Book review: Use it all
Use it all: The Cornersmith guide to a more sustainable kitchen
By Alex Elliott-Howery, Jaimee Edwards
With my bookshelves already packed to capacity, any new book purchases need to be ones that I’ll actually use. This has especially hit my cookbook addiction!
Having already made a number of dishes from Cornersmith: Salads and Pickles, and being a fan of Alex and Jamiee’s #wastehackwednesdays on Cornersmith’s Insta, I knew Use It All would be a winner.
Within hours of opening the book I’d used one of their hacks. Roasting leftover corn cobs took my latest batch of vegetable stock to the next level. Quickly followed by trying two further recipes.
What’s more, their ethos of “buy less, buy whole, use It all” aligns with my values around avoiding food waste as much as possible. This is even more topical in the current economic climate.
Despite being thrifty, the recipes don’t skimp on flavour and deliciousness.
Shopping baskets
The format of the book centres around eight different shopping baskets, providing flexible ways to use the contents over a number of meals. This makes the weekly shop easier, offering inventive meal plans and avoiding waste.
Some of the baskets are exclusively vegetarian, including many vegan options. The others include either a whole fish or chook, sausages, beef bones, bacon or mince but these sections also contain many plant-based dishes.
The recipes focus on almost 60 common ingredients, from eggs or frozen peas, to how to use a whole cabbage or pineapple. It’s easy to skip to the recipe if you’re not interested in following a basket.
Loving it all
More reasons why I love this book
- All the recipes are easy to make
- You don’t need any obscure ingredients that you’ll only use once
- Recipes are practical and flexible
- Inventive ways to reduce food waste include the ‘what to do with’ sections, eg using citrus peel, pineapple or stale bread
- Shopping baskets include options to suit most dietary requirements
- The ‘goes with’ suggestions inspire creativity, similar (and equal to) The Flavour Thesaurus and Stephanie Alexander’s Cooks Companion
- Family friendly – these recipes have been road tested on the authors’ children!
Have you cooked from Use It All or any of Cornersmith’s other recipes? What’s your favourite?
From the archives: recipes inspired by Cornersmith
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