Keen cook Ella Bee Glendining and her gardening father Piers Warren have collaborated on a new vegan recipe book ‘The Vegan Cook & Gardener: Growing, storing and cooking delicious healthy food all year round’
My culinary journey has taken me to Cringleford this month, not to find out more about a locally produced seasonal ingredient, but to meet one of the authors of a new book just published about growing, storing and cooking healthy food all year round. Piers Warren and his daughter Ella Bee Glendining have spent the last two years creating their thoughtfully designed book The Vegan Cook & Gardener.
It’s a book which guides you through the seasons and a productive gardening year. It explains the ethos behind veganism, organic growing and eating, while illustrating practical techniques and sharing an understanding of good gardening husbandry.
The idea for the book started with Ella, a talented and inventive cook, who was posting photos of her recipes on her Facebook pages. These posts quickly gained a following of cooks wanting to share her expertise.
Piers, a conservationist, author and keen grower of organic fruit and vegetables, started gardening as a boy. From being small he remembers getting the buzz from growing something you can eat. The book goes from month to month and as you read it, you feel you are sharing his gardening memories, discovering new things through each chapter, in a way which Piers says his gardening journey has developed.
Piers and Ella explain the benefits of veganism and take a look at self-sufficiency; what to grow and how much of it; whether you want to grow a few favourites or aim for full food production. They move on to a food production chapter starting with a look at herbs, the base of many of their recipes, which can be grown on any scale; salad leaves, which can be produced all year round and sprouting seeds, which can be grown in the kitchen at any time.
They recommend varieties and talk through storage – in the garden and in the kitchen. Listing the produce from each month there is a wonderful diverse collection of recipes. Each includes at least one main ingredient harvested from the garden, plus others you my have in storage from other months.
Piers and Ella were very conscious when they started their book that many recently published cookbooks can include ingredients no-one has heard of, or knows what they taste like. Their book includes suggestions for general store cupboard ingredients but their recipes predominantly use fresh ingredients. From vegan arancini, to rhubarb and orange sorbet, chocolate and strawberry cake to sweet potato shepherds pie there are lots of recipes to enjoy through the year.
From testing the recipes to taking the photos Piers and Ella have shared the work, all based around a year in Piers’ Norwich garden. Whether vegan or not The Vegan Cook & Gardener is a fascinating read and this father and daughter team have created a book I will enjoy having on my bookshelf.
The Vegan Cook & Gardener, £19.95, Permanent Publications - order here!
Follow The Vegan Cook & Gardener on Facebook and Instagram
__________
Find out more about Mary Kemp’s cookery theatres, demonstrations and more recipes at marykemp.net
