BOSH!: Simple Recipes. Amazing Food. All Plants. The fastest-selling cookery book of the year. Henry Firth
for a deliciously nutritious smoothie at any time of the day.
Bought too many veggies? That’s OK: freeze them and use them later. Made too much pasta sauce? Pop it in a Tupperware or a freezer bag and keep it ready for a quick meal.
Keep your kitchen and pantry well organised to make life easier
Organise your pantry well and you’ll always have meals ready to cook – check out here for key ingredients to keep in stock. We go full nerd with sticky labels to highlight the right places for things. It makes cooking so much more satisfying and efficient because we’re not constantly searching for ingredients in the cupboard.
We tend to organise our pantry shelves into sections like ‘sauces & syrups’, ‘oils & vinegars’, ‘herbs & spices’, ‘flour, sugar & baking’, ‘grains, rice, pasta’, plus the essential ‘tea & coffee’ shelf. Figure out a system that works for you. Trust us, knowing where things are makes fast cooking much easier.
Finally, organise your spices in a way that’s easy to browse. We prefer smaller tubs of spices since they tend to be a consistent size and they usually have labels on the top. Plus, big bags of spice are harder to store and spices tend to go off if they’re left on the shelf for too long. You’ll soon discover which herbs and spices you get through quickly and which are worth buying in bulk – try decanting them into jars and adding your own labels on the lid.
EQUIPMENT
The equipment you find in your typical kitchen is going to work just fine for the recipes in this book. There is nothing super fancy or technical about what we do in our kitchen; we like to keep things simple. But, if we were going to design a cost-effective kitchen from scratch, here’s how we would do it:
Essential items
These should be your go-to items. We use these every day to make great BOSH! food.
High-powered blender (like a NutriBullet, Magic Ninja or Magimix)
A good, sharp knife (and sharpener)
A selection of chopping boards that look great on the side and inspire you to cook
A kitchen timer or your mobile phone to get the timings right
Neatly stored spices, all in one place so you can find them quickly
A varied selection of preferably non-stick saucepans
Large spoons and tongs that work with your pans (don’t use metal on non-stick!)
Measuring tools, like a measuring jug, weighing scales and measuring spoons
Nice-to-have items
Get these if you like. They will speed up your cooking, but they’re optional.
Keep a clean tea towel in your pocket as you cook and you’ll feel like a pro
Large-bowl food processor or hand blender
Oven-to-table dishes (for lasagne and pies)
Garlic crusher
A grater to zest or grate dairy-free cheese
A good rolling pin
Completely optional, but very cool items
These come in handy from time to time in our kitchen, so get them if you wish.
Pizza stone for better cooking and a crispier crust
Waffle iron
Toasted-sandwich maker
Slow cooker for long, slow, melt-in-the-mouth curries
Tiny dishes (soy sauce dishes) for measuring out spices before you start to cook
Sealing clips to keep opened packets of food from spilling everywhere
Tupperware or storage jars to keep your cupboards organised and store leftovers
Tofu press to make it even easier to cook with tofu
INGREDIENTS
The chances are that you already have most of these ingredients in your cupboard or your fridge. What we hope this book will do is unlock the potential in your store cupboard, and help you turn that humble tin of chickpeas into the most awesome falafel, or transform your usual pasta dish into something you’d be proud to serve at a dinner party. Get stocked up!
Essentials
If someone were to ask us what we keep in our kitchen cupboards, this would be the answer. We use these ingredients all the time and always keep them in stock so that we can whip up a quick meal without having to go to the shop first.
Pasta, in all its many forms, will answer your hunger prayers
Having rice in the cupboard means you’ll always have something to eat
Noodles are a great base for speedy, nourishing and satisfying meals
Olive or groundnut oil, to use sparingly when frying or roasting
Sea salt and black pepper to season to perfection and bring your food to life
Garlic, because it’s the best thing ever, used by nearly every cuisine in the world
Tinned chickpeas give you the wonder beans with which you can make hummus and falafel, plus aquafaba, an incredibly useful substitute for egg and dairy in cooking
Various tinned beans will ensure you get your protein whenever you need it
A stock of tinned tomatoes means you always have a base for sauces
A selection of spices for essential flavour – never underestimate their power
Fresh fruit, veggies and herbs because your mum told you to eat your greens and she was right
Nuts and seeds are fantastic for flavour, terrific for texture and super, super healthy
Peanut butter will give you energy, texture and flavour in abundance
Plant-based milk will crop up in our recipes again and again – we like almond milk best
Tinned coconut milk will help you craft creamy curries
Specialities
We tend to have these in our cupboards too, but we use them less frequently.
Nutritional yeast provides a nutty, cheesy taste and is a great source of vitamin B12
Cashew nuts can be soaked and blended for cream or cooked for a satisfying crunch
Passata will help your Italian dishes come to life
Kalamata olives add wonderful flavour and robust texture
Sun-dried tomatoes offer an incredible depth of flavour
Tinned peppers are great blended up to add to a tomato sauce or soup
Dairy-free cheese will provide familiarity and texture