Book Review: “The River Cottage”


river cottage veg book

Angela shares one of her favourite vegetarian recipes from “The River Cottage”.

As a vegetarian who loves to cook and eat, I have a huge collection of cookbooks. Some of them I use a lot, others not so often. But my absolute favourite is “River Cottage Veg Every Day!” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

I bought my copy as soon as it was published back in 2011. I think I’ve cooked at least one recipe from it every week since then!

Hugh is best known as a TV cook who loves his meat. So when this book first came out, a lot of people were surprised.

But his mission was to encourage everyone, vegetarian or not, to include more veg in their diets every single day. That makes this book perfect for both committed vegetarians and meat-eaters who’d just like to up their veg intake.

River Cottage

What I love most about this book is that the recipes are really simple and easy to follow, and Hugh suggests lots of exciting combinations you might never dream up on your own.

The one I made last week is a good example of this. The combination of roasted squash, mushrooms and blue cheese in a salad might sound unusual, but trust me, it is completely delicious – and super healthy, too. You can see from the well-used sticky note in my copy just how often I’ve made this dish!

If you want to try it for yourself, you’ll find the recipe on Hugh’s River Cottage website.

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Angela Gilchrist

Angela is Former Editor-in-Chief of “The People’s Friend” magazine. Her passions include cats, Highland ponies, good books, vegetarian food and long walks in the Scottish countryside. Her favourite place to get away from it all is the magical Isle of Skye.