The Hairy Bikers - The Hairy Bikers’ Veggie Feasts

We started working on this book back in January and then Covid-19 struck!
But thanks to our amazing team Andrew, Catherine, Jinny, Lucie and Suki who worked throughout safely, but in the most difficult and challenging circumstances, it all happened and we are so very proud of what weve produced. Wed like to dedicate this book to you all with our love, thanks and respect.

You know us we love food thats hearty, satisfying and that tastes amazing. Thats what we do. For this book, weve created a new collection of superb recipes that youll love cooking, eating and serving to your friends and family. Great taste is the bottom line as always, but these dishes happen to be vegetarian and/or vegan as well, so we reckon its a win win!

This is a book weve wanted to write for a long time, and weve approached these dishes from the point of view of meat eaters, aiming to pack the food with flavour, colour and texture in such a way that you really dont miss meat. The recipes are a culmination of many years of enjoying and experimenting with different types of food from all over the world, and we believe they reflect the way we all want to eat now. There are great fry-ups, beautiful soups, an incredible Indian curry version of shepherds pie, veggie sausages, a vegan BLT, pickled onion bhajis, mushroom mini kievs, tacos, pizzas and the perfect veggie burger to name just a few. Even our salads are satisfying complete meals theres something here for everyone.

When we were growing up, a meal wasnt a meal without some meat or perhaps a bit of fish. But things have changed big time. Even before we wrote our Hairy Dieters Go Veggie book back in 2017, wed found we were eating less and less meat. On some of our travels while filming weve been to countries where eating mostly plant-based food was part of the culture, and we were really happy with that.

We realised that while we might not go totally vegetarian, we enjoyed cooking and eating plant-based meals and that they tasted really good. The other thing that happened and we know this is the case with many families was that some of our children decided to go vegetarian or vegan. When theyre with us we cook veggie food and, without wishing to blow our own trumpets, we reckon weve got better and better at it.

Plant-based eating is now hugely popular. More and more people are deciding to go veggie or vegan. Plant-based restaurants are springing up all over the place and regular shops are stocking big ranges of vegetarian and vegan products. No longer do you have to search out these things in special health food stores. Its all readily available in the supermarkets.

. We are both loving growing our own these days, and Dave has been particularly proud of his tomato crop this year 15 different varieties! and he has also grown padron peppers for the first time. Si, meanwhile, has been nurturing a pick-your-own salad bar in boxes outside his kitchen.

Eating plant-based meals at least some of the time is good for your health, reducing the risk of certain cancers and heart disease and also helping with other problems such as high blood pressure. We find we lose weight too, when we eat veggie. We still have some meat and fish, but not as much as we used to. And when we do, we make sure the meat is properly reared and the fish is from sustainable sources. You might have to pay a bit more but then youre not buying it every day. Shopping and eating this way is also important for the health of the planet and that is something that concerns us all.

For inspiration, weve looked at the food of other parts of the world, such as the Mediterranean, Middle East and India, where much of the diet is naturally plant-based. They use pulses, herbs and spices to enhance meals and manage to pack in so much flavour you dont even think about whether it is vegetarian or not. And thats our modern take on vegetarian cooking too light years away from the brown stodge served up in the early days of veggie restaurants in the 80s. Weve concentrated on using good fresh ingredients, and we avoid processed products as much as possible.

When we first started to think about this book the ideas flowed like lava. We got so excited and we ended up with more than twice as many recipes as we could possibly fit in. Sometimes we just couldnt make up our minds which way to go, so we got on to Instagram and asked you guys! Hope you like the results. Whether you want to go full-on veggie or vegan or just to eat more delicious plant-based meals, we think youll find plenty to enjoy in this book. Were really chuffed with these recipes and we hope you are too. So get cooking!