Caroline Chambers' What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking Make it Fast

Caroline Chambers writes the best selling Substack What to Cook When you Don’t Feel Like Cooking (this is me every day at about 4:30 pm when I realize that I have to cook dinner…again?!) which she started in 2020 when we were all spending a lot more time in the kitchen by necessity.

Caroline’s friendly tone and endless creativity has inspired hundreds of thousands of cooks and has propelled her straight to the top of the charts. Her second cookbook What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking was an instant NYT Best Seller! Now she’s back with her third book, What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, Make it Fast! Her new book is even more streamlined and organized by how much time you have to spend throwing together a meal that everyone can hopefully love.

Caroline grew up in the kitchen with her mom and now she’s the mom of 4 boys, which is an impressive feat in itself. Feeding a family of 6 is enough to make anyone’s head spin, but Caroline keeps it in check with her simple and extremely riffle recipes. Today she is sharing the recipe for her Farrotto with Roasted Summer Vegetables. I love a farrotto and this one looks perfect for the end of summer as we creep into fall. Thank you Caroline!

You are an incredibly prolific recipe developer, honestly I am in awe. What cookbooks/chefs/authors/markets/seasons inspire your work?

Oh my gosh, Yossy, are you kidding me?! You are!!! Thank you, what a compliment, coming from you. Ina and Ottolenghi are my biggest big-time inspirations. Their cookbooks are the ones I turn to over and over again. Ina has such a way of taking a recipe construct that we already know and understand, but making it more straightforward or somehow classically Ina-feeling. Conversely, Ottolenghi has such a knack for introducing us to brand new flavors and ideas and making us feel confident that we can pull them off. I strive to strike a balance between these two things – I love introducing my readers, people who don’t always feel confident in their cooking, to new flavors and cooking techniques and holding their hands along the way.

This is your third book. What have you learned along the way that informs your writing process now?

I’m so lucky to have received SO MUCH feedback from my readers over the 5 ½ years that I’ve written WTC on Substack. I publish a new recipe every Saturday, and by Monday evening readers around the world have weighed in on how it went, what they subbed, how they riffed, who they cooked it for. Who loved it and why. Who didn’t love it and why. Every comment and message I get makes me a better recipe developer because I’m writing for real everyday problems, and I incorporate them into the directions themselves. Things like “Is it getting brown already? Turn the heat down and keep going.”

Do you think of your books as an extension of the Substack or more like their own little world?

Oh, this is a great question. Both?! I don’t want paying Substack readers to feel like I reference the books too much, on the chance that they don’t own them, but when I’m doing a roundup of say, summer grilling recipes, I love to not only link to past Substack recipes, but also say, “Grilled Chicken and Zucchini with Harissa, page 30 in the book!”

What do you bake when you don’t feel like baking?

Oh my gosh, someone recently wrote a Substack note that asked this question and SO MANY people said, Yossy recipes, duh!!!!! The honest truth is that I very rarely feel like baking. I must admit that I own both of your books, but have never actually baked anything from them!! That is a condemnation of my baking prowess, not your recipe skills. Everyone is obsessed with your recipes! Ok, I’ve convinced myself to crack Snacking Cakes open. Oh!!!! Alexandra Cooks is my go-to whenever I need a savory baking recipe, which is a baking category I do visit more often than sweet baking. I’ve made her no-knead buttermilk rolls a billion times.

Is there a recipe people might pass by that deserves a little extra love?

The Hot Honey Roasted Broccoli and Chickpeas. It looks a little boring. Maybe it is a little boring? But it’s just a really great, perfect vegetarian sheet-pan weeknight meal. Tons of flavor with very few ingredients. I always have broccoli in the fridge and chickpeas in the pantry, so I come back to this one all the time.

Anything else you want us to know about this book?

There are just three chapters – 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and “walk away” where the recipes take under 30 minutes of active cook time, and at least an hour of inactive “walk away” time. This is the ultimate collection of low-effort, high-reward recipes!

FARROTTO WITH ROASTED SUMMER VEGETABLES

Serves 4

Hands on for: 30 minutes

Walk away for: 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours

Cool, crisp, no-cook salads tend to be the stars of summer, but this meal, I promise, is worth turning your oven on for. With time and heat, summer vegetables—even mild-tasting ones like zucchini and yellow squash—transform into sweet and jammy, buttery and umami-rich bites of heaven. We’re combining those with farro cooked like risotto (hence “farrotto”) and some dairy for good measure, for the meatless Monday summer supper of my dreams. Eat this for dinner on the patio, or prep it for a week of lunches, reheated or served cold!

1 small yellow onion

3 garlic cloves

Extra-virgin olive oil

1 ½ cups semi-pearled farro, rinsed

½ cup dry white wine (I like sauvignon blanc)

5 cups low-sodium vegetable stock or chicken stock (or BTB + water—see page 21), plus more if needed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

1 red bell pepper

1 small red onion

1 pint cherry tomatoes

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (2 ounces), plus more for serving

1 lemon

Chopped soft green herbs, for serving

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 325°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Finely chop the small yellow onion and the garlic. Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the farro and cook, stirring, until slightly toasted, 1 to 2 minutes.

Pour in the white wine and cook until mostly evaporated, 3 to 4 minutes. Add 4 cups of the stock, 1 teaspoon salt, and some black pepper. Turn up the heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer. Cover with the lid and transfer to the lower rack of the oven.

Bake the farrotto until the farro is tender and the liquid has been absorbed, 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 ½ hours total.

Immediately after you put the farro in the oven, prep the vegetables, placing them on the prepared baking sheet as you go. Cut the zucchini and yellow squash in half lengthwise and then crosswise into ½ -inch thick half circles. Slice the bell pepper into ½ -inch-thick strips. Cut the red onion into 1-inch-thick wedges. Add the whole cherry tomatoes and drizzle over 2 tablespoons olive oil, a couple of generous pinches of salt, and some black pepper. Toss to coat everything evenly.

Transfer to the upper rack of the oven and bake for about 75 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and lightly browned in spots and the tomatoes have collapsed. [Recipe continues]

When the farrotto is done, remove the pot from the oven. Carefully remove the lid and stir in the butter, Parm, and ½ cup stock. Add the rest of the stock as needed until the farrotto is really creamy. Halve the lemon and squeeze in the juice from 1 half. Stir, then taste and add more salt or lemon juice as desired.

Scoop the farrotto into bowls and top each serving with a spoonful of roasted vegetables. Sprinkle with more Parm and chopped herbs.

LEARN: Semi-pearled farro works best here because it softens gently without getting mushy.

SWAP: Swap the Parmesan for 4 ounces goat cheese or 8 ounces brine-packed feta (but add the feta before you transfer the pot to the oven so it can get creamy). • Don’t feel like opening a whole bottle of wine just to use ½ cup? Pour 2 tablespoons light vinegar (champagne or aged sherry vinegar would be great here) into a ½-cup measure, fill it the rest of the way with water, and use that instead.

EXTRA EXTRA: Drizzle each serving with balsamic glaze or a spoonful of pesto.

Recipe reprinted with permission from What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Make it Fast by Caroline Chambers © 2026. Published by Union Square & Co., an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group. Photography by Erin Scott.