Author(s): Nicola Galloway

Food & Drink

Homegrown Kitchen is a complete guide to eating well for those who love to cook fresh food. Beginning with a comprehensive section on the kitchen essentials, including sourdough bread, home preserving and fermentation, the book is then divided into breakfast, lunch and main meal chapters, followed by a chapter on indulgent sweet treats. Inspired by her large garden, Nicola Galloway creates food in rhythm with the changing seasons, with fresh homegrown and local produce forming the base of her recipes. With a young family, her food focus is on simple and delicious family-friendly recipes using pantry staples that are packed with nutrients. Nicola also has a particular interest in healthful traditional cooking techniques, such as sourdough bread and fermentation, and simplifying them so they can fit into our busy modern lives.

A gorgeously presented book, the cover is enticing with its simple elegance, the photography conveys a feeling of comfort and pleasure in food. Thoughtfully ordered, the book opens with an introduction to Galloway’s philosophy of food and cooking and some preliminary notes about the recipes and your pantry, including information about gluten-free ingredients, sugars and their alternatives, and alternatives to dairy (nuts, seeds, coconut) - approachable and sound nutritional advice that doesn’t get bogged down in particular diet fads. For those that like to have all the essentials at their fingertips, this is a wonderful cookbook - almost half the book is dedicated to processes and recipes that will fill your household with all the nutritional goodness you and your family will need for eating well. There is a weekly kitchen planner to keep everything on track with your making of yoghurts, broths and stocks, sour-doughs, preparations for grains, seed and nut milk, and on preserving and fermenting. The recipes for preserving fruit, making sauces and chutneys look particularly tempting at this time of year when you want to fill the cupboards with bottles of beautifully coloured fruits, giving warmth and nutrition in the coming cooler months. Galloway’s instructions for fermenting are straightforwardly reassuring, and recipes include sauerkraut, lacto-fermented beetroot pickle and  kombucha. And then the recipes, headed up under the categories of Morning, Day, Evening and Sweet, are predominately everyday, interlaced with treats for special occasions. From porridge to poached eggs with a lime hollandaise on a roastie hash, there’s a breakfast that will appeal, the dips all look delicious and there are quick and healthy snack and lunch choices, and the evening dinners are tasty treats made from seasonal ingredients and combining nutritional value alongside the pleasure of food. And Galloway’s book is a pleasure which reflects her interest in nutrition, wellness and the goodness of eating and enjoying food.

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>> The Homegrown Kitchen's on-line recipe journal. 

>> The joys of growing and making your own food from scratch. 

>> Yoghurt and Honey Panna Cotta with Roasted Strawberry. 

>> Nicola's lovely Instagram gallery.