Tag: Vegetarian

Jamie Oliver – Veg | Review

Title: Veg

Author: Jamie Oliver

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count: 312

Rating: 3.25/5

I feel guilty about this review because this book was sent to me by my friend Charlie Heathcote because he had two copies of it. I only review cookbooks once I’ve tried all of the recipes that I want to try, and it only took me a week or so to do that here because there weren’t too many that I particularly wanted to try.

To be fair, the reason for that is that a lot of the recipes here are pretty basic, and so I didn’t feel the need to test them out. For example, I already have a pretty good houmous recipe, so I figure there’s no need for me to try out a new one.

Then there’s the fact that this is a vegetarian cookbook and I’m vegan. Again, to be fair, Oliver includes some supplementary information at the end about the different plant-based alternatives that are out there, and it was also easy enough to modify most of the recipes. There were just one or two that were egg curries or other weird things that I couldn’t have adapted, but then they sounded kind of vile anyway.

What I will say is that I think this would make for a pretty good cookbook to get started with if you’re just starting out with cooking and stuff. My issue is more that I feel I’ve mastered the basics and wanted something a little more advanced. There are a few fairly innovative recipes I guess, but they weren’t ones that particularly excited me. Some of them flat out sounded as though they wouldn’t work.

So would I recommend it? I mean I guess, if you can get it kind of cheap. But I wouldn’t say that it’s worth going out of your way for.

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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – Veg Every Day! | Review

Title: Veg Every Day!

Author: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 418

Rating: 4/5

 

 

I wasn’t expecting great things from this book, and in fact I nearly didn’t pick it up. I doubt I would have if it was full price, but it was on sale for just £1 in a charity shop, and it was also part of a pile where they were selling two books for £1, too. I’d already picked up one and so I figured, what the hell? It was basically free.

I’ve worked through a bunch of different vegan and vegetarian cookbooks of late, and not all of them have been good. This one has probably been the best of all of the vegetarian ones, but I still had to put some work in to veganise a bunch of the recipes. But I can’t exactly complain about that because I knew what was coming when I went into it.

And in fact, there are some cracking recipes in here, including my personal favourite, which is a herby, peanutty noodle salad. That isn’t the only recipe that I took away from this one, but it’s definitely the one that I’m likely to make the most often and it’s also the main recipe that springs to mind when I think of this one.

 

 

The truth is that this is such a hefty tome of recipes that there’s going to be something there for everyone, even if you’re a carnivore. There was so much choice here that it was enough to push it into a list of my top five favourite cookbooks that I recently filmed for my vegan YouTube channel. Not a bad effort, especially because it was the only one on the list that was a vegetarian cookbook as opposed to a vegan one.

Honestly though, this is the kind of book where there are so many recipes that there’s something there for everyone, including for die-hard meat eaters. It’s actually one of the few cookbooks that I’ve come across that’s arguably worth the full recommended retail price. So basically, I’d recommend this one, because the recipes were super tasty and super easy to make.

Still, if you’re looking for your first vegan cookbook, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere. Pick up one of the Bosh cookbooks or a copy of Vegan on the Go. But if you’re reducing your meat intake or looking for veggie recipes, there are worse places to look than this.  

 

 

Click here to buy Veg Every Day!.