Discover Organic

I seem to be having a lot of luck in winning things at the moment! I was delighted to win this cookery book from a Twitter competition run by Dads Cooking Tonight.

The book is beautifully designed with a nice hard cover, lots of photos and nicely laid out recipes. It also has lots of extras, in addition to the recipes. These include a potted history of organic food, quotes from well known people as to why they love organic and brief articles from the celebrities who have shared their recipes in these pages.

I have to say my first impression of the recipes was, oh my goodness, that's a lot of meat! I knew the book wasn't vegetarian and in fact had entered hoping to win it as a gift for someone else (who isn't vegetarian!). Plus of course, some recipes can be adapted - I'm sure you could substitute mushrooms for the prawns in the Spicy Prawns with Apple and Mint Yoghurt Chutney or even for the beef in the Asian Beef Salad and end up with something equally palatable (I'm certainly willing to try). But Braised Lamb Steak and Roast Chicken are shockingly meaty dishes for this veggie (which isn't a criticism of the book, it's much more about my dietary preferences and what I'm used to seeing in the pages of veggie cookbooks.) More seriously, I have a feeling that reducing the carbon footprint and environmental impact of one's food by going organic naturally fits with going veggie too so I expected an organic cookbook to be a little more veggie friendly.

Having said that there are some excellent veggie recipes in here - the Roast Tomato and Basil Pesto Pasta looks amazing, as does the Tofu and Shiitake Stir Fry. There's a whole array of delicious deserts - including Plum and Cardamon Brulee and Chocolate and Amaretto Panna Cotta. A couple of the recipes include elderflowers, which can be gathered from your local elder bush, bringing in foraging, which I recently talked about here and here. You can't help too but love a cookbook that includes a Treasure Hunt Salad and an ultra simple recipe for Tomatoes on Toast.

So, if you're not a vegetarian and you're wanting to learn more about organic food, this is a highly recommended book. If you are vegetarian though, you will probably want to search out a specifically vegetarian recipe book.


Discover Organic is published by Organic Food UK.