Seasonal plant-based recipe books
A Year in a Cottage Garden is a lovely book by a young vegan cookbook author who is fast turning into a next-generation version of Nigella Lawson. Discover 80 simple plant-based recipes, from the heart of Cornwall.
Take a seat at Maddie’s table, as she cooks delicious meals in her cosy cottage, and step inside her world as she tends to her vegetable patch, strolls along the shore to take in the sea air, and hosts supper or (when the weather allows) on the beach.
Read up on food safety for people and pets. For tinned ingredients, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on upper cans to pinch rims together, to stop wildlife getting trapped.
Unless you have food waste bins, just bin pepper and allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallot, chives), citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps. To avoid acids harming compost creatures.
Recipes include:
- Roasted parsnip, rosemary & white bean soup
- Homemade crumpets
- Warm butter bean, new potato & tomato salad
- Black bean burgers with summer hot sauce
- Roasted butternut squash & sausage gnocchi
- Mushroom & lentil pie
- Tear and share ‘cheesy’ bread
Seasonal plant-based desserts
- Lemon & elderflower cake
- Pear uptside down cake
- Homemade apple crumble
- Vegan chocolate torte
Who wrote this book?
Madeleine Olivia is a popular content creator who writes lovely vegan cookbooks. She lives with her family in a beautiful renovated cottage in Cornwall. Find more recipes (including a lovely e-book on baking bread she wrote with her husband) at her website.
The First Mess Cookbook is a highly-reviewed cookbook packed with wholesome recipes to eat through the seasons. What makes this book different is that it uses real locally-sourced organic ingredients to create recipes, using seasonal finds from your weekly veg box.
This doesn’t have the most exciting cover image, but don’t be fooled! Many vegans (and people who like seasonal natural food) say this is the best recipe book they ever tried! The author is a trained chef who knows her organic seasonal stuff as well as recipes, so combined make for good eating.
Recipes include:
- Beet & mushroom bolognese
- Fluffy whole grain pancakes
- Hot pink beet smoothie
- Broccoli Caesar with smoky tempeh
- Veggie bean pot pies with potato crust
- Weeknight root veggie dal
- Burrito-stuffed sweet potatoes
- Romanesco salad with meyer lemon dressing
- Chilli tofu lime bowls
- Roasted aubergine & olive bolognese
- Earl Grey & vanilla bean tiramisu
Who wrote this book?
Laura Wright grew up in a Canadian family that was involved in the organic veg box movement, so knows about good produce. She trained as a chef, so her recipes are not just seasonal, but tasty and they work!
Dreena’s Kind Kitchen is a nice book by one of the world’s favourite cookbook authors, who always uses fresh wholefood ingredients and uses a little oil and maple syrup (she’s Canadian!) with recipes that will appeal to most tastebuds. This book offers 100 easy-to-make and delicious recipes.
This is a book you will use, whether you want a quick weeknight supper. From breakfasts to small bites to dinner and dessert.
It’s always amazing that if you go into any bookshop (even independent ones), the booksellers have not worked out what the really tasty and nutritious vegan cookbooks are. Give the ‘standard bestsellers’ a miss and go for a good one, like this one (you can order it from indie bookshops).
Enjoy recipes for:
- Lentil sweet potato meatloaf
- Light fluffy breakfast pancakes
- Lemon poppyseed muffins
- Potato cauliflower scramble
- Seasoned potato squashers
- A-Game chilli
- White bean corn chowder
- Beyond beet burgers
- Fiesta taco filling
- Smoky Caesar salad
- Holiday dinner torte
- Yellow sweet potato cake
There’s also a troubleshooting section to boost your kitchen skills, with tips on techniques, time-saving skills and suggestions for re-purposing leftovers into delicious new dishes.
Who wrote this book?
Dreena Burton is a self-taught cook and one of North America’s most popular cookbook authors, whose recipes are recommended by health professionals, due to always using real wholefoods.
A mother of three children (who she and her husband have raised vegan), she is author of several best-selling recipe books.
If you prefer to live on real wholefoods and fresh produce, here are a few ideas to buy in season. Produce will be tastier and more affordable.
Many people have no choice but to shop at big supermarkets, if they don’t live near affordable farm shops or box schemes. But what you do is to vote with your wallet, and try to go for local seasonal foods, to encourage them to support our local farmers, and reduce ‘food miles’.
Check medication before eating lots of leafy greens. Read more on food safety for people and pets. For tinned ingredients, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on upper cans to pinch rims together, to stop wildlife getting trapped.
Unless you have food waste bins, just bin pepper and allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallot, chives), citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps. To avoid acids harming compost creatures.
Grow organic food in pet-friendly gardens (away from toxic plants, mulch and other hazards). For indoor plants, avoid facing foliage to outdoor gardens, to prevent birds flying into windows).
Spring (greens, peas and fresh herbs)
- Asparagus (only in season for around 8 weeks, be quick!) It also can make your pee smell, but don’t worry, just enjoy in salads and soups!
- Spinach, peas, radishes and new potatoes are all spring vegetables.
- Rhubarb (when available) is good with vegan custard and in crumbles. Or stew with a little sugar and orange zest, or use it in overnight oats.
Summer (tomatoes, courgettes, berries, salads)
- Organic tomatoes taste way nicer, so give them a go.
- Only buy organic courgettes (some ‘bad batches of seeds’ can be dangerous – one cook writer almost died from eating them)
- Berry fruits are nice stewed or in crumbles.
Autumn and winter (squash, roots, brassicas)
- Pumpkin and squash soup are delicious in winter.
- Carrots and parsnips are nice stewed and mashed.
- Beetroot is an earthy veg, also good in desserts and baking
- Kale is one of the few veg that grows during the ‘hungry gap’ and is rich in calcium. Pair with less bitter greens in recipes.
- Apples and pears are good stewed or in pies and crumbles
