loved the idea of making
a cookbook. In these pages, you’ll find the same sentiment we’ve had from
the beginning: “Anyone can cook.” This cookbook is here to inspire you to
make weeknight meals that are anything but boring. For many of the dishes,
you’ll need only 30 minutes, for some only 5 ingredients, and others only a
single pot. Alongside our all-time favorite Kitchen Stories recipes, you’ll also
find new dishes developed exclusively for this very book.

Happy cooking!

Verena & Mengting

 9
About the Book

When we decided to go for it – to publish a Chapter structure

cookbook for the first time ever – we grappled This cookbook is divided into six chapters,
with our approach. Firsts are significant, and we starting with an overview of a few foundational
wanted our debut to not only be memorable, but skills and terms we consider essential for the
true to who we are as a brand and a community. recipes included. You might be learning these for
So there were lots of questions about how to the first time, or perhaps you could simply use
translate our tech-driven, digital mindset onto the a reminder as you’re cooking of the difference
printed page. between mincing and dicing, or the right roasting
It turned out that it wasn’t quite as complicated temperature for root vegetables. Either way, you’ll
as we thought. After all, our mission is simple: To find Chapter 1 is a great foundation from which
empower people to cook. So it was essential to to dive into our recipes. Here, we’ll also cover the
us that our cookbook be as useful as possible – basic tools and pantry ingredients we think every
it should be as intuitive and easy to navigate as kitchen should be outfitted with for utility and
our apps, and filled with recipes that are both variety, plus a few novel ideas from our chefs and
appealing and approachable, no matter the editors.
reader’s entry point. The remaining chapters (2 – 6) are dedicated to our
We settled on dinner as the theme for the same recipes. You might recognize some of them from
reasons. After all, it’s the meal that’s most the Kitchen Stories app, including recipes from our
challenging for home cooks – even we, a team of community, of which we feature one per chapter.
food editors and chefs, get into ruts of boredom We’ve made room for these time-tested favorites
and laziness. So with a special emphasis on dishes here because, to be honest, our first cookbook
you can cook throughout a busy week, every would be incomplete without them – they’re
recipe within these pages can be made in less classics. In addition, you’ll find a range of new,
than an hour, including prep and cooking time. cookbook-exclusive recipes mixed in throughout
There’s no clever calculation to make it so, it’s just to ensure you’ll never be short on ideas or
how it’s designed. inspiration when it’s time to get cooking.
Flipping through the pages, you’ll find ideas
that will restore your faith in what a weeknight Hero recipes
dinner can be: from staples of the quick-and-
Each recipe chapter starts with a “hero” dish,
easy arsenal, like pasta bakes and stir-fries, to
so named because it’s especially adaptable
meals you’d be proud to serve at a dinner party
according to the ingredients you have on hand
and surprised to find out work just as well on a
and your personal taste. We dedicate extra pages
Tuesday night. Trust us, you’ve got this.
to these in order to go in-depth on the dish, its
preparation method, and how to swap in other

10 
ingredients as desired. The book’s hero recipes “Make ahead” shows that a dish can be prepped
will turn out to be the workhorses of your kitchen – in advance to finish later, while “Crowd-pleaser”
think of them as formulas from which you can and “Family-friendly” hint that a recipe scales well
derive countless fantastic meals from one single for a large group or is suitable for kids and adults
foundation. alike. Lastly, “From the community” denotes that a
recipe was originally submitted to our app by one
of our community members, and has now become
Recipe instructions
a tried and true weeknight favorite.
For every recipe in this book, including our
heroes, you’ll find a chef’s note that includes
helpful information about how to prepare the dish 25
successfully. We recommend you read these and
minutes Vegetarian Vegan Low carb
the instructions in their entirety before starting the
cooking process. This will ensure you’re equipped
with all the information you need to succeed and
won’t be thrown any curve balls along the way.
Recipe directions are matched with step-by-step From the Crowd- Make Family-
community pleaser ahead friendly
photos, just like in our app, to guide you through
and help you visualize the process. On the same
set of instructional pages, you’ll also find extra
tips now and then, with quick bits of information
on topics such as how to adapt, store, and swap in
Winter Spring Summer Fall
alternative utensils or ingredients for the recipe –
or even a QR code from which you can jump to
related content in our app, like videos and guides.

Icons
If you’re looking for a quick way to decide if a
recipe is right for you, the best way is to refer to
the icon key, found in the upper left or right corner
of each recipe instruction page. The key will
indicate basic information about the recipe in a
simple, digestible way.
Here you’ll find a summary of all the icons featured
in the cookbook. Recipes will always include a
summary of the total preparation and cooking
time first, followed by up to two more icons, for
example diet (vegan, vegetarian, or low carb) and
seasonality (the season in which a dish is best
eaten according to its ingredient list).

