The Green Roasting Tin: Vegan and Vegetarian One Dish Dinners

by Rukmini Iyer

Seventy-five one-tin recipes: half vegan, half vegetarian, all delicious.

With all seventy-five recipes in this book, you simply pop your ingredients in a tin and let the oven do the work.

From flexitarians to families, this book is for anyone who wants to eat easy veg-based meals that fit around their busy lives.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference, Food and Drink, Vegetarian

240 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 2018

About the author

Rukmini is a food stylist and food writer, who enjoys recipe developing and styling for editorial, advertising and commercial clients. Her cookbooks include 'The Roasting Tin' and 'The Green Roasting Tin', and her next cookbook 'The Quick Roasting Tin' is out with Square Peg in June 2019.

Rukmini left the law to retrain as a chef, working for Tom Kitchin at 'The Kitchin' in Edinburgh before moving to London to do what she loves best - food styling, recipe writing and development. Her first two cookbooks, with Parragon and Quadrille, are due out early in 2016. When she's not styling and writing, Rukmini enjoys planning for an extensive organic kitchen garden from the confines of her London balcony, complete with chickens.

Reviews

[karen]

this is not a monthly project, but a book i will dip into periodically, sharing my successes and failures as they occur.

ALL-IN-ONE ROASTED TOMATO & BAY ORZO WITH BLACK PEPPER

i’m not someone who needs the food i make to be pretty. i’m just me—flinging ingredients into chipped bowls in my tiny kitchen and hoping it all tastes good. i can appreciate the pretty food of others in books and on internet, and i understand that visually appealing food sells more cookbooks than ‘real-life’ food made by people like me without fancy cameras, food stylists, a tableware budget, or even adequate lighting.

i have learned how to manage my expectations.

so, when i buy a cookbook because the pictures are so pretty that it doesn’t even matter that there’s no delicious meat in the recipes, i’ve already resigned myself to the fact that what comes out of my oven will not look like this:



BUT, and this is merely a good-natured gripe—this book WANTS me to fail. it WANTS me to feel the sting of inadequacy resulting from the comparison between my finished product and the book’s. it thumbs its nose at me as it dances around its spacious, well-appointed kitchen. because as lovely as this picture is, it is also a filthy liar. sure, that’s what it maybe looks like after you take it out of the oven, but THEN the recipe instructs you to stir it all up with olive oil and salt and herbs, which makes it look like THIS



there’s no need for the sabotage, book! i was already at a disadvantage—we were never in competition, i promise you! i couldn’t even find cherry tomatoes on the vine at the one place i had time to shop for dinner-groceries! i live humbly in the shadow of your tiny tomatoes.

anyway, i wanted to share that story but i ALSO wanted to rave about this dish, as messy as mine is. because the trick of it is that you bake it with the tomato vines, which is maybe a thing that you already all know makes food taste delicious, but it was new to me, and it was SO TASTY that now i want to put tomato vines into my lasagne and my breakfast cereal and everything.

CRISPY GNOCCHI WITH ROASTED PEPPERS, CHILE, ROSEMARY & RICOTTA



no vines, but still tasty! ON A RELATED NOTE: if anyone has intel about whether cherry tomatoes have suddenly gone extinct, i would be interested in hearing it. i didn't conduct an exhaustive investigation, but the three or four neighborhood grocery stores i pop into regularly do not carry them. there are grape tomatoes and plum tomatoes and verymany big boy tomato breeds, but the humble cherry tomato has vanished. is this climate change? is it because of the beeeeeezzz? have they been banned in queens? what gives, cherry tomato suppliers? why you withhold your wares?

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not a Vegan or vegetarian but I do enjoy eating vegetables, I like to eat at least 1-2 vegetarian dishes every week, it helps my Diet, saves money but Most all it can be tasty.
This split in half & its funny because I found lot of Vegan dishes sound more fun than I expected. Lovely tomato,bay pasta dish, Sichuan pepper & mushrooms, roasted carrots in bean curry, list goes on. Then on vegetarian side we have both honey dishes & loads of peppers with cheese. I liked this because Does not have puddings & as say can easily be served as side dishes with meat.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A useful cookbook for everydays meals – I’ve tried four or five recipes and all have been good. (Warning: portion sizes are generous!)

