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Whole by Harriet Birrell, Plant Based Wholefood Cookbook

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Sale price$55.00
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Harriet Birrell started out selling organic smoothies and raw desserts from a caravan on a bush block at Barwon Heads. Whole came out of that, and it still carries the same easy coastal logic, which is probably why it lands so well here.

Based on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula, Birrell built her cooking around what she actually eats between surfing, work and family, and the result is over a hundred plant-based wholefood recipes that do not ask much of you. Breakfasts, salads and bowls through to proper main dishes and desserts, photographed by Nikole Ramsay across 304 pages. Her argument is simply that there is an abundance of good whole food available and that the best thing to do with it is keep the preparation straightforward.

It makes a good gift for someone who has just moved into a first flat, a keen cook looking to eat more seasonally, or anyone drawn to the coastal wellbeing end of the shelf. It sits alongside The Beauty Chef Gut Guide and the rest of the wellbeing gift range, and browses well within the wider Books collection.

Why You'll Love It

  • Over one hundred plant-based wholefood recipes across 304 pages
  • Breakfasts, salads, bowls, mains and desserts, all in one volume
  • Photography by Nikole Ramsay, warm and unfussy
  • Written around a coastal, everyday way of eating
  • Accessible ingredients and weeknight-friendly methods

Where It Lives Best

This is a kitchen book, so let it live there. It stands well on a bench between bookends or lies flat on an open shelf near the stove. The soft, natural cover suits a kitchen with timber, linen and unglazed ceramics rather than anything high-gloss, and it looks particularly at home in a coastal palette. Keep it somewhere you will reach for it rather than somewhere it will stay clean.

FAQs

Do I need to be vegan to cook from this?
Not at all. The recipes are plant-based, but the book is written for anyone wanting more vegetables on the table rather than for people following a strict diet. Most work as a side or a centrepiece depending on what else you are serving, which makes it an easy addition to an existing repertoire. If you want a New Zealand counterpart on the shelf, Tasty by Chelsea Winter sits well beside it.

Is it complicated cooking?
No, and that is rather the point. Ingredients are the kind you can find at a decent supermarket or market, and the methods are simple enough for a weeknight. It is a cookbook for actual weekday cooking rather than weekend projects.

In Short

Whole by Harriet Birrell is a 304-page plant-based wholefood cookbook with over one hundred recipes, from breakfasts, salads and bowls to mains and desserts, photographed by Nikole Ramsay. It suits everyday weeknight cooking and makes a good gift for keen cooks and anyone wanting more vegetables on the table.

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