 11
Essential Utensils

General Utensils Cooking Vessels

26
1 Cutting board 19 Frying pan, 10 – 12 in.
2 Knives (chef’s knife, paring (25 – 30 cm)
knife, bread knife, knife 20 Heavy-bottomed,
sharpener) ovenproof pot
3 Box grater 21 Pots and saucepans 22
4 Fine grater 22 Baking dishes
5 Rubber spatula 23 Baking sheets
6 Whisk
7 Metal spatula Appliances
8 Ladle 24 Kitchen scale
9 Slotted spoon 25 Immersion blender
10 Tongs 2
26 Food processor 19
11 Cooking spoon 27 Food thermometer
12 Vegetable peeler
18
13 Colander
14 Measuring cups
15 Mixing bowls
16 Aluminum foil
17 Parchment paper
18 Kitchen towels

13

17

12

24
23
 15

14

5 6 4 7

10 25

8
9

20

21

11

27
16
Our Pantry Staples

In the fridge Staple vegetables Sauces Oil and vinegar

▢ Butter and alliums ▢ Soy sauce ▢ Olive oils
▢ Milk ▢ Potatoes ▢ Worcestershire (one for serving,
▢ Eggs ▢ Garlic sauce one for cooking)
▢ Parmesan cheese ▢ Onions ▢ Fish sauce ▢ Vegetable oil
▢ Yogurt (red and yellow) ▢ One sweet vinegar
(or sour cream) (apple cider or
Canned goods
▢ Miso paste balsamic)
In the cupboard ▢ Crushed or whole
▢ Condiments (mayo, ▢ One sharp vinegar
▢ Sugar tomatoes
mustard, hot sauce) (rice, red, or white
▢ Flour ▢ Coconut milk wine)
▢ Ginger ▢ Cornstarch ▢ Beans or chickpeas
▢ Lemons (or limes) ▢ Honey ▢ Tomato paste
▢ Something pickled Dried goods
(capers, olives, ▢ Beans
pickles, prepared ▢ Lentils
horseradish) ▢ Bouillon powder
▢ Fresh herbs (parsley, ▢ Pasta
mint, dill, cilantro,
▢ Noodles
basil)
▢ Rice
▢ Nuts
▢ Seeds

16 
15 Essential Spices to
Always Have on Hand

ALLSPICE Warm allspice adds a special CURRY POWDER A spice mix typically composed
something-something to a variety of dishes from of coriander, cumin, turmeric, and fenugreek, curry
stews and meaty braises to desserts. powder that can add a kick of flavor to roasted
vegetables, simple fried eggs, and many other
BAY LEAVES Mild and herbal, bay leaves are great dishes.
for long-simmering soups and stews. Always pull
them out before serving, as the leaves themselves DRIED OREGANO Unlike many other herbs,
aren’t edible. oregano retains its sweet and earthy flavor when
dried. Add a pinch to salad dressings, pizza, or
BLACK PEPPER Sharp and pungent, black pepper pasta sauce.
is a ubiquitous seasoning often paired with salt to
finish off just about any dish. DRIED THYME Like oregano, thyme retains its
slightly lemony, minty flavor when dried. If
CARAWAY This slightly aniseed-like spice can be replacing fresh thyme with dried, use less, as
used whole or ground in sweet or savory baked dried thyme is even more pungent.
goods, braises, and casseroles.
FENNEL SEEDS With a licorice-like flavor and
CHILI FLAKES Made of dried and crushed red chili subtle sweetness, fennel seeds are delicious when
peppers. Sprinkle chili flakes on dishes as a spicy paired with roasted meats and vegetables, as their
garnish or let them linger in stews and sauces. flavor really emerges when heated.

CINNAMON Sold ground or as whole sticks, NUTMEG Too much nutmeg can overwhelm a dish,
cinnamon is often relegated to sweet baking so err on the scant side. Rather than going for
projects but makes a delicious addition to savory ground, try buying whole nutmeg and grating it
dishes, too. fresh when adding to dishes.

CORIANDER Citrusy and subtly sweet, use whole PAPRIKA Ranging in flavor from sweet to hot,
or ground in curries or on roasted vegetables and paprika can be used to add a subtle or strong
meats. spiciness and smoke to soups and stews.

CUMIN Whether used whole or ground, this is a SALT A fundamental seasoning found in every
warm and nutty spice that works well in curries, kitchen around the world. We recommend using
soups, marinades, and sauces. kosher or fine sea salt for everyday cooking, and
a fancier, flaky salt for garnishing.

