A Quartet of Easy Plant-Based Cookbooks

Here at England, Naturally – we strongly believe that cooking your own food with affordable easy-to-find ingredients, is one of the most empowering ways to take back our society from big business. There are lots of wonderful recipe books around, but not that many which are both plant-based and simple.

These four are! If you like world cuisine, all these books are super-easy to follow, and use real ingredients that you can find from any store. Most of us eat the same nine or so meals for most of the time. So between them, you are to discover and perfect a dozen or more tasty dishes, then you are no longer slave to the big supermarket plastic-packed and over-priced ready meal industry!

Before cooking, read our post on food safety and pets (many ingredients like garlic, onion, spices and fresh corn cobs are unsafe near animal friends. Also just bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures.

These books are quite expensive (around £20). But if you think about it, learning how to cook your own food, means that within a week or two, the books will have paid for themselves, as you will be using cheap ingredients (like vegetables, rice, beans etc).

Make It Plant-Based! Southern offers 50 recipes for scones, casseroles, soups, stews and sweets. Recipes include:

Quick Scones with Strawberry Pepper Jam
Fried Green Tomatoes and Tangy Basil Mayo
Vegan Fried Chicken Sandwich
Cheesy Broccoli Soup with Pesto Croutons
Mushroom and Potato Pot Pie Casserole
Smashed Okra Fries
Cracker-crusted Mac and Cheese
Caramelised Banana Pudding
Silky Dark Chocolate Cream Pie

Make It Plant-Based! Mexican offers 50 recipes for soups, tacos, tortas and sweets (sub avocado with smashed peas, more local and ethical). Recipes include: