What is The Veggie Almanac?

The Veggie Almanac is a year-long project for 2022 to cook, photograph and write my way through a seasonal caleidoscope of vegetables. I’m a life-long vegetarian and Kiwi living in The Netherlands after stints in New York and Paris. I’m not a fancy magazine food-stylist or a famous chef. I’m just an ordinary person who loves food and I’ve been cooking innovative vegetarian food since way before it was trending.

Our dinner table usually has an abundance of different dishes on it. Hot and cold; smooth, crunchy, chewy; salty, sweet, bitter, tangy; contrasting colours and flavours. The Indian banquet above is just one example, with baingan bharta (aubergine and tomato curry), aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato curry), brown turmeric rice, tamarind sauce, coriander tamarind salsa, yoghurt raita, lime pickles and sambal oelek to choose your own level of heat.

This project is a way to record my love of vegetarian food in all its richness. I’m so excited to share it with you. The format of a newsletter allows me to share my cooking with you in real-time. That’s why I’ve called it an Almanac. The Veggie Almanac provides weekly inspiration for how to make this week’s chosen vegetable the star of your dinner table. From rainbow carrots, beautiful beets, crazy cauliflowers, raging-red cabbages, radical radicchios and much more. I share create exciting, fusion recipes that cross borders, excite the eye and the palate and hopefully make you want to get into the kitchen and start innovating on your own.

Why subscribe?

This newsletter is for everyone who wants to introduce more vegetables into their diet. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter. It’s free! You’ll get at least one, ad-free recipe delivered straight to your inbox each week with creative vegetarian meal ideas. You can also use the archived posts on the website as inspiration for that stray vegetable in your organic box (kohlrabi anyone?).

Need another reason to subscribe? Reducing animal products from your diet is one of the single biggest actions you as an individual can take to fight the climate emergency. Eating vegetarian is practicing kindness towards the planet, towards its other living creatures, and towards yourself. So, uh, what are you waiting for?

I always love to hear from subscribers. Send me an email, follow me on IG (@theveggiealmanac) or Twitter (@theveggielama), or comment on a post that moves you or makes you curious. Let me know why you’re subscribing and what you’d like to read about in the newsletter. What is the vegetable you’re most afraid to cook? What food/sustainability question do you want answered? Are you hosting a big dinner party and need some menu ideas? Searching for recommendations for great vegetarian/vegan cookbooks, food writing or films? I’ve got you covered!

Thanks so much for joining me on this adventure, now let’s cook!