Dit kookboek is eenvoudig en gebruiksvriendelijk en geeft enorm veel goesting om te eten én te koken. Het is ook een eerlijk (bij sommige foto’s staat dat ze genomen zijn voor het gerecht de oven in ging) en no nonsens boek (met tips als: hete stoom als je de oven opent, oppassen). Bought as a 99p KDD recently as I knew I’d use it after borrowing it from the library. I am making one recipe a week so it’s used as basis for more interesting veggie meals. Have made 4 now (including the first I made in March, repeated this week.) Favourites so far are probably the butternut squash and sweetcorn (who knew corn on the cob could taste so good roasted?) as the toppings at the end really make it. The tomato, olives and aubergine was very good. Nothing I haven’t made before on the hon, but in the oven it’s much richer. I always adapt recipes a bit; adding some ingredients and removing others. They’re good for inspiration. Who is the author: Talented food stylist and writer, Rukmini Iyer is the author of bestselling cookbook, The Roasting Tin. When Rukmini isn’t revolutionising the way we cook with her simple one-dish dinners, you’ll find her on photo shoots across London making all of the food look even more delicious. With flexibility and creativity in mind, Rukmini takes care to include an extensive list of possible variations for each of her recipes. Each chapter begins by outlining the basic formula behind each of the different bakes and offers a customisable base recipe to follow to come up with your own flavour combos. The possibilities are endless. Recipes we love: Marzipan, Lemon and Cardamom Loaf, Rhubarb and Vanilla Tart, Spiced Focaccia with Roasted Butternut Squash, Orange Choc Chip Bread and Butter Pudding.

BUT, and this is merely a good-natured gripe—this book WANTS me to fail. it WANTS me to feel the sting of inadequacy resulting from the comparison between my finished product and the book’s. it thumbs its nose at me as it dances around its spacious, well-appointed kitchen. because as lovely as this picture is, it is also a filthy liar. sure, that’s what it maybe looks like after you take it out of the oven, but THEN the recipe instructs you to stir it all up with olive oil and salt and herbs, which makes it look like THIS Veganism is NOT a dietary preference; it is an ethical position that seeks to reduce harm as far as possible to animals.

Ingredients

Vegetarian recipes we love: Crisp Cauliflower Steaks with Harissa and Goat’s Cheese. Oven Baked Shakshuka. Storecupboard Pasta Bake. Upon first read of the book, everything is presented really well, the photography looks awesome and the recipes seem to make sense. I’ve not seen anything in the vegan section that I thought I’d never cook – so that’s a big plus! The combinations look sensible and everything seems easy to follow (I have seen some criticism of the author in other books for poor proof reading of recipes – this is absolutely critical in cookbooks and something that happens all the time. I hate it when cookbooks have missing steps!) These recipes aren't as one-dish as I'd hope, because often they are just a side dish, and you need to add a carb or another whole thing with many of the lighter salads. Here the roasting comes from bread and red cabbage and forming a salad around it. The proportions were all off here and I am not sure how you slice a red cabbage into cubes and then separate the leaves and lay evenly in a roasting tray without overlap or mess. Also, I noticed it with the previous recipe but this contains a lot of salt. When I had finished making this it was all I could taste. I think I will halve the salt requirements in future. There is a good idea in here but it did not translate to a nice meal at all.

What I thought: If you need a cookbook that enables you to keep one eye on the dinner and one eye on the rest of your life, look no further than The Roasting Tin. The infographics in this book are fantastic. I'm half tempted to rip them from the book and put them on the fridge in case of any dinner-related emergencies. It's like a connect the dots, choose your own adventure dinner. And all veg-based without being sad or boring at all. And (so many ands...) everything is perfect for leftovers, so no more sad desk lunches. I'm very into this book on many levels, but mostly because it is such an easy, fun and cheap way to eat more vegetables. Which we all need to do, for reasons of health and environment. There are some good ideas in here, but also some really weird and off-putting flavour combinations, especially if like me you hate licorice as there's a lot of licorice flavours in this book (fennel, chicory, celeriac etc). Also radishes and cauliflower, both of which I find unpleasant. I found this author has very different tastebuds to me. I've never been alarmed by so many recipes in any other cookbook. The one with chicory, radish and orange sounds like my nightmare. And too much hot avocado! Yet, there is genuine inspiration in some of the tarts especially. Ergo, a vegetarian cookbook can have recipes suitable for vegans but a vegan cookbook cannot also be a vegetarian one. I’d perhaps let the author get away with ‘plant based’, but since the author is a carnist it is clear she does not really understand veganism and really, I see the positioning of this book as trying to jump on the ‘vegan’ bandwagon without putting the effort in and seeing ‘vegan and vegetarian’ as separate but ‘two sides of the same coin’. It may seem a minor thing but it did annoy me quite a lot.

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Het boek bestaat uit 2 grote delen en 1 klein deel. Het eerste deel zijn vegan recepten, (het kleine) deel twee bevat schema’s met combinaties die je zelf kan gaan samenstellen en deel 3 draait om vegetarische recepten. Deel 1 en 3 zijn telkens onderverdeeld in snelle (30 minuten), iets meer tijd (45 minuten) en alle tijd (een uur of langer) recepten. i’m not someone who needs the food i make to be pretty. i’m just me—flinging ingredients into chipped bowls in my tiny kitchen and hoping it all tastes good. i can appreciate the pretty food of others in books and on internet, and i understand that visually appealing food sells more cookbooks than ‘real-life’ food made by people like me without fancy cameras, food stylists, a tableware budget, or even adequate lighting. What I thought: I am a huge fan of one pot cooking. Midweek evening meals for me are all about getting something interesting on the table with the least possible amount of time and effort. So the idea behind The Roasting Tinis like manna from heaven: imaginative food requiring minimal preparation (i.e. whilst the kids are having their supper), which can happily sit in the oven whilst I get them into bed. Ik kook graag maar het moet makkelijk zijn, snel én met veel groenten. Ik heb dan ook zelf al de geneugten van alles in één pan in de oven ontdekt (rijst onderaan, groenten erop en vleesvervanger bovenaan). Maar dit boek tilt dat alles naar een veel hoger niveau. Hierin staan recepten die niet alleen lekker zijn maar er ook goed uitzien én die je aan bezoek kan voorschotelen, zonder schaamrood op je wangen (wat met mijn uitvindingen niet echt haalbaar is).

Oh, ik moet mijn best doen om niet te beginnen kwijlen bij de cover (en foto’s binnenin) van dit geweldige boek.I shouldn’t have worried. The recipe turned out perfectly. The butternut and bulgur wheat was tender, aubergine deliciously soft and the halloumi still delightfully squeaky. I should’ve realised really, this busy midweek evening was the perfect road test for Rukmini’s cookbook, and I’m pleased to report it passed with flying colours. It now has a place on my ‘tier one cookbook shelf’. And that’s no mean feat. After much anticipation I finally got my hands on a copy of The Roasting Tin and couldn’t wait to cook a recipe from the book. After a spout of warm weather, this bulgur wheat tray bake piqued my interest complete with summery sprigs of mint.