Books & Literature

Cookbook Review: The Fast 800 Easy, by Dr Clare Bailey and Justine Pattison

By Rod Lewis

Posted on February 8, 2021

COOKBOOK: The latest cookbook from The Fast 800 series, featuring super-simple recipes to enable you to eat well with minimum prep time.

Simple and delicious recipes for everyone, not just those on The Fast 800 diet plan.

The Fast 800 rapid weight loss program involves a very low-calorie diet and preferably, some intermittent fasting. As previous books in this series have shown, the extreme calorie restriction doesn’t have to result in tasteless food or uncreative meals.

This latest recipe book, as always, begins with a quick overview of The Fast 800 plan, which is primarily based on the Mediterranean Diet. The introduction makes good use of headings to break down the information and find what you need in the future. It includes tips for getting started, ways to help you reach your goal, and much more.

Like the chapter headings, the overall design of the book is simple and easy to follow. Everything is laid out to find at a glance although, at 250+ pages, it is difficult to keep the book open to the page you want. Recipes include curries, wraps, salads (of course!), roasts, moussaka, drinks, and even sweets for an occasional treat. The recipes come with a calorie and nutritional count and a colour-coded graphic to help those who are calorie counting to pick their recipes. For example, there is a green circle for recipes under 300 calories and red for under 500 calories.

The Fast 800 is not an easy diet to commence due to the extremely low calorie count but, for those who can get beyond the first few difficult days, it becomes much easier and is a very effective plan for rapid weight loss. More importantly, it guides the user to get all necessary nutrients in their food while losing 1-2kg per week. Additional exercise can add to that success but, as always, consult a doctor before engaging in such an extreme diet. The cookbooks however, provide a fantastically healthy range of meals for anyone, including those who are not on the diet plan. They are well worth the investment to get recipes and ideas to break unhealthy habits.

I tried two recipes, which I served up as a single meal. Both met my expectations for taste and simplicity to make.

Low-carb Portobello ‘pizzas’ (page 78)

287 calories each

These mushroom-based pizzas are surprisingly filling. The recipe makes four mini-pizzas. One was enough to satiate me, but two went down my greedy gob just to be sure I’d enjoyed the first as much as I thought I had. Quick and straight-forward to make, the handful of suggested toppings taste great, but this is a recipe that is easy adapted to personal preference. The Cook’s Tip on the page, for example, suggests adding anchovy, chorizo or salami for extra protein. Served with a side of vegetables, these delicious snacks make a full meal but are messy to eat so not ideal to serve up at parties.

Soy and sesame stir-fried veg (page 198)

104 calories per serve

With only 5 minutes prep time and another 5 minutes to cook, this has to be one of the fastest hot side-dishes ever. Better yet, they taste fantastic and are totally adaptable to your choice of vegetables. If you prefer your greens less crunchy than the recipe suggests, simply stir-fry them longer. The flavour is plentiful without being overbearing, so it serves up nicely with any main dish, including with the Portobello pizzas above. Since veges can be eaten hot or cold, leftovers make a healthy snack to reach for in the fridge. Just don’t store them next to the chocolate.

Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet

Distributed by: Simon & Schuster Australia
Released: January 2021
RRP: $35