Every season

AS the weekly shop gets more expensive, chef and cooking school teacher Anna Valentine has some easy advice — eat seasonally.

‘‘Eating with the seasons ensures you are getting optimal nutrition, as nutrients are at their highest in foods harvested when they are ripe — it is also the most costeffective.’’

Her new cookbook Abundance is filled with recipes she makes her family every day and hopes other people will find more accessible too.

‘‘I have gone so far as to making plantprotein meat alternatives out of natural ingredients without any unnecessary additives and preservatives.

‘‘Super tasty, these hit the spot for smoky cravings and are there for you if you just want to give the kids burgers or nuggets and chips for dinner.’’

Valentine, a vegetarian since she was 12 years old, goes by the mantra of ‘‘eat a rainbow everyday’’.

While she used to work in the baking section at popular Wellington cafe Fidels, these days she runs a cooking school in Northland and created New Zealand’s first commercially available kumara chips.

She is a keen forager and in her plantbased pantry section are listings for edible weeds which she likes to seek out such as onion weed, dandelion, nasturtium, plantain, nettle and chickweed.

The book starts out with a section on everyday basics from making ‘‘veggie mite’’ and plant cheese to jamjar dressings. One of her boldest claims is that her plant milk stands up to the ‘‘coffee test’’.

For breakfast she has included recipes for a tofu

Abundance: 100+ plantbased recipes to savour year round © Anna Valentine $44.99 (Upstart Press)

scramble, hotcakes, granola, scones and brioche pinwheels while the salads and soups section has plenty of options no matter the season. It’s followed with sections for light meals, mains, baking and sweets — the kumara pie with gingernut crust looks yum — it’s a pity kumara is so expensive at the moment.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp extravirgin olive oil (or 1⁄4

omitting butter)

2 Tbsp butter, plantbased or dairy

2 shallots or 1 red onion, finely sliced 2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 sticks celery, sliced

1 sprig fresh rosemary, oregano and/or thyme, leaves roughly chopped

11⁄2 cups (300g) risotto rice (arborio)

100ml marsala or white wine (optional)

1⁄4 pumpkin, skin and seeds removed, grated

2 beetroot, scrubbed and grated, save the leafy tops, if possible

1.2 litres hot water, whey or liquid vegetable stock

1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder (omit powder if using liquid stock)

400g can cannellini or butter beans, drained and rinsed (optional)

1⁄4 cup olives, pitted

1⁄2 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley

1⁄2 cup grated tasty cheese or vegan alternative

1⁄2 cup parmesan or a plantbased alternative, grated (save some for serving) 1 tsp salt

1⁄2 tsp cracked black pepper