BOSH!: Simple Recipes. Amazing Food. All Plants. The fastest-selling cookery book of the year. Henry Firth
Welcome
We’re here to show you how you can eat delightful meals that are both easy to cook and incredibly satisfying, all using just plants.
Let us introduce you to a new way of thinking about food; one that we’ve developed and perfected together over the last three years, and that is becoming increasingly popular.
It involves eating delicious, hearty, even indulgent meals that are both comfortingly familiar and exciting, and without any need for meat or dairy.
It’s also a new way of cooking. Animal products are so ingrained in the human diet that we’ve had tens of thousands of years to hone the art of cooking with them. But the concept of cooking without meat and dairy is still relatively new. Which can only mean one thing: there is so much potential yet to be unleashed from plant-based eating.
We promise you’ll find in this book your new, fail-safe family favourites, inspiring lunch ideas, showstoppers that’ll impress even the most staunch steak-lover, tasty snacks, outrageously good puds (we’re pretty good at those, if we do say so ourselves) and awesome cocktails, every one bursting with flavour.
So, whether you’re thinking about reducing the amount of meat you eat, or you don’t eat animal products at all, this book is for you.
BOSH!
If you’d told us three years ago we were going to spend our lives cooking and eating amazing plant-based food, we wouldn’t have believed you. We were a couple of mates from Sheffield who ate meat every single week.
Now we run BOSH!, the biggest plant-based online channel in the world. Our food creations were viewed by half a billion people in our first year and our most popular recipe videos have been viewed over 50 million times. We never expected to have that kind of success, and it has been humbling.
‘I was the one to first cut out animal products.’
Ian
‘I mocked Ian when he went vegan, and asked him where he’d get his protein from. But eventually he won me over. That and the whole saving the world by not eating mass-produced animal products thing.’
Henry
After cutting out animal products entirely, both of us felt fantastic. But we had to re-learn how to cook and find food when we were out and about. We also found that the vegan food available in restaurants or in cookbooks was often, frankly, not very good.
We saw an opportunity. Since then, it’s been our life’s mission to show people how to make delicious plant-based meals. However often they choose to do that.
And now, after three years of eating plant-based food, we’ve mastered a new style of cooking, one made popular through a new breed of internet chefs, where novelty and wow-factor presentation are just as important as taste and ease.
With this new style of cooking, we’ve created all-plants versions of classic dishes that are free from meat, eggs and dairy, but still totally scrumptious. You know your favourite dishes, the ones you’ve learned by heart and use again and again? Well these are your new go-to classics.
Everything we do is aimed at showing just how easy it is to eat more plants. We also want to prove how delicious, hearty and satisfying plant-based food can be.
We cook, drink and film delicious recipes for the world, all from our home studio in East London.
x Henry and Ian
Cook fast food fast. Spend time on showstoppers.
Sometimes you just need to eat quick, and you reach for your classic speedy dishes. Check out our Quick Eats chapter for yummy plates that you’ll be able to get on the table in 30 minutes or less. Other times you’re cooking for an occasion and looking to impress. Check out our Big Eats chapter for classics that will be worth the extra time, taking up to an hour to prep, or our Showpieces chapter for masterpieces that take that little bit longer (but the results are well worth it).
Get it right. First time. These are high-quality recipes.
Every recipe in this book has been rigorously and repeatedly tested again and again by us and our wonderful food team. We give you our word that these recipes work to a level that many in other cookbooks do not. These are high-quality recipes. Get the right kit, follow the instructions and you can easily cook these meals to perfection.
To make it easier for you to work quickly, we’ve also included the preparation instructions (like peeling and chopping) in the method. This ensures that you make the best use of your time, cooking as quickly as possible. We’ve also included a ‘before you start’ section above each recipe method, to highlight any special equipment you need or anything you should do before you start cooking. All oven temperatures are for fan ovens, so adjust the temperature if you have a conventional oven.
Create restaurant-quality meals at home
Check out our Fantastic Feasts section here to create menus as good as (or better than) anything you’ll get from a restaurant or takeaway, with dishes that complement each other.
Whether you’re in the mood for an Asian blowout, an Indian banquet, a Tex-Mex spread or a big Sunday lunch, you’ll find everything you need in this book.
Watch videos to see how we do it
Looking for a helping hand when cooking a recipe? We’ve created a simple, top-down recipe video for the trickier dishes so you can see exactly how to cook them, step by step. Check out our website www.bosh.tv
Here are a few tips from us to help you really master your kitchen and your cooking skills.
Be a continuously improving cook, whatever your level
Whether you’re just starting out cooking only with plants or you’re already accomplished with vegan food, there’s always something new to learn. Here’s how to be at the top of your game.
Treat each recipe you cook as an opportunity to learn something new. Don’t fall into the trap of cooking the same things on repeat; find new recipes, get the right ingredients and try them out.
Up your skills from time to time with videos and books. Improve your knife skills with videos on YouTube. Use any of the amazing online tools, or a collection of cookbooks, to store up recipes to try in future. You can use post-its to mark the pages with recipes you want to try!
There’s always something new to master, whether it’s basics like getting vegan béchamel nailed or advanced baking with aquafaba. This new, plant-based way of thinking about food has so much freedom for innovation, so you’ll be constantly improving.
Keep fruit and veggies on hand (or on ice) at all times!
A fridge full of fruit and veggies is not only good for your pocket, but they’ll also keep really well. Onions, garlic and potatoes are best kept out of the fridge in a cool, dry place.
Got lots of fruit left over? Stick it in the freezer and use it to make morning smoothies. Peel and chop the fruit into bite-sized chunks and put it into a Tupperware container for easy use later. We have a constant store of frozen bananas, apples,