Finally, easy-to-follow assembly instructions from IKEA.
It’s hard to go wrong with the Cook This Page recipe parchment paper, an interactive recipe card from IKEA. Using food-safe ink, the recipes are printed on parchment paper, with ingredient blanks measured to size.
All you need to do is place the ingredients on their corresponding images, roll it up, and place it in the oven to bake.
➡️ Jump to Parchment Paper Recipe PDFs
The ingredients get steamed in the wrapper and when it’s done, cut it open and voilà! It’s ready to serve. And what I like most, it’s so easy to clean up. The lazy cook/ dishwasher in me is jumping with joy!
Parchment paper cooking is not an entirely new idea, so we can’t give IKEA all the credit. The concept has been around ever since our forefathers learnt how to wrap food in leaves/ mud/ bamboo/ whatever.
In my hometown, we have a famous salted chicken baked in parchment paper. It’s the yummiest ever, and it’s been around since I was wee small.
But most parchment paper is just that – paper – they don’t come with recipes printed on them, with to-size measurements of ingredients. Well, this may change soon. I see a Kickstarter in the making.
Kudos to IKEA and their agency Leo Burnett for the fresh twist. The extra step of printing the illustrations onto the paper makes it easier for “people who find new recipes intimidating. IKEA wanted to show people that getting creative can be deliciously simple,” it says in this video.
It’s a great way for the beginner cook to get started on healthy homemade meals. I think it’s also an awesome way to introduce kids to cooking. What better way to keep little fingers busy than lining up shrimp!
The recipes incorporate IKEA food and kitchen items. From what I can see, each booklet comes with 4 recipes: Salmon with Lemon and Dill, Meatballs with Ravioli, Shrimp with Olives and Rhubarb Raspberry Crumble. Yums.
Now, don’t get too excited. The Cook This Page recipe sheets were a promotional item for the IKEA Canada’s kitchen sale, so we may never see them in stores. But we’re keeping our fingers crossed, aren’t we?
Recreate IKEA’s “Cook This Page” at Home!
As brilliant as IKEA’s viral ‘Cook This Page’ campaign was, they never actually developed it into a real cookbook.
As far as we know, the creative agency behind it designed four official recipe parchment papers. We tracked down the original PDFs so you can bring this fun, visual cooking experience into your own kitchen!
How to Make It (The Safe DIY Method)
Because household printer ink isn’t food-safe, use this simple trick to safely recreate the recipes:
- Right-click a recipe below and select “Save link as…” to download the PDF to your computer:
- Print out the recipe sheet on standard printer paper. Each recipe spans two pages, so simply line up the designs and tape the sheets together to create the full-sized template.
- Place a sheet of translucent parchment (baking) paper directly on top of the printout. The outlines should show right through.
- Arrange your ingredients directly on the parchment paper, following the printed measurement marks underneath.
- Fold and twist the parchment into a sealed pouch, slide it onto a baking sheet, and pop it in the oven.
- Once the stated baking time is up, remove from oven and let it rest to cool for a bit.
- Carefully cut open the pouch (watch out for escaping steam!), plate your meal, and enjoy!
Don’t throw away your printed templates! Since the food never touches the regular paper, you can save and reuse them again and again. For extra durability, laminate the sheets to make them waterproof, sturdy, and easy to wipe down for your next cooking session.