Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from Londons Ottolenghi [A Cookbook] by Yotam Ottolenghi

Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from Londons Ottolenghi [A Cookbook] Reviews

• 
  Manny

  We had lunch at Ottolenghi's Islington restaurant last year. The waiter came with our check, and I told him that in my opinion they made the best salads in the world.
  
  "Yes," he said thoughtfully, "We do."
  
• 
  Geoff

  Ottolenghi is amazing. Chickpeas slow cooked with tomatoes, pimentón, seasoned with homemade za'atar and sumac, with poached eggs on toast is one of the many many ridiculously good things in this book that I now make all the time. Just get off the instagram for a sec and cook a tasty meal for yourselves ya jerks!
• 
  Jan

  The book is broken up into sections broadly by cooking method, which is a little unusual, but does seem to work in this instance. “Tossed” is all about salads, and though it may be contrary to the spirit of the book, I can foresee getting a lot use out of that chapter with summer and the barbeque season coming up (actually, not… there are frequent suggestions for carnivore options to serve the salads with). Next comes “Steamed” which has some excellent rice dishes – I’m tempted to adapt the “Lemon and Curry Leaf Rice” for my multi-cooker, especially since I found curry leaves at the market. There is a short chapter entitled “Blanched” and then we’re into “Simmered” and a lot of interesting soups and pasta dishes among others. “Braised” has what amounts to vegetable stews, even a dish of lentils with manuka honey. In “Grilled” there is a sweetcorn slaw I really must try come summertime. “Roasted” is mainly about things to do with roots, but there are also recipes for roasting Brussels sprouts and for cauliflower which I suspect would come as a revelation to many (the cauliflower certainly did when I served it up). “Fried” opens with pea and mint croquettes which I’m sure my husband will love. “Mashed” has some interesting alternatives to mashed potato, and some cool dips. Then it’s on to “Cracked” and things with eggs – spicy scrambled for brekkie anyone? “Baked” naturally tends to pies and gratins, and a tasty looking savoury bread pudding. Finally, “Sweetened” wanders off into the land of fruity desserts.
  
  One especially pleasing feature is that quantities are given in grams. There are few more annoying things to the cook than finding a recipe that refers to “two onions” with no indication as to what size of onion! My only criticism is that with a plethora of unusual spices and other ingredients being used, a glossary with a general idea of where to find these things would have helpful. This is overall an excellent vegetable cookbook, beautifully illustrated, and by no means just of use to vegetarians. The reality is that we all need to eat more veg, for our own health and that of the planet, and “Plenty More” gives us plenty more ways to do just that.
  
• 
  Kaitlin

  I'm a huge Ottolenghi fan, so I grabbed this cookbook from the library for the winter holiday, went to the market, and dove right in.
  
  The photography is beautiful--and helpful. Since many of his recipes try new ingredients or are a dish I'm not familiar with, the photos are not just gorgeous, but super helpful. Those recipes without a photo were skipped right over (only 3 weeks with the library book!).
  
  The cookbook is all veggies, and as an ex-vegetarian, I really loved that it managed to encompass so many different kinds of foods--roasted, steamed, sweetened, etc. It was a great showing.
  
  While there are some outlandish ingredients (barberries?) some are just a little exotic / something I don't always have on hand and easy to find (pomegranate molasses, whole mustard seeds).
  
  The head notes are fun and thoughtful--I loved the notes on Ruth Reichl particularly because I recently read one of her memoirs.
  
  The instructions are easy to follow, which is nice. As always in an Ottolenghi recipe, there are lots of elements, which I'll talk about below. I didn't mind, but I did put aside significant time to try these. They're REAL cooking.
  
  3 recipes I've tried so far:
  
  -The root vegetable pie, I actually just made the filling and served it over basmati rice, as he suggested
  
  This was DELICIOUS. In fact, I just had the last bit for lunch at my desk and couldn't believe how well the flavors and colors stood up to a couple days in the fridge. I loved the mix of root veg with the curry flavors. The sweetness of the root veg really evened out the curry nicely. The flavor made this recipe a keeper. The time it took t chop everything was a lot, but it was worth it. I chopped potato, onion, crushed garlic, chopped parsnip, carrot and herbs... I watched an episode of Elementary while cooking this dish! It ended up being just delicious. A perfect main course and great leftovers.
  
  -The Brussels sprout risotto
  I made this as suggested and to the T. No altering here! It was good, but it was really time-intensive. And I don't usually fry, so that was an added element here. The ingredients were pretty normal, nothing crazy. The shredding of the sprouts I might do in a food processor next time, that was a little time intensive. It was a typical risotto with a great addition of lemon rind (I accidentally ate a piece, very floral...) and shredded sprouts, and fried sprout quarters. The cheese added was blue, I used Trader Joes and I think the recipe would have benefited from something a little more exciting. It was good, but the dishes and time meant it was a one-time dinner. Not making that again. Also, it made a TON of risotto, so best made for a crowd of 4+ Risotto isn't so great left over...
  