 17
Pantry Items We Couldn’t Live Without

“In my kitchen, I find a dash of flavored olive oil can never

hurt. My favorites are lemon- and garlic-infused olive oils for
pesto, gremolata, chimichurri, and other herby sauces.”
KR I S TI N

“Bonito flakes are an important part of Japanese cuisine –

one of my favorites to cook at home. As a natural flavor
enhancer, they’re great for seasoning dishes and for making
dashi, a stock that’s the basis of many Japanese dishes.”
C H R I S TIAN

“In my kitchen, you’ll always find Thai chilis and chili flakes,
which I toss through pasta sauces, over roasted vegetables,
and into pots of beans. I like to freeze fresh Thai chilis to
make them easier to keep on hand.”
DE VAN

“Nutritional yeast is always stocked in my kitchen.

It’s not an active yeast, but a seasoning that gives food
more flavor and depth. I use it in sauces and soups, and
even sprinkle it over pasta dishes.”
J U LIA

18 
 “I’m addicted to tinned anchovies packed in olive oil. I layer
them onto sliced tomatoes and sourdough, drop them into pestos
or Caesar dressings, blend them with olive oil to make an umami-
punched pasta sauce, or eat them solo, late at night.”
R U BY

“Fried onions can provide texture to almost any dish – plus,

a little sprinkle can even save dishes that may not have
turned out perfectly.”
LI SA

“My security in cooking comes from a jar of chili crisp.

I eat it with almost everything, from cucumber salad and
boiled eggs to pasta, rice, and dumplings.”
XU EC I

“Since a vacation in Styria (southern Austria) where they make

really high-quality pumpkin-seed oil, I can’t do without it. This
creamy, dark green, and nutty oil enhances any salad and is
amazing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.”
JOHAN NA

“I almost always have preserved lemons in the pantry, which lend

an intense citrus flavor and mild tartness to pasta sauces, roasts,
stews, salads, and dressings. A little goes a long way, so I start by
mincing a quarter lemon and adding more as needed.”
J U LI E

 19
The
Foundations
Master the Foundations
of Everyday Cooking
In this chapter we’ve pulled together the knowledge of our
chefs and editors to give you concrete and helpful step-by-step
instructions for everything from holding a kitchen knife properly
to how (and why) to blanch vegetables. Read through the tips and
tricks found within the coming pages anytime you feel you need to
build or balance out your foundational home-cooking techniques.

Basic knife skills every home cook should know How to roast
Many a weeknight meal begins at the cutting Consider a pan-fried chicken breast, blanched
board. Our essential set of knives is short and broccoli, or boiled potatoes. While all taste
sweet: a chef’s knife, a smaller vegetable or perfectly good just as they are, they take on
paring knife, a serrated bread or utility knife, new, crisped-up dimensions when finished with
and a knife sharpener. Each knife has its own a roast in the oven. Countless other ingredients
benefits and you’ll want to choose a different one benefit similarly from being roasted until cooked
depending on what you’re slicing and dicing. through and golden-brown. The ideal time and
A chef’s knife is perhaps the most versatile and temperature depend as much on the ingredient
important knife in your arsenal and makes a as the consistency and taste you want to achieve.
quick job of everything from chiffonading herbs Our introduction and suggested recipes are a
to chopping an onion or slicing a steak, whereas great starting point to help hone your skills.
a smaller vegetable or paring knife is more
suited to tasks like hulling strawberries, peeling How to pan-fry and sauté
tough fruit or vegetable skins, or scoring meat.
So many recipes begin with pan-frying or
A serrated knife is more versatile than you might
sautéing. Put simply, both techniques deal with
think, and should by no means be relegated
cooking ingredients in a small amount of fat –
only to slicing bread. Use it for slicing tomatoes,
typically oil or butter. Pan-frying usually means
sandwiches, melons, or heads of lettuce.
dealing with larger portions – say, a whole
chicken breast or long spears of asparagus –

22 The Foundations
 for snow peas, carrots, green beans, broccoli,
and – as you’ll see in the pages that follow – many
more.

How to cook classic pantry staples

In the many recipes within this book, you’ll find
us circling back to a few staples served up in
different ways – they might feature in soups, as
sides, or as key components of a dish. To help you
succeed every time, you’ll first need to familiarize
yourself with some basic knowledge: What does
the ratio of rice to water need to be, do you need
to rinse drained noodles, and how exactly do you
cook dried beans? Our overview shows you eight
foundational tips for pasta, polenta, quinoa, rice,
rice noodles, dried beans, and lentils, as well as
methods for toasting seeds and nuts, so you can
feel confident preparing them any which way.

whereas sautéing tends to refer to smaller

pieces of ingredients cooked over a higher
heat and stirred frequently (think a diced onion,
ground beef, or sliced mushrooms). Despite the
slight variation in method, both approaches are
commonplace and easy to master.

