Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

"A few years ago, I got the brief to write a vegetarian column for The Guardian . I’m not a vegetarian, so I wanted to write the column as a challenge – and I must say it was a bit of a challenge. The idea of having to cook exclusively with vegetables was initially a difficult concept. To start with, I had plenty of ideas, but after about six months I realised I was sort of running out of things. “My food very much reflects the sort of ingredients that grow in a very sunny climate, so there are strong flavours and colours, and there’s a lot of freshness.” This book gives you loads of pointers about flavour combinations, and ways of putting vegetables together. It’s not groundbreaking; it’s not anything you haven’t heard before. But it is very extensive. Deborah Madison uses everything and goes over all methods and all the ingredients. The writing is very light and simple – not at all challenging. Often, you get food writers that make things a little bit complicated, or too long-winded, but she is very simple and very clear. I love her gratin recipes – all the recipes in her section on gratin are very good. I think in one of them she uses rice, so she does throw in things that are slightly unusual, but it’s very approachable. Plenty is really a result of my Guardian column, and it offers a selection of the recipes I’ve presented there. But people like Madison and other food writers inspire me because, in many ways, they are the antithesis to restaurant chefs, who write very technically. The Green Cook Book is another great book she did, and, with all of them, the general idea is that you cook not to show off but rather to feed and nourish. I love that idea."