Anna Jones is a best selling vegetarian cookbook author, she’s won awards, she writes for the guardian and has worked with Jamie Oliver. And most importantly her food is delicious! One is an exciting new collection of modern vegetarian food recepies to make your saturday night recipies celebrate vegtables.
Read on for my one pot pan planet review.
One is a book that not only considers what you eat but the impact of your food on our environment. It’s educates and inspires with practical advice. It creates vegetarian meals that you actually get excited about eating which deliver knock out flavour.
One considers is mindful sustainable cooking at its best. Sometimes sustainable food can conjure up ideas of bland and boring limited food options. Anna Jones’ recipes are far from bland and boring, they are some of the most creative and innovative all in one dinners I’ve come across and deliver knock out flavour. I’m not a vegetarian and vegetarian food to carnivores can sometimes feel like there is something missing from the plate. Anna Jones’ recipes have so many textures and flavours that you don’t feel you are eating a vegetarian meal, just something that is really delicious and filling.
Sustainable Cooking
A concept One Pot Pan Planet dives into is how you can be more conscious when you are buying and cooking your food. Anna Jones writes about how you can take practical action, but at the same time is realistic in thinking that while you may aspire to organic, biodynamic or foraged food it is not always realistic. Her approach is everyday manageable, while trying to increase change. Creative recipes being the catalyst for seasonal eating and less waste.
There are 2 sections in One Pot Pan Planet which delve into food sustainability Planet 1 and Planet 11
Planet 1
Planet 1 is about eating for health and sustainability and backed by a study at Oxford University. It recommends eating seasonal fruit and vegetables alongside nuts, seeds and pulses with some occasional treats.
The question of how much protein we need to eat is raised. We have always given an over importance to protein consumption when in reality we are probably eating more than we need. Anna Jones states we need about 45g for women or 55g for men. This equates to a couple of handfuls of nuts, tofu, meat or fish.
Sustainable foods are discussed alongside unsustainable and ultra processed foods, along with food waste. She lists the most wasted foods and gives actionable advice on how to minimise food waste as well as ideas on how to reuse the most wasted foods. I’m guilting of wasting bread on many an occasion which will now be turned into croutons. Is there a salad that can’t be made better with croutons!
Planning can help reduce waste but Anna is realistic in understanding that people cook in different ways and provides helpful tips for daily cooks, weekly planners and batch cooking to help reduce waste.
Energy consumption is also considered and ways to reduce and save energy are shared.
Planet 11
Panet 11 is about how you can support biodiversity and soil health. There is an abundance of plants that can be eaten, over 30,000! Our current food systems are limiting our selection and we are held back by the age of convenience.
Anna encourages you to be more open and flexible in what you eat and advocates for locally produced food, asking you to consider where and how your food is produced and its carbon footprint. She also challenges you to consider your plastic use and find ways to reduce it.
Sustainable Recipes
Having cooked quite a few recipes from the book, I’m a big fan, but I’m not the only one.
Yotam Ottolenghi says “This is a book where thought meets practical action meets deliciousness”
Vogue “Every so often a cookbook comes along that raises the bar for food writing …The latest chef to join the pantheon: Anna Jones”
I wholeheartedly agree. There is not one thing I’ve made so far that has not tasted absolutely delicious.
There are one pot wonders, tray bakes and even some cakes. Although in some of the recepies the meal requires more than one pot, pan or bowl to make the meal. All in one dinners can sometimes be a bit bland but these creations are full of flavour. Some of the recipes are so simple it’s hard to understand why someone has not come up with them before.
Some of my favorites Anna Jones recipes are:
Halloumi, broccoli & chickpea bake, we eat this at least once a week and has become one of my all time favorite meals. Lightly spiced crispy chickpeas with soft salty halloumi and the sweet zing of pomegranate!
Lemon, tomato and cardamom dhal, light and creamy but at the same time fresh and zingy.
Pine and Crane peanut cucumber noodles, very moreish, chilli spike peanut sauce and fresh vegetables.
Baked dhal with tamarid and glazed sweet potatoes, it’s the tamarind glazed potatoes with their charred edges that transforms this delicious baked dhal into something really special.
Flash fried sticky tofu, whenever I make this it disappears in seconds, people who previously hated tofu are converted.
Almond butter swirl brownies, or vegan brownies, the perfect saturday night movie treat!
Chocolate, olive oil and rosemary cake, this cake is not for the sweet toothed. The unusual pairing of rosemary and chocolate has a delicate herbal backnote and is almost fudgy.
I’ve also got quite a few recepies that I’ve not yet made but can’t wait to try. They include Cinnamon & cherry tomato koshari, Cashew nut pakoras with green dipping sauce, Green olive & herb Welsh cakes, and Strawberry & labneh semifredo.
With over 200 simple recipes there is no excuse not to incorporate a few more sustainable meals into your weekly routine. Anna Jones’ exciting new collection of recipes book is good for your health, your pocket and will help you be and cook more sustainably. So there is no excuse not to make your every night recipes celebrate vegtables.
I hope you enjoyed my review of One pot, pan, planet. If you would like to read more about sustainable living tip click here.
