Cook with a conscience
Concerned about meat consumption? Your health? The health of the planet? These three cookbooks might provide some direction, says ELLA WALKER
JANUARY gets a bad rep. A month of enforced abstinence, chocolate avoidance and down-tothe-bone cold, you might as well strike out the first 31 days of the year entirely.
Yet January 2021 carries with it a sliver of hopefulness. So while most of what’s going on is largely out of our hands, it is within our power to start the new year with pragmatism, optimism, and an arsenal of cookbooks to nourish us beyond just dinner.
Scrap the food denial, and consider tackling your concerns around meat consumption, health, or impact on the planet, and get reading one (or all) of these. Here are three cookbooks to peruse and cook from if in 2021 you want to be...
More conscious of the planet... EAT TO SAVE THE PLANET by Annie Bell
(One Boat, £16.99)
ANNIE BELL is a chef, food writer and nutritionist. The former Vogue columnist has written a slew of cookbooks following her “modern rustic feel”.
What’s the book hoping to help you achieve? With a title like Eat To Save The Planet, the aim is straightforward – to help us all tool up in the fight to protect the environment, in a way that involves us eating healthily and sustainably.
Annie’s answer is the Planetary Health Diet, which recommends “how much of each food group we should eat”. She calls it a way of eating that goes “beyond good nutrition, that treats our health and the environment as a common agenda.”
What are the recipes like?
While plants make up the bulk of
the collection (there are strong Mediterranean diet vibes), this is not a veggie/vegan cookbook.
Instead, writes Annie, “meat, fish and poultry are to be savoured as a treat, a luxury to be spun out with other ingredients.”
Cutting food waste and making the most of everything we have in the fridge is also paramount, she explains, hence her ‘riches from the rubble soup’ which will clear out any leftovers.
She dedicates a whole chapter to ‘one egg’ dishes including leek and Emmental scrambled eggs.
There are stews and curries (scallop tikka sounds particularly good) and all-in-one roasts and pies (the Irish stew pie is very intriguing).
More conscious of your health... THE FITNESS CHEF: STILL TASTY by Graeme Tomlinson
(Ebury Press, £16.99)
KNOWN as The Fitness Chef, Graeme Tomlinson is famed on Instagram for his “myth-busting nutrition infographics”.
What’s the book hoping to help you achieve?
It’s trying to steer us away from traditional diet books, in favour of education, finding nutritional balance, and reducing the calories in your favourite foods so you can eat them regularly but still reach your weight, fitness and health targets.
■ What are the recipes like?
Surprisingly fun for a cookbook called Still Tasty. There are fry-ups and salted caramel porridge for breakfast, myriad cheese toasties for mains, as well as a coronation chicken baked potato, plus cheesecake and tiramisu for dessert. It’s all rather decadent, despite being slimmed down on the calorie front.
More conscious of your animal product consumption...
BE MORE VEGAN by Niki Webster
(Welbeck Publishing, £14.99)
NIKI WEBSTER is a plant-based
Annie Bell
food writer and author, who has been sharing recipes on her blog Rebel Recipes since 2015.
What’s the book hoping to help you achieve? There’s nothing militant about Niki, Be More Vegan is presented as a gentle guide to help ease you into a life of veganism – even if going vegan just one day a week is something you’re considering.
She also addresses concerns around veganism (questions on ethics, the environment, and health impacts), but maintains a fun, approachable and encouraging tone. ■ What are the recipes like? Really rather yummy sounding. Niki’s food is super colourful and enticing, and pretty indulgent too (take the chocolate cake with Biscoff frosting, and the slab of Millionaire’s shortbread, laced with dates). We could also eat the bean chilli nacho platter and summer rolls all day.