River Cottage Veg: 200 inspired vegetable recipes. / Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Photography by Simon Wheeler. Illustrations by Mariko Jesse. Published by Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California, 2013. Originally published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London, 2011. 415 p. with color illustrations and photographs.
The front cover of River Cottage Veg features a summer salad in a painted bowl, wrapped by a half-jacket over a collage of leaves, stalks and chiles in a variety of green shades. When you hold the book in your hands, it’s a heavy volume, and yet there’s something playful about the sea of information you’ll encounter here.
Fearnley-Whittingstall is a whimsical about his craft, introducing each of the 10 chapters with a short essay on ingredients or methods of producing the elegant effects he proposes in his recipes. There’s a bit of veg-philosophy too, if you please, in defense for why this technique or that will net you a better experience than with meat, and that’s more than okay as a foreword, especially for cooking and eating “veg”. An experienced cook will appreciate the range of possibilities and combinations presented. And the novice cook or not-yet-committed vegetarian, will surely find loads to feast on first, virtually, as page after page reveals stunning dishes in the writer’s palette of ideal vegetarian fare.
Fearnley-Whittingstall is committed to your enjoyment of, or at least delight in, preparing and eating vegetables. Like another cookbook reviewed recently, his point of view is supported by total immersion in the cuisine: he’s both a vegetable grower and chef, and has long been involved in eating locally produced food. His home and the River Cottage Headquarters are in Great Britain. As may definitely be the case, his experience and exposure to international flavors is very much in evidence, lending a stylish appeal to the nature of the vegetables here.
An outcome of such complete engagement with vegetables is variety, and Fearnley-Whittingstall presents recipes that range from elegant (what of his Raw Assemblies, a whole chapter on raw dishes), to disarmingly simple (see Radishes with butter and salt, p. 102), with a number of unusual combinations. Take Celery Root with Apple, Raisins and Parsley, p. 107, or Beets with Walnuts and Cumin, p. 113, or Red Cabbage, Parsnip, Orange and Dates, p. 110 Avocado and Ruby Grapefruit (salad) with Chile, p. 122 as a sampler of mouthwateringly enticing fare. There are also Bready Things, Pantry Suppers, Meze and Tapas, roasted cookery. His appendices to the main recipes include “Veg on the go”, a selection of recipes grouped according to type, with page numbers for easy reference. One caveat: his recipes are vegetarian in the main, so singling out the vegan ones is not difficult due to the “v” symbol which accompanies their titles, everywhere, on the page, the index, in “Veg on the go”, for example. He references the fact that vegans will know how to veganize many of his non-vegan dishes, but at the same time is quite sensitive to the fact that a recipe might be vegan but for the wine added for flavoring, and so does not label that dish vegan.
All in all, River Cottage Veg, is a 10 out of 10, at least, maybe more! from my list of the 10 attributes of a great vegetarian or vegan cookbook, and here’s why (if you need more reason than my infatuation as given above):
1) Artful presentation for the cover. A stunning title, photograph, color, quality paper and binding. See my description in the reader’s advisory review above.
2) Truthful author biography that includes a personal commitment to the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Biographical information as concerns his involvement in eating locally produced vegetables verifies a chef’s qualities and pursuits, not to mention awards in the culinary world.
3) Lovely, focused color photography to accompany each recipe. The book’s text and color photographs facing each page of recipes are printed on matte, not shiny, paper. This lends an artistic quality and offers realistic views of the recipes featured with an image.
4) Noted variations, along with other possibilities where appropriate. Many recipes feature interchangeable ingredients. What if, for example, you wanted to make “Chickpea, chard and porcini soup”, p.149 but looking for a can of chicpeas, found only cannellini beans and a whole lot of kale in your fridge? Fearnley-Whittingstall has alternatives already sketched out, either in the recipe bio or after the main instructions.
5) Recipe biographies, or the back story to how the taste is achieved… is really important in the text of River Cottage Veg. In case you’re bored with your typical weekday sandwich, soup, pizza, or raw “assembly”, the author keeps you company as you search through the 400+ page book, with intelligent commentary on creating the recipe in question.
6) A 10-page Index, found from page 404 to 414, is complete with those little “v” graphics dotting the entries for vegans. The index is pretty thorough, offering references by ingredient or recipe name, down to Salt, p. 401. In the Pantry list, you’ll find an explanation of why certain ingredients are must haves for the vegetable-based kitchen. He does offer suggestions on flours and yeasts, but otherwise everything else is about vegetables, as opposed to dairy.
7) Clarity. This means simplicity, but it also means text is precise and easy to follow. The book is a pleasure to hold, read, and dream up fantastic vegetarian fare.
8) Thematic interpretation of the food being featured, focus on types of food, culinary traditions, or cultures where this food is popular. There’s a definite glow to these recipes, be they international in origin, or simply informed by exposure to the world’s cuisine.
9) Nutritional information, healthful aspects, and how this information was arrived at. This particular aspect is not approached in the text. However you don’t mind because the source of all that you consume is known and natural. People on special diets need to bring their knowledge about what they can and cannot have to the table. Practically every vegetable known to vegans and vegetarians is lower in certain attributes, like protein, than a recipe with meat, or with dairy and/or eggs. Note there is not a single reference to tofu in the entire text!! This comes from a philosophy geared towards eating whole, fresh and local, rather than forcing a process on a legume that makes it look and act like meat or fish in a recipe.
10) Menus, additional methods and preparation bits to round out the experience of the book. Included is a 2-page section, “Veg on the Go” which is helpful in determining what to choose for tonight’s dinner, etc.
Didn’t see something here you’d like to have included? Well, sure, you might be looking for a breakfast section, or a dessert one. You might have wondered why on earth tofu is not included, or seitan, or tempeh… but these are not whole foods. According to the author who actually writes, “I am trying to change your life here”… there’s more to eating vegetables than just what fits neatly into the dietetic notebook. And no apologies—there are good reasons to go with vegetables, and in a purely committed fashion. Like caramelized carrots with gremolata, p. 355, Pea and Mint Ice Cream p.397 or Chiles stuffed with beans, p. 35… My favorite recipes among those presented are for meze or tapas, raw assemblies, soups and pizzas, but that may change the more I explore!
See more about the process of cooking vegetables at River Cottage’s website.
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