I did not finish the book when I first downloaded it. After some time, I decided to pick it up again and try the recipes for real, and I'm glad I did!! The botanicals the author used were mainly fruits and several kinds of herbs, while I am personally a big meat eater, many recipes were quite refreshing and appealing, not to mention the book is aesthetically very attractive: the layout, the cover, the illustrations and photos are all very nice.

accessible and mouthwatering recipes. Easy to follow recipes and beautiful photographs to accompany them. Overall an inspiring cookbook for celebrating vegetables and fruit!

I rarely try cookbooks. I'm more into the traditional family recipes that I learnt from my mother and the wealth of 30 minutes recipes on my most cherished Pinterest boards. On the rare occasion that I'm attracted to books about food and cookery, something very interesting and original must be at the core of the book. like a Literary Tea Party by Alison Walsh or Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain.

What I loved most about this book is the intersectionality. It isn't defined as some sort of regional cooking but rather it elaborates on botanicals from all around the world. I haven't tried the recipes yet but I definitely admired the logic. It is beautifully laid out and, of course, explained with ease.

I think this is one of those books that add value to the kitchen shelf and expands the boundaries of the foodie in us.

Equal parts food hunter history and international cookbook, food blogger Elly McCausland has created a standout addition to any food enthusiast's bookshelf. Her flowery, romatic prose takes you on a journey through worldwide cusine guided by undervalued ingredients.
The recipes are healthy and accessable for many readers worldwide and across budgets; and beautifually illustrated by the way. Some of my favorites were:
*Apple, goat's cheese, honey and hazelnut tarts
*Chestnut, maple, pear, & vanilla cinnamon buns
*Honey Mango, Coconut & Cardamum cheesecake

4.5 stars

I loved the stunning illustrations in this book, with so many beautiful photo's. I enjoyed seeing different ways of using plants, even though there are many recipes I wouldn't cook, due to availability of ingredients in my area. Still a pretty book for a coffee table, some inspiration and to have in your collection.

A beautifully illustrated gardening, history, and cookbook. Although I live in Canada, I am lucky to live on a farm with old plantations of gooseberry and currants. I look forward to making many new recipes. Some to mention are: smoky aubergine salad with red currants; pear, gooseberry, elderflower, and almond breakfast oat crumble; blackcurrant and lemon verbena cheesecake; gooseberry, elderflower, and ginger crumble cheesecake. Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a copy.

The Botanical Kitchen by Elly McCausland is one of the most beautifully written and illustrated book I have seen for a long time. Within this book she uses fruits, flowers, leaves and seeds in her recipes which I found interesting to use especially the flowers and leaves from your garden. I have made a few of these recipes Banana & Coconut Drommekage which is a lovely Danish cake. Basil and goat's cheese stuffed chicken - that was a hit with my family. Bali banana pancakes WoW these were heaven and a big hut as well.
Fennel never used it before and I loved it - and has been used for several of my dishes I have made lately.

I will be creating more of these wonderful dishes. As I have purchased this book. from Amazon UK.

It's just beautiful throughout.

I highly recommend this book.

I received an advanced reader copy of this beautiful book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Reviews left on my Goodreads Page, Amazon UK ETC

Two worlds that I love combined in one book! Botany and cooking are both inspiring areas, and it is so refreshing to find a book that combines the two. I'm still dipping into it!

An excellent reference and cookbook for anyone looking to increase the nutritional value of their diets by using nuts, seeds, plants and other botanicals. We all know that the less processed food we consume, the better our health will be but most have no idea where to start and we don't want to eat grass and hay. Elly McCausland has given us many excellent recipes that are easy, use familiar ingredients, and taste good too. The recipes I have tried were delicious. We have already picked the next ones to try.

So informative! I have learned so much from this book. It isn't fair to just call this a recipe book as it goes beyond just recipes. It is such a smooth, easy, enjoyable read. Every kitchen would benefit from having this. Though the artwork and photographs didn't seem to be formatted for the digital version that I read, the artwork was beautiful and the photographs were stunning. I very much appreciate how detailed the recipes are and the serving suggestions that are included. I have every intention on purchasing this book as gifts.

