Mumsnet Talk

Really desperate to buy one of these books but which one has the yummiest, easiest recipes??

Trying to introduce more veggie meals to family, but don't want loooong lists of ingredients or expensive items.

Both books are £12.50 at tesco so wouldn't wanna get both.

Also want to avoid the fate of the vast majority of recipe books that make it over our threshold......left on the shelf NEVER to be read again (apart from La Lawson of course)

tia

I reserved the HFW book from the library for just 60p. You can probably get most sorts that way. That way you could try it out.

HFW, no contest. I found Meat-Free Mondays really disappointing, lots of very familiar recipes, not very imaginative. Also, it is printed in tiny font on sludgy-coloured paper - the overall effect is quite attractive, but it makes it really hard to actually use in the kitchen.

I have loads of cookery books, and HFW's are among those I use most often (apart from Nigella!). Nigel Slater's Tender is also very good for veggie recipes. And Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian - it's been around for a while now, but it has lots of really good, straightforward recipes. I also like the two Riverford veg books, and there are masses of recipes on their website.

We've been using HFW - I got it for Xmas and have had some yummy meat free meals. Sweetcorn fritters were especially good, we had the chilli a few days ago and the pizza with blue cheese and potato was much nicer than I'd expected. The only one we've tried and not liked that much was one with squash that was a bit dull.

I don't know the other one but HFW is AMAZING. We've been cooking from it since New Year, have done about 25 recipes so far, none of them any less than very good and most of them excellent.

Some of them are a bit of a faff, it has to be said, but that's the reason why it's good: as well as being really good combinations of ingredients, he gets you to take a bit of trouble over vegetables and it is well worth it.

HGW it is, I think deep down I was gunning for this one really, having seen a scrummy mint pesto pasta dish on amazon!

Thanks all

oh, brilliant, can you lot say what recipes you've done? i got it for christmas and can confirm the aubergine parmigiana is LUSH (although next time i'm doing the aubs in the oven rather than frying individually as that was a faff).
thought the curry from the ang harnett recipe was only okay... haven't done anything else but am off to look at sweetcorn fritters.

I love the HFW book, it's now my favourite cook book, and I have shelves full.

Aitch - it would take too long to list all, but I did the first 8 (before I realised that working through the book in order would mean pie four days in a row ). Also highly recommended: the sweet potato gratin, both lentil salads, the beetroot and walnut hummus.

Am also quite thrilled by the genius of putting a skewer through your asparagus stems when you griddle them to make it easy to turn them over.

oh yes i do that on the barbie... the lentil salads do look sensational, i was waiting until the weather got better but that's a bit stupid i now think. what recipes did the kids enjoy the most?

yep, the HFW book rocks. Have made 6 recipes so far and not one has been a flop

the baba ganoush was lovely, so was the fennel pasta, so was the chachouka. All lovely.

I love the HFW one - we had bean stuffed peppers last night - v. yummy.

I'm sitting here eating leftover squash and fennel for lunch. Mmmmmmm.

squash and fennel lasagne I mean

Recipe books are lovely, and I have them dating back over 150 years and still get given them as presents. However, in today's world I really don't see the point of having a huge collection, when you can Google any recipe/compare and constrast if you have internet access. All the celebrity chefs compete online. I love HFW would have happily had his babies but as to buying the book for a few recipes, no.

I like to read them in bed. Plus, our internet isn't 100% reliable and we don't have a printer set up all the time.
I love recipe books.

Anyway, just wanted to mention the kale and onion pizza. OMG! It's nice! And it's made out of kale!

I love the HFW book, it's better than any of the ones I have by veggie authors.

i very rarely cook recipes from the internet, i like to leaf through books until i salivate. that doesn't happen for me online...

We've had chachouka, spinach spouffle, courgette and rice pie, mushroom and polenta, chilli cheese polenta, sweet potato and peanut gratin, mushroom and squash salad, red cabbage and dates, mexican tomato and bean soup, fennel and celeriac soup, porotos granados, parsnip and ginger soup, chestnut soup, bean and leek soup, quinoa with courgettes and onions, swede speltotto, cambodian dip, beeetroot and walnut hummus, artichoke and bean dip, squash and merguez chickpeas, and swede with onion and sage. All from HFW. all delicious.

And all available on the web.

if you know to go looking for them... for thirteen quid i like a book.

My mouth is watering at the sound of all those recipes georgeeliot!!

We have done the kale and mushroom lasagne, macaroni peas and the vegetable biryani (twice) from HFW

Dp made the mushroom stoup, it was amazing