The Natural Cook: Eating the Seasons from Root to Fruit

2014 | Food & Drink

The Natural Cook is an inspirational book for the way we eat now. It puts fresh, flavoursome, veg-focused food centre-stage, and features recipes that make use of every ounce of an ingredient. Each of the 26 seasonal 'hero' ingredients featured is represented first by three simple cooking techniques that teach you how to make a delicious simple dish. These techniques are then followed by three world-inspired recipes, which make use of the prepared ingredients as well as drawing in other seasonal fruit and vegetables. At the end of each recipe, the 'Cook's Notes' give clear tips and ideas for turning uneaten extras into other delicious meals, ensuring that absolutely nothing is wasted. To give examples: a simple roast pumpkin with sage can be transformed into a salad with chickpeas and kale, a risotto with sage and crispy bacon or an aromatic pumpkin pie with cardamom and maple syrup, while the seeds can be toasted and made into a tasty snack. Rhubarb can be stewed with sultanas, roasted with vanilla or poached with white wine, and then added to a tagine, baked into custard tarts or layered with granola and yoghurt in a breakfast pot.

So head to the market and pick the freshest, ripest veg off the shelf, or look in your fridge for that fennel or bunch of radishes you bought, knowing that there's an inspiring recipe (or ten) waiting for you.

Tom Hunt (Author)