Last Updated on March 1, 2026
Modern, fuss-free vegetarian cooking
Your Daily Veg (Kyle Books) by Joe Woodhouse is like a breath of fresh air in the kitchen. The recipes are both accessible and sophisticated. From a simple preparation of green beans to a brilliantly purple beetroot terrine, both budding cooks and those with decades on the clock will find dishes to make their own. So many of us now eat a flexitarian diet that a new vegetarian cookbook is more welcome than those that are meat-heavy. Woodhouse has been a vegetarian since childhood and hence has a long-term affinity with this style of eating. His allegiance to vegetarianism might not have been easy, growing up on a farm, or perhaps being so close to the earth enhanced his access to the freshest vegetables. Either way, he later trained as a chef and spent years honing his craft in kitchens, cooking at festivals and events. He is also a food and travel photographer, and so Your Daily Veg has the unusual cachet of writer and photographer being one and the same. A talented man now brings many of his favourite recipes to your table with minimal fuss.
Your Daily Veg is divided into produce-based chapters, such as one on potatoes, carrots & beetroot and another on sweetcorn. The first recipe I tried is one that I assume will become one of those easy recipes one returns to again and again. Beans in sherried tomato sauce had me reaching into the back of the liquor cabinet to retrieve the sherry. When I read through the recipe, I realised that Woodhouse is referring to sherry vinegar. Fortunately, I had recently replenished this item, and if you have not bought sherry vinegar before, I encourage you to do so. It is a particularly useful vinegar for all manner of Spanish-type dishes, and, as with most vinegar, it pays dividends to buy the best quality you can afford. The recipe is essentially beans on toast, while reaching for the cannellini beans rather than the Heinz in the cupboard. You can soak your own, of course, but I was in need of a quick dinner and took the fuss-free option. It is the sort of dish you would do well to double up on, as you will want to find some leftovers in the fridge the next day.
Looking for a new way to serve roast cauliflower – I roast cauli every week without fail – I was pleased to find a recipe for roast cauliflower, garlic yoghurt, walnut and apricot salad. This is not only easy to make but also looks colourful and very inviting. It went beautifully with a simple fish supper – I am more pescatarian than vegetarian and vegetable-based cookbooks are my favourite as they are so versatile. The use of dried apricots makes this a lovely salad for the colder months, but once the summer fruits are at their height, I may try this again with fresh apricots.
Lemon butter green beans are so easy and quick, and rise above the norm with the addition of thyme, chilli flakes, lemon and butter. Turns an ordinary vegetable – which I usually steam – into a treat. I have not yet had the time to work on the mushroom chapter, which is simply bursting with ideas I want to try. In a throwback to his childhood, when mushroom stroganoff was about all a vegetarian could hope to find on a menu, Woodhouse includes a recipe and jolly good it looks too. I am looking forward to trying his friend Andrew’s recipe for garlic mushrooms using 250g of butter. Oh my, not one for those with cholesterol issues, but certainly delicious. The tomato chapter had me on tomato broth with thyme dumplings. This recipe derives from Joe’s friend Tim. Woodhouse is certainly generous in citing where he encountered some of the dishes in the book and sharing snippets of his memories without the reader having to get through a life story before the recipe begins. Another dish that I am sure will become very popular with readers of Your Daily Veg (and my household) is roast aubergine, tahini and tomato seed dressing. Woodhouse enjoyed a similar dish in Tel Aviv, eaten in the open air. I will wait for a sunny day and serve this wonderful-looking recipe in my garden. It is a dish for summer after all, when tomatoes are ripe and aubergines plump. Dressed with chilli, garlic and a tahini sauce – this is fuss-free cooking par excellence. Finally, I simply cannot wait for an opportunity to make what Woodhouse describes as a dinner-party dish – beetroot terrine with whole-grain mustard cream. Check your guests like beetroot – it can be a bit of a Marmite vegetable, although I adore it – and get layering slices with red onion in a terrine or cake tin. Better still, get hold of a copy of Your Daily Veg, and your repertoire will find it has room to expand along with your cookbook collection.
Beans in sherried tomato sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp neutral oil groundnut or sunflower
- 2 onions roughly diced
- 3 carrots roughly diced
- 5 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 2 400g cans plum tomatoes or 8 fresh tomatoes roughly diced
- 200 grams dry white beans, soaked and cooked or 500g canned beans (cannellini, haricot or coco)
- 3 tbsp best quality sherry vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
- sea salt flakes and black pepper
- For crisp breads
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large baguette or slender loaf finely sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 C. Gas mark 4.
- Using a few large, flat baking trays (or work in batches if you only have one), drizzle some live oil and lay the sliced bread, evenly spaced, in a single layer. Use the rest of the oil to rub the sliced of bread on both side. Bake for 25 minutes until golden and crisp. Turn them half way.
- In the meantime get on with making the beans. Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and sweat the onions, carrots and garlic with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes, until soft.
- Add the tomatoes, prod them with a spatula or wooden spoon to break them up. Add a can full of water. Cook for 25 minutes until the sauce is reduced but not too dry. Top up with a bit of water if it looks dry.
- Blend the contents of the pan until smooth and return to the pan. Add the cooked beans and allow to simmer gently for 30 minutes. Add water if needed, the consistency should be that of a loose sauce. Season.
- Add the sherry vinegar to taste. You are looking for a sharp, sweet tang of the vinegar as the backbone to the sauce.
- Serve the beans drizzled with extra virgin olive oil along with the crisp breads broken over the top.
Nutrition
You can buy Your Daily Veg from Amazon or other good booksellers.
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