It Starts with Veg: 100 Seasonal Suppers and Sides
When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. But, what happens when life gives you a stick of rhubarb, a kohlrabi or a cabbage? What do you make then? This book is here to help.
Chef and food educator Ceri Jones gives you 100 easy and delicious seasonal recipes for all occasions. Taking 40 vegetables, from the humble potato to celeriac, Ceri shows you the best ways to prepare them, the tastiest flavour pairings and two or three recipes for a simple supper or side dish for each.
The book is divided into vegetable families, such as brassicas, fungi, pods and leaves, and with each recipe, Ceri provides options for vegetables that can be swapped out with another one in its family – allowing variety and reducing the need to shop for more ingredients so that you can make use of what you already have in the cupboard.
The recipes are easy to scale up if you want to cook for more people and are designed to get on the table with minimal fuss. While vegetables are the stars of the show, the recipes also include seasonal fruits, plenty of fresh herbs, whole grains, legumes, a little meat, fish and seafood, dairy and spices. This is a book that celebrates seasonality, produce, sustainability and, of course, eating more veg. Quite simply, your way of cooking veg and your recipe repertoire will be transformed.
Among the mouth-watering recipes in the book are: Kale and Walnut Pesto Green Lasagne; Kohlrabi Carpaccio with Avocado, Blood Orange and Chilli; Leek, Roasted Pepper and Cheese Toasties; and a Leftover Roasties, Herb and Gruyère Frittata.
‘I defy anyone to pick up Ceri’s book ‘It Starts with Veg’ and not be inspired. Every page is filled with recipes that elevate British seasonal vegetables to a whole new level. It’s a book that’s guaranteed to widen your vegetable horizons, and make you look at your farmer’s market food boxes in a whole new light. With dishes that include elements of fish and meat, it ticks all the flexitarian boxes, while placing brassicas, bulbs, stems, fungi, leaves, pods, roots, squashes and summer vegetables firmly centre stage. It’s a brilliant cookbook.’ - Paul Ainsworth -
‘It Starts with Veg is the cookbook that modern, well-intentioned households need. We all rush out and buy the healthy stuff - whether at a local farmers' market, the 'featured' section at the supermarket or via a veg box scheme - and then we watch guiltily, helplessly, as it withers and dies in the bottom drawer of the fridge. Ceri Jones gently guides us through a myriad ways to use the seasonal special stuff. A valuable addition to the average, busy family's culinary bookshelf.’- Sally Butcher -