30 DAYS OPEN PURCHASEPlenty is the book that made vegetables the main event in Western kitchens, and it was written by someone who is not a vegetarian.
That is not a minor detail but the whole explanation. When The Guardian asked Yotam Ottolenghi to write a vegetarian column in 2006, he had no ideological agenda to uphold. He approached vegetables like any other ingredient, with the same demands for flavour and technique that he would place on a piece of meat. The result was dishes that needed no apology.
The method is consistent throughout the book. Hard roasting instead of boiling. Acidity from lemon, pomegranate or yoghurt. Herbs in quantities that feel excessive until you taste the result. Nuts, seeds and toasted spices for texture. And above all, proper seasoning, because vegetables can take and need more salt than most people dare to give them.
The book is organised by ingredient rather than meal, so leaves, aubergine, brassicas, rice and grains, pasta and couscous, pulses, tofu, root vegetables, squash, onions, fruit, mushrooms and tomatoes. That makes it useful in the way that matters in practice, when you are standing there holding something and wondering what to do with it.
The 120 recipes draw from across the Mediterranean and Middle East, but just as readily from Asia. Aubergine with buttermilk sauce and pomegranate, soba noodles with aubergine and mango, black pepper tofu, caramelised garlic tart.
It won Observer Food Monthly's Cookbook of the Year award and is one of the bestselling English language cookbooks of the past 20 years. The fact that za'atar, sumac and pomegranate molasses now sit on the shelves of ordinary supermarkets owes a great deal to this book.
Number of pages: 288
Number of recipes: Approximately 120
Publisher: Ebury Press
ISBN: 9780091933685
Language: English
First published: April 2010
