Sarah Wilson's Simplicious Flow breaking all the rules

“That’s where I start, asking myself what have I got in there and what can I do with it.”

Wilson’s new cookbook Simplicious Flow is all about not following the rules.

“We live in such a rigid culture, where everything we do is micromanaged like never before,” she says.

“It’s kind of quite renegade and fun to go, ‘Alright I'm going to do this a little bit differently, I'm going to mess this up a little bit'.

“The book doesn't work to normal recipes, it's not two and a half teaspoons of this, a quarter of a tablespoon of that, whatever it might be.

“I've written recipes that you can't stuff up, it’s like two cups of ‘whatever you've got greens’, half a cup of ‘whatever you've got herbs’.

“It's something we've all got to get used to, playing around with these things. That's how our grandmothers cooked, if they didn't have such and such flour, they used something else, and we kind of feel we're going to fail unless we have prescribed rules.

“Open the fridge and play would be my mantra.”

While there is a sense of fun to it, Simplicious Flow touches on some serious issues. It’s a zero-waste cookbook: one sheet of baking paper was used for the entire shoot, Wilson didn't use foil or a single takeaway coffee cup and no food was thrown out at the end of each day with most items being repurposed for other recipes.

No broccoli stalk, banana skin, meat bone, bruised avocado or rubber band was thrown out. This is how Wilson lives day in, day out, and she wants to show everyone how easy and cost effective it can be.

“Some people food waste is the biggest environmental disaster we're about to face,” she says.

“If it was a country food waste would be the third biggest emitter of Co2 after China and the US. We're not talking about a small side issue, it is a deadset major problem.

“And the thing about it, the biggest contributors are consumers, 50 per cent, it’s not the supermarkets or farmers or industry, it’s the private consumer.

“Change has to start with us.”

I Quit Sugar: Simplicious Flow, by Sarah Wilson. Macmillan Australia, $45.

INGREDIENTS

4 rashers bacon (rind removed), sliced into strips

8 small corn or flour tortillas

150g cheddar, grated

8 organic eggs

1 tsp chilli flakes

2 cups shredded Whatever You’ve Got leafy greens (lettuce, rocket, spinach, watercress, basil etc)

2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 large avocado, roughly chopped

sea salt and freshly ground

black pepper

METHOD

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Step 2

Arrange the bacon on a small baking tray and cook for 15–20 minutes or until crispy.

Step 3

Meanwhile, place the tortillas on one very large or two large baking trays. Sprinkle cheese in a neat circle on each tortilla, then crack an egg inside the ‘cheese ring’. Sprinkle over the chilli flakes and bake for 10 minutes or until the egg whites have set and the cheese is melted and golden.

Step 4

To serve, top each tortilla with crispy bacon, greens, tomato and avocado. Season generously with salt and pepper.

Serves 4

Save your bacon rind: Keep the rinds, then at the end turn the oven up to 220°C, place them

on a wire rack over an oven tray and bake for 5 minutes until puffed and crispy. Enjoy as they are or crush them up and use in salads, wraps, or as a topping for soups. Or you can freeze the rinds to use in a stock.

INGREDIENTS

1 large beetroot, cut into 2cm cubes

1 sweet potato, cut into 2cm cubes

1 red onion, sliced

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

600 g beef mince

1 tbsp dried mixed herbs

200g cherry tomatoes

1 peach, sliced

4 organic eggs

4 slices stale sourdough, torn into chunks

1 head cos lettuce, sliced into wedges

1 avocado, sliced

½ cup tomato sauce

¼ cup mayonnaise

METHOD

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Step 2

Place the beetroot, sweet potato and onion on a large baking tray. Drizzle over the olive oil, season to taste with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Bake for 20 minutes.

Step 3

Meanwhile, place the mince in a bowl with the mixed herbs and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Use your hands (or a fork) to mix in the seasonings and break up the mince. Remove the veggies from the oven and scatter over the mince, cherry tomatoes and peach slices. Bake for a further 10 minutes.

Step 4

Remove the tray again and make four divots in the mixture. Crack an egg into each divot. Scatter over the bread chunks and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until the eggs and mince are cooked. Serve with lettuce wedges, avocado slices, sauce and mayo.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

60g butter

1 tbsp rice malt syrup

½ tsp vanilla powder

1 organic egg

2 cups almond meal

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of sea salt

50g dark (85% cacao) chocolate, roughly chopped

thickened cream, to serve

METHOD

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Step 2

Place a small skillet over low-medium heat. Add the butter, rice malt syrup and vanilla and stir until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Step 3

Crack the egg into the skillet and lightly whisk with a fork to combine. Add the meal, baking powder and salt and stir to form a batter. Fold through the chocolate pieces.

Step 4

Flatten the mixture around the skillet with a spatula. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until very lightly browned on top.

Step 5

Slice and serve immediately with a dollop of cream.

Serves 8