[Els · Rating 5 out of 5]

De groene bakplaat: 75 groenterecepten ui de oven door Rukmini Iyer

Oh, ik moet mijn best doen om niet te beginnen kwijlen bij de cover (en foto’s binnenin) van dit geweldige boek.
Ik kook graag maar het moet makkelijk zijn, snel én met veel groenten. Ik heb dan ook zelf al de geneugten van alles in één pan in de oven ontdekt (rijst onderaan, groenten erop en vleesvervanger bovenaan). Maar dit boek tilt dat alles naar een veel hoger niveau. Hierin staan recepten die niet alleen lekker zijn maar er ook goed uitzien én die je aan bezoek kan voorschotelen, zonder schaamrood op je wangen (wat met mijn uitvindingen niet echt haalbaar is).

Het boek bestaat uit 2 grote delen en 1 klein deel. Het eerste deel zijn vegan recepten, (het kleine) deel twee bevat schema’s met combinaties die je zelf kan gaan samenstellen en deel 3 draait om vegetarische recepten. Deel 1 en 3 zijn telkens onderverdeeld in snelle (30 minuten), iets meer tijd (45 minuten) en alle tijd (een uur of langer) recepten.

Ik had als fantasievolle restjeskok al het één en ander samen gegooid maar in De groene bakplaat kwam ik geweldige combinaties tegen waar ik zelf nooit op zou komen. En Rukmini bakt dingen in de oven waar ik nog nooit aan gedacht had, zoals avocado en eieren. Ze geeft ook tips die ik nog nergens las zoals het steeltje van tomaten op de rijst leggen als smaakmaker tijdens het bakken (niet om op te eten).

Dit kookboek is eenvoudig en gebruiksvriendelijk en geeft enorm veel goesting om te eten én te koken. Het is ook een eerlijk (bij sommige foto’s staat dat ze genomen zijn voor het gerecht de oven in ging) en no nonsens boek (met tips als: hete stoom als je de oven opent, oppassen).

Oh, ik ga hier nog zo veel plezier aan beleven; aanrader!

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hands down my favourite recipe book. Well, ok, my only one really. I've had the time and energy to be able to actually do more cooking experiments over the last eightish months and largely because of this book. I can throw things together with easy and little effort and get something wonderfully tasty in return. Huzzah.

[Hans Buijze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goed bruikbaar kookboek met heerlijke recepten.

[Silvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

"I've designed recipes in which everything is roasted in a single layer before adding the sauce"

Ok, I blame lockdown for my choice of non-fiction recently.
But finally! A book with tons of amazing ideas, and for which you really just need a single tin you can put in the oven.
Healthy ingredients, easy recipes, fuss-free cleaning, you don't need to buy extra utensils, and basically everything is suitable for batch cooking. A little gem.
I'm definitely going to read the other one with meat recipes, too.

[Fern Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m one of those strange people who just doesn’t get why food is a big deal and eats because that’s what you do to survive- but if I didn’t have to eat, I wouldn’t bother. I just don’t really enjoy food. However I received a copy of this recipe food and the food actually looks pretty good! It’s all fairly straight forward to make too which is an added bonus. Some of the ingredients are a bit more on the expensive side but looking through they should be easier to replace with cheaper options.

[Lisa Clift · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love this book - clear, concise, realistic recipes that anyone can do. Broken down into vegan and vegetarian, and how difficult they are/how long they will take. Love the section at the end that suggests different combinations for various occasions/feasts. My best book purchase so far this year!

[Larissa Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

fave recipes so far... all-in-one sweet potato Thai curry, beetroot, chickpea & coconut curry and spicy harissa sprouts & broccoli with halloumi, spinach & cous cous XD

[Marjon Brugman · Rating 5 out of 5]

De recepten zijn zo heerlijk dat je vlees en vis echt niet mist.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wat een fantastisch kookboek. Duidelijke instructies, simpele ingrediënten, en ingedeeld op tijd. Weet je precies wat je doordeweeks kunt maken en in het weekend. Ik probeer nog steeds nieuwe recepten en vind (meestal) alles lekker. Wij zijn grote eters, dus vaak als er ergens 4 personen staat is het genoeg voor ons (2 volwassenen, en soms 1 dreumes die mee-eet). Wij gebruiken de gerechten niet als bijgerechten, maar maken er een volledige maaltijd van.

