The Botanical Kitchen

Yummm! The Botanical Kitchen is #1 a very eye catching cookbook for someone that loves plants (me being one of them)! The beautiful watercolor illustrations, and the vibrant photography throughout, make it a great browsing experience. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I can't wait!

A lovely cookbook beautifully illustrated an artistic gem.The recipes a guide to step by step coking with botanicals is a book I will dip into again and again.I will also be gifting this book to foodie friends.#netgalleys#bloomsburyuk

This book is a great resource to aspiring cooks and botany geeks alike. The recipes are easy to follow and the pictures are beautiful. The book is truly a celebration of nature's bounty and will be firmly residing on my kitchen shelf when it comes out.

A glorious celebration of the use of plants in cooking. The description of ingredients makes your mouth water. The recipes are easy to follow and are a pleasure on your tastebuds. Many thanks to Netgalley for the early e book copy.

This was a lovely title and I enjoyed the commentary and information accompanying each section. My only problem were the metric measurements. It was clear this was written for British readers, but it is such a beautiful title I'd love to be able to enjoy the treats in the U.S.!

This is a beautiful book for a select audience. The photos are works of art worthy of framing. The recipes themselves are decidedly geared towards European-minded foodies. I'm not sure I've ever thought to make Reindeer Steaks with Blackcurrant and Juniper, but if I did then this is the book I'd reach for.

I expected this book to focus on recipes for more exotic "botanical" ingredients or more novel ways of using plant parts, but they use pretty standard botanicals in fairly standard ways. Chapters include: Orchard fruits, Mediterranean fruits, Tropical fruits, Leaves, Flowers, Seeds, and Berries & Currants. While most Americans don't use flowers that often, the ones featured here are pretty typical ones that many of us cook with -- elderflowers, lavender, chamomile, rose, saffron and vanilla. Leaves are blackcurrant leaves, banana leaves, tea leaves, herbs and kaffir lime leaves. The others are pretty standard. Seeds are things like poppy seeds, tropical fruits are things like bananas, etc.

The recipes are very, very um... sophisticated? Trendy? Upscale? Think of the type of dish you'd be served in a very expensive Scandinavian bed and breakfast on your private veranda.

Examples:

Blue Cheese Crusted Pork Escalopes with a fennel and apple slaw

Cauliflower, Date & Preserved Lemon Dumplings with pomegranate and tahini dipping sauce

Salmon Ceviche with bergamot, avocado, coriander and toasted pine nuts

Banana & Coconut Droemmekage (Danish cake)

Slow-Cooked Lamb with garlic, lemon & lavender, and a toasted pistachio gremolata

Measurements are in metric. Meat, wheat and dairy are featured prominently. This would not be a good fit for people with food allergies or on special diets (vegan, paleo, keto, etc.) It offers very traditional types of European dishes, just fancy versions of them. Most recipes are of moderate difficulty. Nutritional information is not provided.

Photos are provided for most recipes. As mentioned, they are beautiful.

This is not a cookbook I would want for my kitchen. The recipes are too elaborate, the ingredients too expensive, and it relies heavily on wheat and meat. It is a beautiful cookbook though and I'm sure that people who enjoy this kind of cooking will absolutely love it.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This book is really unique in its pairings of botanical ingredients to add to dishes to make them not only healthier but more tasty, fun and interesting too!
I can't wait to play around with some of the recipies in this book especially the dessert ones!
This is an amazing book and the photographs are mouthwatering. Definitely a book to add to any cooking collection.

A feast for the eyes and the taste buds. This is a lovely book with plenty of delicious photographs to inspire you. I liked some of the recipes and would give them a try. It is the perfect book for anyone wanting to focus on a healthier plant based lifestyle, or for the cook who has every other type of cook book. This one might offer something a bit different. Overall a lovely book that aims to tempt the taste buds as soon as it is opened.

