Newsletter: 🥕🌽Feasting on vegetables – announcing June's Cookbook of the Month + getting passionate about cabbage

A plant-based tale with Frankie Paz – our Cookbook of the Month for June

“Plant Feasts isn’t a normal cookbook. This is my journey of returning to love on all the levels, infused with the wisdom of elders, with a few stories in between.” Frankie Paz

Newly published and now also live on ckbk, Plant Feasts is the story of a journey, across Latin America, and from addiction to a place of healing, self-care, and nourishment.

Nourishment, through a plant-based diet, is documented here with great care, from a writer whose own route to feeding herself well has been rocky, but who wanted to write this book for “anyone who wants to find balance.”

Read our author profile for more about this unique book and the author’s journey – via Jamie Oliver’s Cookbook Challenge for Channel 4 – by Women in the Food Industry Ambassador, Antonia Lloyd. Her feature also includes some of Frankie’s favorite energising recipes.

The book contains sections to encourage reconsidering food and mealtimes as positive and healing elements of your day and life. And the recipes are gloriously photographed and tempting. This is food that you will want to eat, however established your interest in plant-based living.

Start your day with Squat Pancakes, testament to living well when you have little.

One of many recipes born of making the best of what Frankie had at the time, and cooking to feed someone she loved.

Try an Inspired by Spring Salad for lunch – one of a vibrant selection of salads in the book.

Then warm up supper time with Chimichurri Cauliflower Loaded with Pico de Gallo – a fitting flavor-packed centerpiece for a great vegetable feast!

Do let us know about anything you make from Plant Feasts – Frankie’s book is our Cookbook of the Month for June. Remember to take pictures and tell us all about it in our #ckbkclub on Facebook.

If you want yet more veg-centric cookery, head over to our Vegetarian Bookshelf.

Find all 70 recipes from Plant Feasts

Pictured above: Chimichurri Cauliflower Loaded with Pico de Gallo from Plant Feasts by Frankie Paz

A Consuming Passion for Cabbage

In our latest Consuming Passions feature, cookbook author and culinary educator Christine McFadden tells us of her abiding love for cabbage. The author of sixteen books, including Pepper: The Spice that Changed the World, Christine knows a thing or two about getting the most from her ingredients.

Here she tells us of the enormous diversity in the humble cabbage, both in variety, and in its use in different global cuisines. She looks at its long rich history, and how very good it is to eat.

From fermenting to braising, from stuffing to shredding raw in a coleslaw or salad, there is a cabbage dish for every variety and every palate.

She shares cooking tips on how to treat your cabbage well – including advice on the glories of kimchi.

And she compiles some of her favorite recipes from across ckbk – such as Nik Sharma’s Braised Cabbage with Coconut.

Josceline Dimbleby’s curries

Originally published by Sainsbury’s in 1980, Curries and Oriental Cookery is one of a classic best-selling series, many of which were written by Josceline Dimbleby, and that are rightly held in great affection by cooks of that generation and beyond.

Newly added to ckbk, the recipes in Curries and Oriental Cookery, are brought together from India and The Far East, Turkey and North Africa.

Written with the intention of making full-flavored dishes from her travels accessible to cooks in an ordinary English kitchen, these recipes are practical and straight-forward. With techniques and ingredients that are easy to find and use. Try Grilled Chicken Strips, Indian Style, or a dish of Crunchy Stir-Fried Vegetables.

To read more about the books in this classic series, and discover others on ckbk, read our feature Behind the Cookbook: The Sainsbury’s Cookbook Series.

Ingredient focus: watercress

There is evidence that watercress was used as a medicinal plant from the 1st century AD. A wild, soft leafed plant, it has been in wide-spread cultivation since the 1800s. It was a staple food in the UK, and its peppery heat and vibrant green colour are welcome additions to many dishes. It can be eaten raw, or cooked into soups and sauces, indeed any dishes that work with a green leafy vegetable such as spinach or nettle.

Try this Watercress and Gruyère Soufflé from Valentine Warner. Or a bright Watercress, Pear and Celeriac Salad.

There are recipes for salads and soups and sauces and more in our 12 Ways with Watercress collection.

6 of the best macaroons

In recent years the macaron, that smooth pastel-coloured staple of elegant French patisserie, has had more than a moment in the sun. But what of the macaroon, its less-refined, but arguably more delicious cousin? May 31 is National Macaroon Day, so let’s rediscover the joy of the macaroon.