How to blanch
For the novice cook, the prospect of blanching
can seem daunting. However, the word simply
refers to the process of briefly submerging
ingredients (especially fruit and vegetables) into
boiling water. This flash-cooking method helps
to draw out their flavor and intensify their color,
while allowing them to retain their crisp-tender
bite. It’s also helpful for other applications like
peeling tomatoes, making the skins far easier
to slip off. Though not suited to all fruits and
vegetables, blanching is an excellent technique

The Foundations 23
The Basic Knife Skills Every
Home Cook Should Know

Glass noodle salad with lemongrass dressing 68

Cobb salad 78
Fattoush84
Pumpkin and tofu summer rolls with two
dipping sauces 133
Simple onion tart 266
 1 How to stabilize a cutting board
Before any ingredient hits your cutting board,
you need to make sure it’s stable. Some cutting
boards already have little plastic feet on them
so they won’t slip, but for those that don’t,
here’s the easiest way to make sure they are
secured: Dampen a paper towel and lay it flat
underneath your cutting board.

2 How to hold a knife properly

You will have more control if you hold a knife
with your thumb touching the blade and the rest
of your fingers pressing against the edge of the
handle. It's also important to use your free hand
in the correct way. To protect yourself from
cutting your fingers, curl the fingers of your free
hand into a claw to secure the ingredient you’re
cutting. Press your knuckles up against the
blade and treat them as a guide for the knife.

3 How to slice
To slice a tomato, hold it against the cutting board
with your free hand and use a serrated knife to
make thick or thin slices. To slice a potato, hold
it against the cutting board with your free hand
and use a chef’s knife to cut a thin slice off it.
Turn the potato with your free hand so the sliced
edge meets the cutting board and stabilizes the
potato as you slice it length- or widthwise, thickly
or thinly.

4 How to chop
Whether you refer to the end product as
chopped, cubed, or diced, every variation of a
“chop” starts with slices. To dice a stalk of celery,
for instance, use your knife to halve the stalk
lengthwise, then turn the stalks perpendicular
to your knife and, using your free hand to
hold them, chop the celery into small cubes.
A “rough” chop generally means that it’s not
important for all the pieces to be the same size.

26 The Foundations
5 How to chiffonade
Chiffonading herbs will give you beautiful long
strips of aromatic greenery to thread through
dishes or garnish them with. To chiffonade basil,
pluck all the leaves and stack them directly on
top of each other. Roll them lengthwise, then
turn the roll so it’s perpendicular to your chef’s
knife. Slice the roll into thick or thin lengths all
the way through. Use your hands to zhuzh them
up and separate the pieces before using.

6 How to mince
To mince ingredients like garlic or ginger, start
by slicing, then roughly chop into pieces using
a chef’s knife. Place the palm of your free hand
on top of the knife near the tip and rock the
knife back and forth over the chopped pieces.
Use the edge of the knife to gently scrape the
pieces into a pile and rock the knife back and
forth over and over again until the pieces are
very small. You can also use this technique with
fresh herbs.

7 How to julienne
To julienne something is simply to cut it into
long, thin pieces – like a matchstick. For an
onion, this would be as simple as halving
and slicing it thinly, but for something like a
carrot or cucumber, a julienne is a much more
demanding type of cut. To julienne a carrot,
peel it and then use your knife to slice it thinly
into long rectangles. Stack the rectangles, then
slice lengthwise into thin strips.

H E R E ’S HOW TO S HAR PE N
YOU R KN IVES AT HOM E .

The Foundations 27
How to Roast

Crispy roasted Brussels sprouts with soy sauce

and rice128
Roasted pork chops with caramelized pears
and thyme 223
Crispy garlicky chicken 238
Chicken with creamy sun-dried tomato sauce 249
Loaded roasted potatoes 276
 1 The process of roasting should begin with a
hot oven, so choose your temperature – for
vegetables, aim high at around 400 °F (200 °C);
for meats, try a slower, lower roast at around
325 °F (160 °C) – adjust the oven rack as needed,
and set the oven to preheat. Prepare your
ingredients by chopping them into equal-size
pieces so they roast evenly, or simply leave
them whole for a longer roast.

2 Toss or place your prepared ingredients

onto a baking sheet with a low rim (ideal for
vegetables) or into a baking dish (well suited
for large hunks of meat). Make sure that the
ingredients have enough room around them, as
ingredients that are too tightly packed next to
each other, or the rim of a dish, will steam, not
roast.

3 Drizzle with oil or another high-heat-tolerant fat

and season with salt, pepper, or various spices
to your taste. See our list of 15 essential spices
on page 17 for inspiration.

4 Transfer your cooking vessel and ingredients to

the oven and roast until golden or mahogany-
brown on the outside and tender and cooked
through on the inside, tossing and rotating
as needed for more even browning. If you’re
not sure how long your ingredients will take,
just keep a close eye on them, checking them
visually (or with a food thermometer for meats)
every 5 minutes after they’ve been roasting for
15 minutes.

30 The Foundations
5 Things to Roast

chicken legs

c a r r ot s

brussels
sprouts

butternut
c a u l i f low e r squash

The Foundations 31