  
  -The honey roasted carrot with tahini yogurt
  
  Yum--unexpected and delicious. The coriander and cumin seeds were a little tricky--I have them, but not as seeds. Otherwise, pretty normal ingredients unless you don't keep tahini on hand. Again, lots of chopping, but just do it as you're watching a show and you're good to go. I really enjoyed this.
  
  There are a bunch more recipes I'd like to try, I flagged them... might just need to invest in this cook book for my shelf!
• 
  Jennifer

  Ottolenghi gets a tad more personal in the second edition of his masterpiece cookbook. Glimpses into his personal life as a parent, an expat, and memories from his childhood are weaved into the recipe introductions - as are more mentions and praises of his staff in London. Once again, he breaks all the notions we could have about cultural boundaries in food, mixing maple syrup with lime juice and nigella seeds and the like. An inspiration, as usual, which will be splattered upon in my kitchen for years to come.
• 
  Philippa

  Oh these recipes! Tempted to do a Julie Powell and cook every recipe from it....everything looks and sounds amazing.
• 
  Katie

  Good lord these recipes! These photos! I hate the phrase "food porn" and I don't think it is the right phrase here either, though many would call it that. These pictures are art. Food art. The recipes are incredibly easy and flavorful. I can say that having not made any of them, but just reading through the book and looking at the photos; I can taste them and smell them through the art.
  
  I have about twenty recipes earmarked after one quick look through. So, if you'll excuse me, it's time for dinner.
• 
  Helen

  Much desired Christmas gift. Feel as if I want to cook everything so started with the tomato and pomegranate salad on page 1.
  Enough to make you give up meat really.
  Beautiful recipes.
• 
  Valissa

  I like cookbooks. The pictures are usually so appetizing, the directions so . . . direct. It is the ingredients that leave me cold. Not only do most of these lovely recipes include things I cannot find, they involve toasting raw nuts that I will have shelled, or roasting some exotic root vegetable grown in a hydroponic garden by virgins, or some shite like that.
  
  Out of 100 or so recipes there were 3 that I actually thought about copying out to try. Then I realized I still had a box of mac & cheese (spongebob shapes!) and decided that was waaaaay better than Globe Artichoke and Mozzarella with Candied Lemon could be.
• 
  Sophia

  Yotam has magically created another vegetarian cookbook that was better than his first.
  
  Yes, his ingredient lists can be long and sometimes have obscure ingredients.
  
  Yes, a good number of his recipes can feel complicated.
  
  But, the end result is so worth it. I've cooked and tasted some of the most mind-boggling food from this cookbook.
• 
  Rebecca

  There were still plenty (haw haw) of recipes I want to try from here, but it just didn't seem to have quite the same impact as other Ottolenghi cookbooks. It almost felt like I was being fed "Ottolenghi the Brand", exaggerating the unusual flavours and combinations he became known for - and then I found out he has started using a test kitchen, along with four other cooks, to work on his recipes. I'm not saying that they're ghost written, exactly, just that I feel there is more of an emphasis on quantity than quality here, that is different from his earlier books. As I said, however, still several recipes I want to have a crack at :)
• 
  Shilpa

  Every recipe in here requires 5 star effort for a 3 star result. I hate time consuming recipes with endless ingredient lists. If you are the same, DO NOT PICK UP THIS BOOK. There were some recipes for which the ingredient list was a full page long! I like cooking but I hate tedium (steaming an eggplant for 30 minutes then draining it for 40 minutes then marinating for 10 minutes by which time it's 1:30 pm and I'm starving).
• 
  Lyn Elliott

  Another great collection from Ottolenghi. I love browsing through his books, spotting ideas for seasonal ingredients. So much more satisfying than looking online for something you already know exists.
• 
  Cindy

  Made my meat at every meal husband want to be a vegetarian
• 
  Anna

  
  
  Thanks to NetGalley and Ten Speed Press for the ARC of this book.
  
  This is a beautiful vegetarian cookbook. It has a wide range of vegetarian recipes inspired by all corners of the globe. The recipes are illustrated by stunning colourful photography, with lovely full page photos which make the food look very attractive.
  
  The recipes are divided into the following sections by techniques:
  
  Tossed (salads)
  Steamed
  Blanched
  Simmered
  Braised
  Grilled
  Roasted
  Fried
  Mashed
  Cracked (recipes with eggs)
  Baked
  Sweetened (puddings)
  
  I thought this seemed a slightly odd choice. It probably would have been more useful to divide them by seasons, or into meal planners, such as whether they were everyday options or food for friends.
  
  Th introduction isn’t particularly interesting. It felt more like an advert for Ottolenghi’s London businesses rather than an insight into his food ethos or what the recipes in the books were suitable for.
  
