The good and light recipes of the first book of Botanical Cuisine

It shot up to # 1 on Amazon and went to reprint even before arriving at the bookstore: it’s called Botanical cuisine (Gribaudo) and is the first book of Carlotta Perego, the designer who left a career in the fashion world to pursue her passion for vegetable cooking and, after taking a course at a school in Los Angeles (where she also became a teacher), returned to Italy and began to post her vegan recipes on Instagram, quickly achieving enormous success.

In this book Carlotta Perego proposes a journey into the veg world, which offers new insights to those who know it and explains to those who would like to try how to do it. A sort of map for orientation in which the author starts from the basics explaining what are the ingredients that cannot be missing, how to organize the pantry and the fridge, how to try the combinations, before illustrating the benefits of this lifestyle, even before food, which is good for animals, the planet, our health, with a dedicated chapter written together with the nutritionist Silvia Goggi. In the second part there are the recipes, divided by seasons, with first, second, side dishes and desserts that are beautiful and easy to make, but also pizzas and leavened products (in the gallery above you will find four for a nice and light dinner).

All with the style of Carlotta Perego, one of the most popular vegan influencers for its positive approach, for its simplicity, for its accessible recipes also because they are made with raw materials that we all know and that also make you want to try. «I wrote this book – says Carlotta Perego – really to continue spreading this lifestyle: I would like more and more people to approach a vegetable diet, each with their own times ».

A transition that continues to attract: in Italy, according to the latest Eurispes report, 8.9% of the population follows a plant based diet (6.7 vegetarians and 2.2 vegans), up compared to 2018 and 2019 when the percentage of vegetarians and vegans stood at 7.1% and 7.3% respectively and overall. “The world – continues Carlotta Perego – is changing: it is part of the spirit of these times to find out about all issues, and people like to know what’s on the table. Most of them now make choices that respect the environment, animals, and that are good for health ».

“In my opinion – continues Carlotta – those who do not try to change do so first of all because they believe that the vegan life is made up of sacrifices and privations. Instead, as I try to explain in my book too, you can eat vegetable and have a table of appetizing things and healthy, without giving up even some snags, like sweets. Moreover cooking vegan is much easier than you think: dishes can also be created with commonly found ingredients ». Where to start? “I always recommend legumes, the protein source to be taken more often also according to the Mediterranean diet. It would be enough to increase the consumption to get closer to the vegetable diet or to enrich an omnivorous diet. If on any day, in a hurry, you open a pack of cold cuts for lunch, why not do the same with a can of beans? It’s all about exploring the possibilities».

It is also a question of kindness because i “Kind vegans” – as Carlotta Perego defines them in her book – in setting an example they can make the difference: “Being constructive, and not as if there was a selection at the entrance, is advantageous for us and for others. We need action and not perfection ». Even so you change. To begin with, taste the recipes taken from Carlotta Perego’s book that you can find in the gallery above: a risotto with radicchio and pears, a chickpea omelette with agretti, sweet potato chips, and a cake with almonds and plums. Browse the gallery