I am not sure that I would have read this book had I not known the blog written by Ellie McCausland. The pretty cover, the title and byline all point to foraging and the kind of “back-to-nature cooking” that does not always appeal to me. But I am a passionate cook and a very keen vegetable gardener, and having had success with some of the author’s recipes from her blog, I read further.

It is important to note that this is NOT a foraging book; so for example, the “leaves” in the book include herbs and makrut (kaffir lime) leaves, the “flowers”, saffron and the “seeds” cardamom and sesame.

This is a visually appealing book with clear layout and glorious photographs. It is beautifully written; I especially liked the introductions to each chapter with literary and historical (and botanical and cooking!) references. I also liked the introductory Tips and Tricks in each chapter, with nuggets of information ranging from which varieties to buy to other suggestions such as alternatives for green papaya.

However, the breaking up of chapters into clusters of ingredients like this does still not convince me. It is great to read, but somewhat frustrating as a cook when a breakfast dish follows a main course meal. But maybe I am just a traditionalist!

Onto the recipes themselves; I tried the Blue cheese risotto with sweet balsamic pears and enjoyed it. The pears served as a good balance to the rich risotto. I was less enthralled by the Chickpea, blood orange, kale and lemon salad – a great combination of ingredients for a winter meal when blood oranges and kale are at their best – but the combination was a little dry and unexciting to the palate.
But the star of the show is the Black sesame cream. It was delicious! I used it to make the Noodles with coconut black sesame cream and ginger and lime-roasted broccoli. It is worth buying the book just for this recipe and has made me enthusiastic to try more from the book

A beautiful book illustrated with lovely soft drawings and filled with recipes from the good earth. The book is divided into sections from Orchard fruits, Mediterranean fruits, Tropical fruits, Leaves, Flowers, Seeds and Berries and Currants. The recipes are fresh and inviting and beautifully photographed and each section has tips, advice and a narrative. This is a full bodied book, with meat, fruit, herbs, spices and botanical ingredients.
It is not only a recipe book but a book one can sit and read over time. Elly McCausland knows her stuff, and creates some beautiful, elegant and delicious dishes to eat.

Utterly dreamy and a sheer joy to flick through. The Botanical Kitchen abounds with recipes such as bali banana pancakes, pineapple, vanilla and coconut crumble, mango and cardamom ice-cream that will transport you to another place.

I'm borderline obsessed with cookbooks, and so was thrilled to read a book full of such original recipes. I can't wait to get into the kitchen!

Thanks, Bloomsbury!

What a beautiful book, I love plant based cooking and love to experiment with natural ingredients. This book was just perfect receptive material for me. Thanks to netgalley and Eloy McCausland for the privilege of getting my hands on an advance copy.

