It Starts with Veg

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 provides you with 100 easy and delicious seasonal recipes for all occasions. Taking 40 vegetables, from the humble potato to celeriac, she shows you the best ways to prepare them, the tastiest flavour pairings, and offers 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. 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 all written to serve two people and are easy to scale up if you want to cook for more – they 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 It Starts with Veg 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.