THE MAGNIFICENT BOOK OF VEGETABLES

ALICE HART, WELBECK, $65

Honestly, you can’t turn a corner these days without falling over a stack of vegetarian cookbooks, and from the masses in my office it’s difficult to choose just one. What makes this book stand out is quite simply that it is crammed with food that I want to cook and want to eat. It’s not by a celebrity author and it doesn’t have a trendy gimmick or even a catchy name, but I can do without all those if every dip into the pages gives me the wherewithal to get a great dinner on the table. Arranged by season, it’s the cooler weather dishes that appeal just now: the likes of a gentle stew of roast butternut, fennel and white beans sweetened with roast garlic; butter beans formed into little nuggets with harissa and aubergine, flavourpumped with red peppers and a cool dab of yoghurt; the drama of a beetroot lentil and coconut soup to brighten the dullest day. And for next summer I’ve bookmarked a salad of candied beetroot and haloumi with fig and cardamom dressing. No longer need meat-free days be a dour ‘but it’s good for you’ experience; here you’ll effortlessly hit your five-a-day in style. TW