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a modern way to eat

I’d like to make a few promises about the food in this book:

· It is indulgent and delicious

· It will make you feel good and look good

· It will leave you feeling light yet satisfied

· It will help you lighten your footprint on the planet

· It is quick and easy to make and won’t cost the earth

· And it’ll impress your family and friends

The way we eat is changing

We demand so much of our food nowadays that the idea of meat and two veg every night for dinner seems prehistoric. We want food to be delicious, healthy, local, fast, cheap and good for the planet. This book shows you how to make easy meals that will impress and, more importantly, nourish your friends and family, quickly and simply.

Today, almost everyone you meet, of any age, is becoming super-conscious of what they eat and the effect on their health. They also understand the importance of a home-cooked meal more than a couple of nights a week to stay healthy and on budget. Alongside that, our awareness of provenance, quality and sustainability has come so far that if we look back at what super­markets sold ten years ago and what we can buy now, the change is astounding. Interesting varieties of vegetable are the norm, and more unusual herbs, interesting and different grains, spices and ingredients from afar now line the aisles. So with all this choice available to us, where do we go now?

All my friends, whether or not they are vegetarian, want to eat more simple, seasonal, vegetable-led food. As the number of vegetarians in the UK slowly creeps up, the number of people reducing the amount of meat in their diet is sky-rocketing. We all know that eating lots of meat may not be the best for our bodies or the planet. For me being vegetarian is easy and how I live; for you it might be different, a few nights a week without meat maybe. However it works for you, I think we all need some new ideas.

We are reaching a middle ground, bridging the gap between heavy cheese- and stodge-laden vegetarian restaurant offerings, and the nutrition-led green juice diets. We want the best of both worlds, mind-blowing flavour that does us good: a stacked-high burger that is super tasty but also healthy, a brownie that is devilishly chocolaty but boosts our energy too, a breakfast pancake that feels like pudding but is packed with nutrition.

But I also believe that eating should be joyful and as soon as rules, pressure and diets are linked in with eating we lose track of that joy. While I eat healthily almost always, I also feel strongly that eating is one part of our brilliantly fallible humanness. So there is a place for the odd too-good-to-pass-up chewy salted caramel brownie alongside a clean bowl of grains and greens.

I want to eat in a way that satisfies but leaves me feeling light and happy at the same time. Too much healthy food leaves me miserably hungry but equally I don’t like to rely on a lot of heavy carbs or dairy to fill the gaps. I use spice, texture, flavour and easy-eating grains to satisfy without heaviness.

So in this book I have tried to bring together a type of food where clean and healthy meets delicious, where sustainable meets affordable, where quick and easy meets hearty. These recipes will make you and the planet healthier; they will make you richer and won’t mean you need to spend hours in the kitchen. This is a new way of eating, the way I eat, the way my friends want to eat and, I believe, how we will all move towards eating in the future.

A change in how I cook

My cooking changed when I became vegetarian – all of a sudden I had to look at cooking in a completely different way. The building blocks that I had grown up with and the rules I had learnt as a chef didn’t quite fit any more. So the challenge to find new ways to add texture, interest and flavour to my food have meant using a new palate of ingredients and some new techniques in the kitchen.

I am led by the things that got me so excited about cooking in the first place. The haze of citrus oils spritzing off the skin of a freshly zested orange. The deep purple brilliance when you slice into an earthy beetroot. The warming scent of ginger and brown sugar baking into a crumble, the Willy Wonka magic of melting chocolate over a bain-marie, and so many more moments when my taste buds start dancing and my heart beats a little faster.

When I write a recipe or cobble something together for dinner I always have three things in the back of my mind that shape my cooking: how will this taste? How can I make it most interesting to eat by layering up the textures? And how can I make it look the most beautiful on the plate?

Taste for me is about making the most of the ingredient I am cooking. Sometimes that means a little scatter of Anglesey sea salt and nothing else. Other times it means balancing herbs, spices, sweet and sour, backing up the natural character of a deep dense caramelly piece of roasted squash with warming spices or spiking a tomato sauce with a hit of vinegar.

Textures are often forgotten in cooking but to me they are just as key to a good plate of food as flavour, particularly in vegetarian food. I think about how children respond to food – we are tuned into texture just as much as flavour. Toasted seeds tossed into a salad, charred, oil-drizzled bread next to a bowl of soup, the crunch of some peppery radishes inside a soft taco. It’s texture, just as much as flavour, that hits the taste buds and tells your brain that this is delicious and helps you to feel satisfied.

The beauty bit comes from my day job as a food stylist. For the last ten years I have been making food jump off the plate and getting you to want to eat what is on the page at that exact moment: the slick of chocolate drooling out of a chocolate fondant, the drops of water on a freshly washed leaf of the freshest, crispest salad, the melting cheese and crumble of perfect flaky pastry around the edge of a tart. I know that when I cook for friends the simplest salad put on a plate with a bit of thought, or an easy bowl of pasta topped with some bright herbs and a flash of red chilli, means we start eating before we’ve even got a fork in our hands. But even when I’m just making a quick breakfast or hurried lunch, I take a few extra seconds to make the food I have cooked the very best it can be.

My final consideration is a top note, a finishing touch. I almost always finish a plate with a final spoonful of something. A slick of yoghurt to top a chilli spiked dahl, a drizzle of quick herb oil on a bowl of chilli, some toasted hazelnuts strewn on a bowl of soup. To me, it’s these final considerations that set a good meal apart from a great plate of food. Usually the quickest thing to do, these finishing touches layer flavour, add colour and create a contrast of hot and cold. These top notes make food look more thought out, they give a final boost of taste and they make you look like a bloody good cook without really having done anything at all.

