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Your kitchen

Here are a few tips from us to help you really master your kitchen and your cooking skills.

Be a continuously improving cook, whatever your level

Whether you’re just starting out cooking only with plants or you’re already accomplished with vegan food, there’s always something new to learn. Here’s how to be at the top of your game.

Treat each recipe you cook as an opportunity to learn something new. Don’t fall into the trap of cooking the same things on repeat; find new recipes, get the right ingredients and try them out.

Up your skills from time to time with videos and books. Improve your knife skills with videos on YouTube. Use any of the amazing online tools, or a collection of cookbooks, to store up recipes to try in future. You can use post-its to mark the pages with recipes you want to try!

There’s always something new to master, whether it’s basics like getting vegan béchamel nailed or advanced baking with aquafaba. This new, plant-based way of thinking about food has so much freedom for innovation, so you’ll be constantly improving.

Keep fruit and veggies on hand (or on ice) at all times!

A fridge full of fruit and veggies is not only good for your pocket, but they’ll also keep really well. Onions, garlic and potatoes are best kept out of the fridge in a cool, dry place.

Got lots of fruit left over? Stick it in the freezer and use it to make morning smoothies. Peel and chop the fruit into bite-sized chunks and put it into a Tupperware container for easy use later. We have a constant store of frozen bananas, apples, berries, spinach, kale and watermelon ready to combine for a deliciously nutritious smoothie at any time of the day.

Bought too many veggies? That’s OK: freeze them and use them later. Made too much pasta sauce? Pop it in a Tupperware or a freezer bag and keep it ready for a quick meal.

Keep your kitchen and pantry well organised to make life easier

Organise your pantry well and you’ll always have meals ready to cook – check out here for key ingredients to keep in stock. We go full nerd with sticky labels to highlight the right places for things. It makes cooking so much more satisfying and efficient because we’re not constantly searching for ingredients in the cupboard.

We tend to organise our pantry shelves into sections like ‘sauces & syrups’, ‘oils & vinegars’, ‘herbs & spices’, ‘flour, sugar & baking’, ‘grains, rice, pasta’, plus the essential ‘tea & coffee’ shelf. Figure out a system that works for you. Trust us, knowing where things are makes fast cooking much easier.

Finally, organise your spices in a way that’s easy to browse. We prefer smaller tubs of spices since they tend to be a consistent size and they usually have labels on the top. Plus, big bags of spice are harder to store and spices tend to go off if they’re left on the shelf for too long. You’ll soon discover which herbs and spices you get through quickly and which are worth buying in bulk – try decanting them into jars and adding your own labels on the lid.

EQUIPMENT

The equipment you find in your typical kitchen is going to work just fine for the recipes in this book. There is nothing super fancy or technical about what we do in our kitchen; we like to keep things simple. But, if we were going to design a cost-effective kitchen from scratch, here’s how we would do it:

Essential items

These should be your go-to items. We use these every day to make great BOSH! food.

High-powered blender (like a NutriBullet, Magic Ninja or Magimix)

A good, sharp knife (and sharpener)

A selection of chopping boards that look great on the side and inspire you to cook

A kitchen timer or your mobile phone to get the timings right

Neatly stored spices, all in one place so you can find them quickly

A varied selection of preferably non-stick saucepans

Large spoons and tongs that work with your pans (don’t use metal on non-stick!)

Measuring tools, like a measuring jug, weighing scales and measuring spoons

Nice-to-have items

Get these if you like. They will speed up your cooking, but they’re optional.

Keep a clean tea towel in your pocket as you cook and you’ll feel like a pro

Large-bowl food processor or hand blender

Oven-to-table dishes (for lasagne and pies)

Garlic crusher

A grater to zest or grate dairy-free cheese

A good rolling pin

Completely optional, but very cool items

These come in handy from time to time in our kitchen, so get them if you wish.

Pizza stone for better cooking and a crispier crust

Waffle iron

Toasted-sandwich maker

Slow cooker for long, slow, melt-in-the-mouth curries

Tiny dishes (soy sauce dishes) for measuring out spices before you start to cook

Sealing clips to keep opened packets of food from spilling everywhere

Tupperware or storage jars to keep your cupboards organised and store leftovers

Tofu press to make it even easier to cook with tofu

INGREDIENTS

The chances are that you already have most of these ingredients in your cupboard or your fridge. What we hope this book will do is unlock the potential in your store cupboard, and help you turn that humble tin of chickpeas into the most awesome falafel, or transform your usual pasta dish into something you’d be proud to serve at a dinner party. Get stocked up!

Essentials

If someone were to ask us what we keep in our kitchen cupboards, this would be the answer. We use these ingredients all the time and always keep them in stock so that we can whip up a quick meal without having to go to the shop first.

Pasta, in all its many forms, will answer your hunger prayers

Having rice in the cupboard means you’ll always have something to eat

Noodles are a great base for speedy, nourishing and satisfying meals

Olive or groundnut oil, to use sparingly when frying or roasting

Sea salt and black pepper to season to perfection and bring your food to life

Garlic, because it’s the best thing ever, used by nearly every cuisine in the world

Tinned chickpeas give you the wonder beans with which you can make hummus and falafel, plus aquafaba, an incredibly useful substitute for egg and dairy in cooking

Various tinned beans will ensure you get your protein whenever you need it

A stock of tinned tomatoes means you always have a base for sauces

A selection of spices for essential flavour – never underestimate their power

Fresh fruit, veggies and herbs because your mum told you to eat your greens and she was right

Nuts and seeds are fantastic for flavour, terrific for texture and super, super healthy

Peanut butter will give you energy, texture and flavour in abundance

Plant-based milk will crop up in our recipes again and again – we like almond milk best

Tinned coconut milk will help you craft creamy curries

Specialities

We tend to have these in our cupboards too, but we use them less frequently.

Nutritional yeast provides a nutty, cheesy taste and is a great source of vitamin B12

Cashew nuts can be soaked and blended for cream or cooked for a satisfying crunch

Passata will help your Italian dishes come to life

Kalamata olives add wonderful flavour and robust texture

Sun-dried tomatoes offer an incredible depth of flavour

Tinned peppers are great blended up to add to a tomato sauce or soup

Dairy-free cheese will provide familiarity and texture

Firm tofu gives bite and texture, as well as all-important protein

Nori helps you get a fishy, salty flavour and can be used to wrap sushi rolls

Capers offer a really individual, salty flavour

Soy cream introduces lovely silky, creamy textures

Dairy-free ice cream should always be in the freezer because, well, movie night