23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple vegetarian cookery with plenty of hints on getting the most from your vegetables!, 15 Oct 2008
This review is from: Cook Your Own Veg (Hardcover)
The precis of this book is very good and an accurate description of the book. Looking through it I can almost hear Carol's distinctive accent from Gardeners World reading it to me.
Carol starts off with providing some general guidance on growing - enriching the soil, companion planting etc. This isn't thorough advice - and of course, there is her other book which takes you through the entire growing process.
Vegetables are dealt with by season - even if you don't grow them, by doing this Carol lets you know what is in season when. For each vegetable she includes (limited) details on how to grow it, how to store it, how to prepare it, how to harvest it, the main cooking technique and other cooking methods and uses. Where possible she'll also give hints on eating other parts of the plant (eating sprouting broccoli when it's the size of cress, pea pods). She then gives a couple of recipes for each vegetable.
For the size of book, I was expecting more recipes. But the book has turned out better for not being crammed with them. I've learnt far more about the vegetables I'm eating from Carol's writing, and, as with her other book, I feel even more inspired to get growing. In addition - in case it isn't obvious - this is a vegetarian cookbook.
I can't say that I'm wild about all the recipes - some of them don't seem particulaly inspired: the two asaparagus recipes are steam-boiled asparagus and barbecued asaragus (the first includes salt as well as asparagus and suggests the addition of a dressing (she does include some recipes later in the book), the second is just asparagus). I can partially understand this - you let the flavours sing for themselves. I'd have liked to see a couple of proper recipes for each item though, with the basic, plain cooking of the vegetable as an extra. The recipes appear simple and those that I have tried are delicious.
Recipes include (I have intentionally avoided the 'steamed spinach', 'roast potato' and 'steamed broccoli' type recipes - rest assured that they are there though!):
Globe artichoke buds with garlic and lemon
Stuffed nicoise globe artichokes
Courgettes with pine nuts, onions and raisins
New potato spring stew
Caramelized onion jam
Garlic soup
Green gazpacho
Harissa paste
Roast pumpkin gratin
Squash and lentil tagine
Turnips in garlic sauce
Brussel sprouts salad
Riverford Farm Cook Book: Tales from the Fields, Recipes from the Kitchen does contain some meat recipes, but it is also a very good example of the more adventurous things you can do with vegetables!
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice book but not enough recipes, 31 Jan 2011
This review is from: Cook Your Own Veg (Hardcover)
I already have Carol's growing veg book which is brilliant, so I was expecting this to be more cooking less gardening. But I suppose Carol is more a gardener than a cook (and that is why we love her after all) so for those wanting new ideas on using up the glut of courgettes and chard you may be a little disappointed. It is still a lovely book but if you could only have one cook your veg book but much better to spend a bit more and get Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook.
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