Editors Reads Verdict
The book that changed vegetable cooking. *Plenty* treats vegetables not as the meat alternative but as the subject — and what it does with them is extraordinary.
What We Loved
- Completely transformed the culinary world's approach to vegetables
- The flavour combinations are bold and reproducible
- Beautiful photography makes every recipe aspirational
- Not a vegetarian ideology book — just a celebration of what vegetables can be
Minor Drawbacks
- More demanding than Ottolenghi Simple — some recipes require significant prep
- The ingredient list for some recipes is long
- Less structured guidance on when to make which recipes
Key Takeaways
- → Vegetables deserve the same creative attention as meat — they are not less interesting
- → Charring, roasting, and caramelising are the most reliable paths to vegetable intensity
- → Fat (olive oil, tahini, butter) is essential for carrying and building vegetable flavour
- → Fresh herbs in large quantities transform a dish rather than merely finishing it
- → Combining textures — creamy, crunchy, soft — makes a dish satisfying without meat
| Author | Yotam Ottolenghi |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Chronicle Books |
| Pages | 288 |
| Published | September 1, 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Cooking, Vegetarian, Mediterranean |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Home cooks interested in vegetable-centred cooking, particularly those willing to invest time for genuinely exceptional results. |
The Book That Changed Vegetable Cooking
When Plenty was published in 2010, it arrived at a moment when the culinary world was beginning to question its relationship with meat — not for ideological reasons but for flavour ones. Ottolenghi, an Israeli-born chef with restaurants in London, had been writing a vegetable column in The Guardian for years, demonstrating week after week that vegetables, treated with full culinary seriousness, could produce food that was extraordinary rather than merely virtuous.
Plenty collected these ideas into a complete vegetable cookbook that has influenced professional and home cooks around the world. It did not advocate vegetarianism — Ottolenghi himself eats meat — but it insisted that vegetables, when given the same creative and technical attention as meat, could produce food that no carnivore would miss the absence of.
What Ottolenghi Does to Vegetables
The key to Ottolenghi’s vegetable cooking is the combination of intense heat, bold spicing, and generous quantities of fat and acid. He roasts cauliflower until the florets are deeply charred and caramelised, then dresses them with a tahini sauce spiked with lemon and garlic and scattered with pomegranate seeds, toasted pine nuts, and fresh herbs. The result is a dish with at least six distinct flavour and texture elements that together produce something that feels complete and satisfying.
The same principle applies across the book: courgettes with herbs and a sharp cheese, aubergine with multiple preparations in the same dish (roasted, puréed, fried), tomatoes with a diversity of textures and temperatures. Ottolenghi never lets vegetables be boring.
The Middle Eastern Pantry
Plenty is where many Western home cooks first encountered some of the pantry ingredients that define Ottolenghi’s cooking: za’atar (a herb and spice blend), harissa (North African chilli paste), sumac (tart berry spice), preserved lemons, pomegranate molasses, rose water. Building this pantry requires an investment, but once in place, it multiplies the potential of every vegetable dish.
The Recipes That Define the Book
The cauliflower dish (mentioned above), the roasted butternut squash with burnt aubergine and pomegranate, the shakshuka (eggs poached in spiced tomato sauce), the caramelised fennel with goat’s cheese — these are the recipes that made Ottolenghi’s reputation and have been reproduced in millions of home kitchens.
Final Verdict
Plenty is the vegetable cookbook that changed how the food world thinks about vegetables. More demanding than Simple, it rewards the investment.
Our rating: 4.6/5 — The most influential vegetable cookbook of the twenty-first century. Essential for anyone who takes vegetable cooking seriously.
Ready to Read Plenty?
Check the current price on Amazon.
Check Price on Amazon (paid link)Prices and availability are subject to change. See Amazon for current price.
Review last updated: