Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen

by Hetty McKinnon

Community is all about sharing good food, giving you endless ideas on delicious salads to serve up for your family, friends and neighbours. These simple, sustainable and healthy recipes feature fresh, seasonal produce and inject colour, life and flair into that most modest of everyday meals: the salad. Rather than being simply sides, Community 's salads are meals in their own right, giving vegetables, legumes, herbs and nuts their moment to shine.

The recipes in Community are inspired by author Hetty McKinnon's community kitchen, Arthur Street Kitchen, where Hetty single-handedly makes and delivers homemade salads to residents in Surry Hills, Sydney, on Thursday and Friday every week. All by bike! Hetty's salads use only the freshest produce, sourced locally wherever possible. Inspired first and foremost by the seasons, Hetty also takes cues from what she sees, smells and experiences from the world around her. At the heart of every dish is a core vegetable, around which a thoughtful culinary story is built, resulting in honest, inventive and hearty salads that deliver big, punchy flavours.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Hetty McKinnon is a home cook who grew up devouring the colours, aromas and flavours of her mother's ebullient Cantonese cooking. Formerly a beauty PR, she is now the one-woman show behind the incredibly successful Arthur Street Kitchen, whipping up flavour-packed salads and sweets in her home kitchen then delivering them by bike to hungry Surry Hills locals. Hetty lives in Sydney with her husband, Ross, and three children, Scout, Dash and Huck. Community is her first cookbook.

Reviews

[Yonit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best cookbook I have ever come across. I am not a vegetarian but these recipes are all delicious and many of them are fantastic as a main course. I have not found a single recipe that my family did not absolutely love. It also makes generous size dishes which is useful as then we get to eat the leftovers. They are not overly difficult to make, the instructions are clear and the photography is beautiful.
If you can believe this, I actually had a question about one of the recipes and sent an email to the author via her website. She wrote me back within a few hours, a very lovely message.

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I prefer some of Hetty's other books. I had read a new article and had high hopes for this book, but was a little disappointed. There will be a few recipes I am still to try, but on the whole the content was less appealing than I expected it to be.
However, I also looked at Family and have made several great meals from that book.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent recipes!!! I really really love these for work lunches, and because they’re primarily not leafy greens then they all keep really really well

Also the story behind the book, and the people it’s connected with is beautiful! Check out Hetty’s interview on the podcast “The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry” if you want to really connect with it ❤️

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hetty McKinnon combines a plethora of uplifting ingredients to create combinations that make everyone at the table feel nourished and satisfied. Definitely find myself going back again and again to her recipes.

[YarnAndYearn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My go-to dinner party and pot luck cookbook. So healthy and delicious and the salads are always a hit with family and friends. Lots of my friends have bought their own copies after eating Hetty’s meals at my house. Vegetarian and whole food based. Cannot recommend highly enough.

[Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous vegetarian recipes, loads of brilliant ideas. Already planned the next few nights dinners!

[Kathy I · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite cookbook. I gift this to so many people.

[Clancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t understand the hype. Everything I’ve made from this book is bland and underwhelming.

[Bronwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow instructions and easy to source ingredients. How to make everyday ingredients come alive! Great for hot summer nights when it's too hot to cook.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her introduction, McKinnon says this is a book to be splattered with food stains and plaster with notes. And so I've taken on the challenge wholeheartedly. Not on to treat cookbooks gently, it's nice to be encouraged in this way.

In the post Christmas phase, I'll be turning to Community to compensate for some of the seasonal gluttony without feeling as if I've taken on a New Years resolution. Who needs the pressure! The zaatar roasted carrots with kale and orange maple dressing is a new favourite on high rotation (with sweet potato occasionally making its way in to the mix), as is the recipe for honey roasted carrots with mung beans and labneh (easily swapping in lentils and feta, depending on what's to hand). I'm also keen to try the chargrilled broccoli with chickpeas, almonds, lemon and chilli, the chargrilled cauliflower with fried butter beans and pumpkin hummus, the mixed mushrooms with farro, feta and almonds, and the balsamic roasted pears with lentils, Gorgonzola and sage.

[Jacq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a salad book with not a lettuce leaf in sight!
Recipes look complicated, but aren't and not one has ever missed the mark!
Faves: Chargrilled Zucchini and Pearl Barley with Whipped Feta and Dill (pg151) Chargrilled Cauliflower with Fried Butter Beans and Pumpkin Hummus (pg77) and the Baked Sweet Potato with Rocket, Feta and Black Olive-Walnut relish (pg57)

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down my favourite cookbook! Every recipe is delicious and easy to make

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really fabulous cookbook- vegetarian recipes that are reasonably simple to make, taste delicious, and not overly dependent on tomato.

[Anne Haberman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great salad recipes - can't wait to try a few soon.