  The recipes seem quite simple. In spite of the fact that they often seem to have a large number of ingredients, the instructions are usually very short. There are short introductions to each recipe with information on what to each the recipe with or explanations of strange ingredients or the heritage of the dish.
  
  There’s not a great deal of additional information with the recipes, for example there is no nutritional information such as calorific content.
  
  The ARC I received must be the American version of the book as it used ingredient names such as arugula and cilantro rather than rocket and coriander. It also has American measurements such as cups. As Ottolenghi is based in London, I assume there is a British version of this book with English ingredient names and weights.
  
  Ottolenghi is renowned for using hard to find ingredients. I don’t this most of the recipes in this book are too bad. Although there were a few which contained ingredients which I would not be able to find in my local supermarket/town such as daikon, kohlrabi, barberries, pomegranate molasses, tofu puffs, labneh and pandan leaves. There were also a few which contained ingredients I had never heard of such as dakos (Cretan barley husks), brown beech mushrooms, panch phorah, shiso leaves and lemon geranium water. So it would be important to read the recipe and plan some of the ingredients before trying to cook anything.
  
  None of the recipes appealed to me enough to make me want to cook them. However, I’m pregnant at the moment with cravings for carb-heavy bad for you food and an aversion to anything green, so these vegetable-heavy recipes which would normally appeal to me are less attractive at the moment.
  
  However, I may try out some of the strange sweet dishes. I like the sound of Grilled banana bread with tahini and honeycomb.
  
  Overall, this seemed like an interesting recipe book which would be a good addition to any veggie’s shelf.
• 
  Dan Smith

  I am a sucker for vegetarian cookbooks. They appeal to my utter lack of sense in being able to put a meal together in any coherent way combined with my desire to do so. Meat-based dishes are easy: identify meat, pick how you do it, then add some veg and carb. The veg and carb can afford to be fairly baseline, although clearly there are heights of sophistication you can achieve there.
  
  Vegetarian? It's all a bit more freeform. Although you can have a central dish, it lends itself more easily to a series of dishes which go together as equals. And that means you can pick a few that you like which kind of go together in tone and/or region, balance up the food groups, and everything will be fine.
  
  My wife might disagree.
  
  I'm also a nut for tabbing up cookbooks with Post-It notes as I browse, leaving often either a bristling carpet of delights or a few lonely disconsolate highlights. Fortunately Plenty More is firmly in the former category.
  
  And I've even persuaded the wife, who knows far more about these things than I do, that some of them might work on the kids: baked orzi seems a good mutation on pasta bake, and pea and mint croquettes involve a combination of familiar flavours brought together to make something just this side of exotic.
  
  Plus there are some wacky dishes there involving silly made-up ingredients that obviously don't really exist: pass the za'atar, would you? Oh darling, we've run out of verjuice! Damn it, why can one not get buna-shimeji mushrooms on a Saturday afternoon past 4pm in this city?
• 
  Michelle

  I've read all of the Ottolenghi cookbooks, and this one is probably my favorite. The photographs are beautiful, and the recipes are inspiring. All of the Ottolenghi cookbooks makes me want to eat vegetables ALL OF THE TIME. Bravo. This cookbook makes me want to book a flight to London, just to eat at Ottolenghi.
• 
  Michelle

  As expected, this is a beautiful, beautiful book. No let-downs from Ottolenghi. :-) Loved just reading and immersing in the recipes, stories and photography. OK, won't be able to make many (fresh curry leaves in small Midwestern towns, anyone???) but no less a joy to read.
• 
  Iris Lee

  My favorite Yotam Ottolenghi book, by far. Not only because it is strictly vegetarian, (although not vegan) but also because of recipes here that are not only fusion Middle Eastern. Love his creativity in the kitchen. I like the organization of this book by the method of cooking.
• 
  Katie Johnstonbaugh

  I love this book even more than Plenty. I have made several of the recipes now. Several of them had some odd combinations that I thought would never work -but they do! This book is the perfect compliment for a vegetable lover and a gardener and I am both!
• 
  Zach Dionne

  Nobody's cookbooks/food books are better.
• 
  Lucy Coats

  Cooking my socks off and learning much about vegetarian recipes - Ottolenghi is ace!
• 
  Amy

  Coffee table gorgeous. Did I mention that my carnivore husband sticky flagged at least a dozen veggie recipes to try? This one's a winner, folks.
• 
  Melissa

  Gorgeous, complicated, special recipes. Food porn for veggie lovers. Made the rice noodle salad with edamame, scallions & cilantro tonight. Yum.
• 
  Onceinabluemoon

  Loved plenty, nice to see follow up. Great pics of healthy meatless recipes.
• 
  Jodie Gale

  Been vegetarian for nearly 30 years - without a doubt one of the most beautiful cookbooks out there.
• 
  Lucy

  Beautiful vegetable recipes. I marked so many that I was interested in, I wanted to make almost everything from this book! I think his descriptions are also clear and appreciate that he often suggests alternatives for hard-to-get or complicated preparation ingredients.