A new set of ingredients

As I started cooking in this lighter and healthier way I started to understand more and more the importance of variety. Using toasted nut butters in place of butter in cookies, coconut oil for buttering toast, and quinoa or millet in my morning porridge. Using an ingredient where it fits and tastes amazing, not solely for its nutrients, makes me push myself to step outside the reliable old recipes.

In my kitchen I look to more unusual, exciting and flavoursome ingredients to add depth and interest to my cooking. The spelt flour in my ginger and molasses cake adds structure and a deep toasted malty flavour and is naturally easier for us to digest. The almond milk in my morning coffee, which tastes incredible, boosts my protein intake for the day and provides the healthy fats my body needs. Or the coconut butter which I use to temper spices for curries, which can be taken to a higher heat than olive oil, making it perfect for releasing the flavour of the spices, with the added bonus of the subtle coconut flavour working beautifully in a south Indian dhal or a dosa potato cake.

That said, flavour, above anything else, informs my cooking, so if I think butter will do a better job I say so; if a cake needs a little sugar, I go for it. But on the whole I keep my recipes whole food focused.

I have, as much as possible, used different and interesting grains, as I believe that all these grains deserve a place in our diets and are often easier on our bodies. Just like fruit and veg, it’s important to vary the grains you eat too. Each grain has a different flavour and texture and provides your body with different sorts of vitamins and nutrients. Along with the rainbow of fresh produce in my fridge and fruit bowl, the bottom shelf in my kitchen, below the plates and platters, is a colourful spectrum of jars containing red quinoa, black rice, yellow millet, golden amaranth and dusky pearl barley. Alongside them are jars of good pasta and spelt bread flour too, but for those trying to eat less gluten, my recipes have suggestions and ideas for delicious ways to sidestep them, and the gluten they contain, if you prefer.

A couple of extra things

Though I cook for a living, I am also pretty impatient and want my dinner on the table in less than half an hour most nights. Especially after having spent a day behind the stove already. So I cook under the same constraints as most people I know. I want not too much bother or washing up at the end, a skill which harks back to my training with Jamie Oliver. So be assured, with only a couple of special exceptions in this book, my recipes are quick and won’t use every pan in the cupboard.

Another amazing kickback of these recipes is that they are easy on the pocket. Vegetables are affordable so I make sure that I buy the best stuff I can afford and buy local and organic produce where I can. I buy heritage carrots when they are in season as I love their russets, yellows and deep purples and with their rainbow of colours comes a spectrum of nutrients. I buy purple kale or cavolo nero when it’s around and use it where I might use a more run-of-the-mill spinach or cabbage. I also love to use the underdog vegetables that rarely get a starring role: a violet-crowned swede makes a mighty chip; a bag of frozen peas boiled and mashed with some mint is great to stir into pasta or pile on hot toast.

When I think about how to sum up how I look at food I am always drawn back to Michael Pollan’s super-simplified equation ‘eat food, not too much, mostly plants’. This is my notebook of a discovery of a new and modern way to eat and cook, one that considers our bodies and tastebuds alike. Insanely delicious, joyful food, new possibilities and flavours that make me excited to cook and eat it for all the right reasons.

Gluten free and vegan

Gluten-free diets have become increasingly popular as a way to overall wellness. Many of the recipes in this book are naturally gluten free, or can easily be adapted to make them so. While I personally eat bread and pasta from time to time, I too like eating this way as it leaves me feeling lighter and happier. I like to use gluten-free pastas, such as brown rice and quinoa pasta. I also have friends who are coeliac, for whom eating gluten is much more than a dietary choice.

I should point out that you don’t get exactly the same results by substituting a gluten-free flour for a wheat one. Using gluten-free flours in baking recipes does sometimes give a slightly crumblier texture but will have a deeper flavour than if you used regular flour. When I’m baking cakes I like to add ground nuts, which can help add richness and structure.

You can use gluten-free oats in place of normal oats (these won’t have come into contact with any wheat). Some people with gluten intolerances may prefer not to eat even gluten-free oats, in which case quinoa flakes can be used instead. Some of the staple ingredients I use may have hidden gluten and if you are sensitive to it then watch out for soy sauce or tamari (you can find gluten-free versions in healthfood stores), miso pastes (use naturally gluten-free white miso paste), tofu and tempeh (use plain rather than smoked or flavoured and check the label carefully), and baking powder (a gluten-free version can be bought in supermarkets). I don’t specify to use a gluten-free stock powder, but you can buy these easily in supermarkets. The Cool Chile Company make wholly corn, authentic tortillas, which I use in place of flatbreads.

Many of my recipes are naturally vegan, as I often cook for my vegan brother and sister. I’ve included a lot of egg and dairy alternatives in my recipes as it’s becoming more and more a way of life for people who want to lighten the load on their bodies and the planet.

Where I do use cheese, eggs or butter, I have given alternatives if I can. Coconut yoghurt is a favourite in place of normal or Greek yoghurt, almond milk is my milk of choice for baking and most of the dishes in this book can be made really easily without the cheese (you may want to add a little more salt though).

Here is a list of recipes that are either entirely gluten free and vegan, or need only simple tweaking.

HOW I PUT A RECIPE TOGETHER

This is what goes through my head when I’m writing a recipe. If you’re anything like me, then sometimes you like the confines of a recipe and sometimes you like to freestyle. This is a guide for those freer days, which will help you layer up flavours and textures into a killer plate of food. I’ve used kale as an example here, but use this process for any vegetable.