Eatdrink #42 July/August 2013

58 www.eatdrink.ca
№ 42 | July/August 2013
cookbooks
River Cottage Veg
200 Inspired Vegetable Recipes
Written by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Photography by Simon Wheeler
Review and Recipe Selections by Jennifer Gagel
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is
a British chef and television
personality, writer, farmer,
educator, and campaigner for
sustainably produced food. In the late 90’s he
settled at River Cottage and began a journey
of ecology, economy and sustainability.
Through the course of seven cookbooks and
a handful of television shows, he’s farmed,
fished and foraged for his dinner to show the
rest of us how it’s done.
Though he’s not a vegetarian, he advocates
the consumption of less meat and fish. “Just
ask yourself if you, or anyone you know, might
be in danger of eating too many vegetables,”
he quips in his latest book, River Cottage Veg.
Referring to himself as a “notorious carnivore”,
Fearnley-Whittingstall has long campaigned
for the ethical and sustainable treatment of
animals raised or caught for food. He is trying
to change the way we treat our food animals,
eliminating factory farms and fishing quotas
that needlessly waste catch.
In this book and an accompanying
television program, he challenges himself to
a whole summer without eating meat or fish.
Rather than finding ways to replace meat he
sets out to make vegetables shine. This is an
all out embrace of the fact that delicious food
can be made without the usual slab of meat
dominating the plate. Without the meaty
spotlight, meals are more likely to consist of
small, complimentary dishes similar to tapas.
River Cottage Veg is the result of the
author’s evangelical mission to change
your life. “Changing your prime culinary
focus from meat to veg will require a shift in
attitude - but not, I would argue, a very big
or difficult one. It’s true that if you eschew
meat and fish, you have to look at other
ingredients with fresh eyes. You have to
take a new,
more creative
approach to
them. But once you become accustomed
to cooking vegetables as main meals it will
soon seem like the most natural thing.”
One third of the recipes are vegan and are
marked as such. Many of the rest could be
revised to be vegan with a few substitutions,
mainly for butter and eggs.
Photographer Simon Wheeler has worked
with the author on several River Cottage
books. Every recipe has a picture of the
finished dish, or at least one variation of it,
as Fearnley-Whittingstall offers different
takes on many of the recipes.
Ideas for vegetable dishes have been
borrowed from all over the globe. There are
curries from South Asia where much of the
food has always been vegetarian. The chilies
stuffed with beans are Latin-inspired with
cilantro, cumin and hot smoked paprika
bringing out the best of the beans. The
middle-eastern flavoured tahini dressing is
the star of the zucchini and green bean salad
and would make an excellent dressing for
many vegetables.
River Cottage Veg is more than just a
cookbook. It is a passionate statement about
the state of the modern food system and its
pitfalls. It is a challenge to all of us to make
conscious choices about what we consume
and what those choices mean to the world
around us. And as luck would have it, more
veg on our plates is delicious and good for
us too.
Freelance writer JENNIFER GAGEL works as a research
assistant at London Public Library, and as a business process
consultant at Cunningham MacGregor & Associates. Contact
jennagagel@gmail.com