Features
10 things you’ll love about Green
by Jessica Lockyer-Palmer
published on 24 January 2020, last updated on 7 August 2023
If you’ve not yet ventured into the wonderful pages of Elly Pear’s Green , there’s no better time than now. Not only are Elly’s vegetarian and vegan recipes perfect if you’ve gone meat-free, but her laid-back recipe ideas are ideal for midweek cooking. And with plenty more to love, from batch cooking tips to food to stock up your freezer with, Green is a cookbook you’ll want to make space for. Need a little more convincing? The eBook version of Green is available to download for just 99p for a limited time only. Here are 10 reasons why you’ll love having it at your fingertips…
- Any book that begins with a chapter entitled ‘Freezer Food’ is exactly the kind of book we want to own right now. Helping you to make each meal go further, reduce food waste and cut down your cooking time during the week, these clever freezer-friendly dishes are on heavy rotation in our kitchen. We particularly love this pumpkin gnocchi and sleep pretty soundly knowing we’ve got a batch of it ready to go at the drop of a hat.
Pan-fried Pumpkin Gnocchi with Brown Herb Butter and Kale and Almond Pesto
Want to get more flexible in the kitchen? Like to try lots of different flavour combinations? You’ll love Elly’s clever approach to the recipes in Green , which often feature a simple base recipe that you can flex and switch up with multiple different flavour combos. Think delicious earthy braised lentils two ways: as a zingy fresh salad with orange, fennel and soft herbs or as the base for comforting and hearty bowl food topped with a fried egg, crispy breadcrumbs and za’atar.
There’s a whole chapter dedicated to recipes that’ll be ready in under 20 minutes. You read that right. A whole chapter. 20 minutes. And if you think that means the resulting dish will be any less delicious than a much more time-consuming endeavour, take a look at the spiced paneer and grain bowl from this section and think again.
Spiced Paneer, Spinach and Pea Grain Bowl with Mint Yoghurt Sauce
- We’ve got all the way to number 4 and have not even mentioned that all of the recipes in Green are vegetarian and many are fully vegan or can easily be made vegan with Elly’s suggested ingredient swaps. And these are plant-based recipes at their most exciting and substantial, with plenty of big-hitting flavours and powerhouse ingredients.
- Love to brunch? Based on the number of delicious and exciting brunch recipes in Green , Elly does too. From jalapeño-brined French toast crumpets to gochujang shakshuka, there’s a whole chapter of ideas for brunch done right.
- Want to make use of your time at the weekends to help you get ahead for the week? Green is one of the few books we’ve seen with a dedicated chapter on batch cooking, with recipes designed to help you stock up your fridge with delicious fodder for everything from breakfasts on the go to packed lunches.
Keen to reduce your food waste? We love Elly’s handy page of tips on pickling and conserving, how to blitz leftover fruit and veg to turn them into smoothies, soups and sauces and how to turn a fridge forage into a meal.
If like us, you like to eat with the seasons and support your local farmer’s market, you’ll be pleased to know that Elly places a lot of emphasis on seasonality, with one key section of the book divided up according to the seasons. So from a springtime stuffed filo pie to a wintery shredded sprout salad, you can make the most of every season’s bounty.
Elly does the hard work of figuring out which dishes to mix and match with handy menus at the back of Green for occasions including an autumnal sofa supper or DIY takeaway.
If points 1-9 aren’t enough to convince you, we’ll leave you with the 3 magic words: one-pan meals. The holy grail of easy midweek cooking is more than adequately represented in Green , with the likes of this aubergine, tomato and chickpea traybake making veggie suppers easier than ever before.
Aubergine, Tomato and Chickpea Traybake
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