Once I'd given up trying to read this on my ipad and transferred to the Adobe Digital version on my pc things took a definite turn for the better. List of ingredients, methods and pictures became linked, presumably because of the formatting on the ipad. The book is beautifully illustrated with mouth watering images of the finished products. If I'm honest I was expecting something a little more focussed on unusual botanicals but the author presents an eclectic mix of recipes as well as introductory sections on various of the featured plants and their history - as a professional botanist, as well as family cook, I enjoyed reading these. I reckon the author has a sweet tooth as there are 45 recipes for cakes, ices, pastries and other sweet delights, 22 with meat or fish, 19 basically vegetarian (but would need butter/cheese substitutes as appropriate) and three bread/sauce type recipes. She has also clearly taken advantage of her travels around the world by including twists of flavour not typical, shall we say, of the traditional British cuisine! Few of us would think of stuffing chicken with basil and goat's cheese for example, but it works well. You really do need access to "ethnic" food stores for quite a few of the fresh ingredients - quinces rarely (never) appear in my local supermarket shelves and, as for bergamots, that would be a no - so thank goodness for the internet even though you then can't see what you're buying, and I prefer local wherever possible. I rely on my Chaenomeles plants to produce mock quinces which aren't a bad substitute. The recipes do, often, have a long list of ingredients amongst the herbs and spices as well but most are what I would consider store cupboard/herb garden items so don't see that as an issue - buy 'em whole and grind 'em fresh. Fresh kaffir limes leaves, if only. The recipes are straightforward and not especially complex in the making, the complexity and innovation come in the combinations of flavours most of which are great although why one would want to put lavender with roast lamb when rosemary is so much nicer I can't imagine, personal taste there. Lavender has such an unpleasant after taste for me. Someone has even put it in gin now!!!! Absolute heresy. I definitely like the idea of cauliflower, date and preserved lemon dumplings although fear/think I'll be using the mix as a filling for crepes/pancakes given the lack of wonton skins around here. Mackerel with tahimi sauce with toasted pine nuts, date and blood orange salsa - that's a go to. Next on my list to cook are the cinnamon and rose shortbreads - a twist on my normal ones but I do just happen to have a box of dried rosebuds in the freezer! Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wonderful illustrations, excellent explanations, and mouthwatering recipes.
This book was a great pleasure to see and to read.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Beautiful, interesting book for those who are creative and like experimenting in the kitchen.
You will have to dig to find some of the ingredients, but otherwise it will definitely mix up your cooking and give you some good ideas.
I personally only knew a few of those recipes or twists on classics and love the idea of cooking more with tea.
A lavender focacchia and a rhubarb and rooibos tea loaf have caught my eye in particular.
And for the vegetarians, there are plenty of meat-free recipes to enjoy.

"The Botanical Kitchen" is a cookbook using bought ingredients, some of them potentially hard to find. For some reason, I thought the focus was going to be more on the leaves and flowers (like how to prepare and use them) than on recipes that happen to throw in some herbs, spices, seeds, fruit, or flowers. She did spend a couple of paragraphs on each of the focus botanicals explaining how to know when a fruit is ripe, where to find some of the more exotic ingredients, some cooking tips, and some history of the fruit or herb or a personal recollection about using it. I'm an American, so I will point out that her recipes use milliliters and grams and her oven temperatures are in Celsius. She also referred to some ingredients in a way that will be unfamiliar to Americans (like linseed instead of flaxseed or rapeseed oil instead of canola oil).

Her recipes note how many it serves or makes, and many recipes included a full-color picture of the finished dish. She included some recipes for salads and such or meat dishes (fish, duck, pork, chicken, beef, etc.), but there were also a lot of recipes for tarts, crumbles, cakes, cookies, and ice cream. She used a lot of dairy.

The "botanicals" she focused on were apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, quinces, figs, apricots, dates, oranges, lemons, bergamot, mango, pineapple, papaya, banana, grapefruit, persimmon, lychees, pomelo, gooseberry, strawberry, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, black currants, red currants, blackcurrant leaves, tea leaves, banana leaves, lemon and lime leaves, basil, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, and other herbs, saffron, rose petals, chamomile flowers, lavender flowers, vanilla beans, elder flowers, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cardamon, and nutmeg.

* I received an e-ARC in exchange of an honest review from the publisher via netgalley


This is a beautiful cookbook with literary allusions . Highly enjoyable with various exotic recipes! To be honest I rely on YouTube for cooking tutorials but nevertheless it is a great reference book.
The author brings forth fruits, herbs and seeds that generally work as secondary elements of cooking and puts them in the front .

I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautifully illustrated cook book, that takes cooking to the next level. Whilst I haven't had a chance to cook something from the book yet, the flavour profiles make sense, even if the are a little unusual. Some of the recipes seem technically advanced and this might make this less accessible to people who are not advanced home cooks, however for those who love cooking and experimenting, I believe this is the cook book for you. I think I am most looking forward to attempting the Strawberry shortcake tart with basil sugar, the Lavender, lemon and goats cheese focaccia and the Halloumi Flatbread with spice chipotle peach and basil salsa.