The Natural Cook: Eating the Seasons from Root to Fruit

by Tom Hunt, Laura Edwards (Photographs)

The Natural Cook is an inspirational book for the way we eat now. It puts fresh, flavorsome, veg-focused food center-stage, and features recipes that make use of every ounce of an ingredient. Each of the 26 seasonal 'hero' ingredients featured is represented first by three simple cooking techniques, plus tips and ideas for turning uneaten extras into other delicious meals, ensuring that absolutely nothing is wasted. So head to the market and pick the freshest, ripest veg off the shelf, or look in your fridge for that fennel or bunch of radishes you bought, knowing there's an inspiring recipe (or ten) for you.

Genres: Cooking, Food, Cookbooks

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 19, 2014

About the author

Tom Hunt is an award-winning chef, writer and food waste campaigner. His Bristol restaurant Poco has won numerous awards including Best Ethical Restaurant at the Observer Food Monthly Awards. He has written for many newspapers and magazines and writes a weekly column for Feast magazine in the Saturday Guardian offering ingenious no-waste recipes. He is an experienced speaker and cook at events, including Taste of London, Borough Market, Feastival and Abergavenny Food Festival. He is a campaigner and ambassador for Action Against Hunger, Soil Association, Slow Food International and The Fairtrade Foundation. His first book was The Natural Cook (2014), Eating for Pleasure, People & Planet is his latest book (2020).

Reviews

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first cookbook focusing specifically on vegetables, and it has definitely surprised me...in a good way!

I really liked the layout of the book, each vegetable has its own six page section. This consists of an introduction to the vegetable and a description of what time of year it's at its best, six recipes using the vegetable, and two full page photos as an example of two of the featured recipes.

There is something for everyone in here, from a fresh look on new potatoes, broccoli and spring onions, to less well know/ used veg such as celeriac, pumpkin and winter greens.

There are also some fab recipes using various fruits such as rhubarb, apricots and strawberries.

The only downside for me was that there were quite a few recipes that are quite familiar, and how I already use the vegetables.

[Jo Bennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting book in which Hunt invites us to cook vegetables and fruit in season, divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each vegetable or fruit is introduced with notes on preparation, taste and season and instructions given for cooking it three ways, for instance, for asparagus instructions are given for preparing it raw, char-grilling it and blanching it. Below each method comes further ideas for using the ingredient, it is then followed by an extant recipe, for instance, the blanched asparagus is used for a variation on Italian Risi e Bisi (rice and peas). It's an approach that teaches you the possibilities of each vegetable and fruit