Okay, I’ll start with a confession—I love to read cookbooks. The copy that accompanies recipes gives an interesting glimpse into the role food plays in culture. The Botanical Kitchen fits well into this paradigm, with interesting history surrounding certain ingredients. I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but they are clearly written, even if some of them seem complicated. I look forward to bringing some of them into my repertoire.

Mmmmm!! This is a feast for the soul, full of hearty, healthy dishes and easy to follow instructions.
As a very occasional meat eater, having spent 9 years a vegetarian, I often lean towards meat free meals, and found plenty of recipes in this book to suit me. There are plenty of plant based meals in the book, and those with meat are easy enough to adapt to suit vegetarians.
I love how this book uses easy to follow instructions, and photos of what the meals will look like, I usually cook for two but find it is easy enough to adapt the amounts.
The key to The Botanical Kitchen is the botanicals. If you've never cooked with flowers before, now is the time to try... otherwise there are plenty of recipes which sing the praises of fragrant herbs and pungent spices.
As part of my 2020 resolution to live more naturally - meaning more fresh cooking from scratch and home grown herbs, as well as eating what is in season to do good for myself and the planet, this little guide will be by my side!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into this book. This book is visually stunning and will have you salivating with just one look at the food photographs.

If you have an upcoming dinner party and you want to impress you guest or you just have a love for fruits, seeds, berries and flowers then this is the cookbook for you. Most of the ingredients used are readily available however there are a few unique choices throughout reindeer anyone?...not widely available in Australia but could be substituted for something that is. For some ingredients you are given a choice between one or the other i.e. rapeseed or olive oil.

Here are the recipes i'm most looking forwards to create:
- Basil and goat's cheese stuffed chicken with pickled cherry and spelt salad
- Giant couscous tabbouleh (think James and the giant peach only with Apricots)
- Cauliflower, date and preserved lemon dumplings with pomegranate and tahini dipping sauce (seriously you should see the picture of this dish *DROOL*
- Bali banana pancakes
- Rhubarb, vanilla and cardamon jam
- Spiced pumpkin and maple pecan cheesecake (two of my favourite combined)

Some really good tips and recipes here's. Which i will be using and haring with my friends this book.

A lovely book with a fresh take on cooking, the recipes sound and look incredible and I cannot wait to try them out. Recommended for anyone who enjoys cooking

This was an interesting cookbook with great variety in terms of recipes and I loved the various sections in it. There's a few recipes I'd like to try, such as the Spiced pumpkin and maple pecan cheesecake.

The Botanical Kitchen by Elly McCousland is a stunningly illustrated book full of recipes using natural ingredients. Since I'm trying my best to use locally grown produce and herbs from my own garden, I thought this would be a treasure. Sadly, while the recipes all revolve around healthy, beautiful foods, most of them are imported from all over the world. My point in having a "botanical kitchen" is to avoid excessive transportation costs for my food and to use primarily, if not wholly, locally produced ingredients.  Make no mistake, the recipes are very good, very beautiful and quite healthy but the title is a bit misleading. It does, however, make a gorgeous coffee table book!

I love the way Elly McCausland describes the various fruits, flowers and other botanicals in this book - a bit of history, a touch of wonder, mouth-watering and inspiring. I didn't care for many of the recipes personally, but that's just personal preference on various ingredients. I hope to take some of them and tweak a bit with gluten-free or dairy-free takes.

"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.

This is such a beautiful cookbook the pictures are stunning and make every dish look delicious.

The layout is very well done and organized in an easy to read functionaI manner that makes it easy to understand and recreate the recipes with easy to find ingredients. I did have to use a conversion chart for the amounts but that was not a big issue.

This cookbook is filled with unique flavor combinations and I have never seen recipesexactlylike these so it's a treasure. It also focuses on foods I really like so there are tons of recipes I will be using.

If you love fruits, nuts, berries and complimentary vegetable this is the cookbook for you. I love that many ingredients are given with alternative choices and help give you ideas on how to customize recipes to your own tastes. This was a fantastic book for me and I love it. I recieved this book from NetGalley for an honest review.