River Cottage Good Comfort: Best-Loved Favourites Made Better for You

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There are people who actually prefer the taste of the healthier versions that are implicitly denigrated by entrepreneurial millennial vegans like Tegelaar and these café owners. The last time I made a cake with the full amount of suggested sugar, I found it pretty unpleasant, and sugar totally overwhelmed the other flavours. The introduction in Good Comfort, when mentioning reducing sugar in their café cakes, at least recognises people like us exist and are worth catering to: "the few guests who notice this change invariably comment positively: 'I really like that it isn't too sweet'". Actually, we can have both on the same plate and both in the same dish. We can enjoy treats, foods that are really well balanced - they've got lots of good things in them. Often that means a few little tweaks, and sometimes there are some bigger tweaks, but it's all very doable."

For the duration of that meal, everybody could relax, everybody could tell a story and everyone could smile." But where this book does fall down is in not giving any general advice in the introduction about preferred dairy substitutes, and in which dishes they do and don't work - and in having very few cakes and puddings with vegan options. I don't bother to find fault with older omni cookbooks for being full of dairy with no substitution ideas; it was just the norm before the last few years. But as HFW and River Cottage have already produced a fully vegan book ( Much More Veg), and even early Nigella books happen to contain a few more dairy free or even accidentally-vegan cakes than this one does, I definitely think they could do better in this area. Why don't we eat more veg? They're healthy, cost-effective and, above all, delicious. In this book, the biggest selling veg cookbook of all time, Hugh put this to rights. It can be whipped up easily (and on demand) from store-cupboard ingredients. Briefly baked until set on the outside but still gooey in the middle, it is excellent served with some fruit to cut the richness.”Rachel de Thample shines a light on one of the oldest methods of preserving food, which is just as relevant today, and shows you how to produce delicious and health-boosting ferments in your own kitchen. For millennia, that was the human race's relationship with food, and it was pretty much all you thought about all day. Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage has been re-evaluating its relationship with sugar for a few years now. Whether you need to cut gluten out of your diet or you're cooking for friends & family with gluten intolerance, River Cottage Gluten Free will provide the tools you need to gain inspiration and navigate mealtimes.

This is all part of the 57-year-old chef and food writer's mission to get us eating a bit more healthily - and that doesn't mean you have to miss out on your favourite, stodgy comfort foods. Turn the mixer down to a low speed and, with the motor running, slowly pour in the tepid melted chocolate and butter mixture (or whisk it gently by hand). Use a rubber spatula to scrape the last drops of chocolate into the mix, and then to fold the mixture fully together. During River Cottage Spring (2008) Hugh helped a group of Bristol families start a smallholding on derelict council land. About 150-200g cooked potatoes or cold mash (you can also use a mixture of roots such as spuds and celeriac or parsnips), ideally still skin-onI asked the River Cottage people online which of their cookbooks they would recommend for a dairy-intolerant omni who enjoys their veg books and who likes cooking soups and stews. The first of their recommendations was this. I was sceptical as it was their most recent publication - maybe they just wanted to shift more copies - but I took a closer look.

I'm already onboard with reducing sugar: I find most modern recipes and storebought cakes have far too much sugar for my taste. My cakes, biscuits and puddings mostly come from battered recipe books from decades ago. HFW's other mission is to encourage cooks to use a variety of good ingredients, which is my culinary mission too.

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But the sweetness is adjusted, and other ingredients are added - such as parsnips or carrots into cakes, or a date syrup instead of a "knee-trembling amount of fudgy toffee". Tip the spuds into the pan. If they aren't already mashed, crush them roughly with a fork or masher, but keep the texture quite chunky. Let the heat penetrate the potatoes for a minute or two then add all the other veg, and any herbs or flavour bombs, with a little more seasoning. Stir together then press the whole lot down into a rough cake.