[Grace]

Got a proof copy of this, it looks amazing, cooking my first thing from it tomorrow night.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has some minor issues as a self-published cookbook, but there are some good recipes in here for vegetarians or flexitarians who are looking to mix things up a bit.

I made two of the recipes.

Pantry Pasta Bake: Crispy Red Bell Pepper & Cannellini Beans with Gorgonzola - I liked it, my gf not so much. Would recommend cutting up the tomatoes a little smaller and I used too many olives (more than the actual recipe called for)

Eggplant and Fennel Gratin with Goat Cheese and Walnuts - my gf and I both thought this was delicious, though it is very rich. It uses a lot of creme fraiche so can be a little pricey if you don’t make your own.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got bought this book as a gift and it covers one of my favourite styles of cooking – ‘throw everything in a roasting tin and come back to it in a while’. Roasting is absolutely one of my favourite ways of cooking vegetables as there is something about the aroma and the texture of them that I just love (and even as I type this, I am thinking about my favourite soup which has roasted butternut squash, shallots, garlic and sweet potato as a base….)

I should get my first BIG quibble out of the way first. This book is described as ‘vegan and vegetarian’ and clearly positioned at the ‘flexitarian’ market (or as I call them someone who likes to call themselves ethical whilst putting in minimal effort). What really annoys me is that this book is really a vegetarian book with the vegan-friendly recipes put at the front. Let’s be clear for those at the back….

1) Vegetarian cookbooks for decades have had vegan friendly recipes in them
2) Veganism is NOT a dietary preference; it is an ethical position that seeks to reduce harm as far as possible to animals.

Ergo, a vegetarian cookbook can have recipes suitable for vegans but a vegan cookbook cannot also be a vegetarian one. I’d perhaps let the author get away with ‘plant based’, but since the author is a carnist it is clear she does not really understand veganism and really, I see the positioning of this book as trying to jump on the ‘vegan’ bandwagon without putting the effort in and seeing ‘vegan and vegetarian’ as separate but ‘two sides of the same coin’. It may seem a minor thing but it did annoy me quite a lot.

The structure of the book contains the recipes suitable for vegans at the front and the vegetarian ones at the back (so I helpfully could rip out and burn the back half of the book lol). The two sections of the book are then split up into the amount of time you need to put them together as either quick (under 30 minutes), medium (approximately 45 minutes) and slow (over an hour). I love this idea as it really helps when planning weekly menus and helping you structure your time. Having read through the ‘quick’ recipes too I think they can be pulled together in that time also (which puts a lot of other cookbooks to shame – looking at you ‘Bosh boys’ and your ‘quick and easy’ recipes). I can’t speak highly enough of this structure.

Upon first read of the book, everything is presented really well, the photography looks awesome and the recipes seem to make sense. I’ve not seen anything in the vegan section that I thought I’d never cook – so that’s a big plus! The combinations look sensible and everything seems easy to follow (I have seen some criticism of the author in other books for poor proof reading of recipes – this is absolutely critical in cookbooks and something that happens all the time. I hate it when cookbooks have missing steps!)

I even skimmed through the veggie section and bare a couple of egg-based ones most are easily veganised (especially as most of them are vegan recipes with ‘throw some cheese in’). It does show a little bit of fear I think – because it’s really a vegetarian book which wants to appeal to vegans without turning off any markets. Any vegan with a bit of basic knowledge would be able to adapt most of the recipes. I should note that many of the cheeses recommended in the book would not be eaten by many vegetarians due to the presence of rennet. It does show a lack of awareness of veganism and vegetarianism and shows this book is written by someone wanting to cash in rather than understanding it’s alleged audiences.

There’s also a section in the middle of the book for building meals based on ‘roasting combinations’ based on meal type. I think this is a really nice touch for those who may be less confident making their own recipes and also supporting those moments when you don’t know what to cook and you have some odds and ends in the kitchen. Apart from a quibble about ‘protein sources’ the structure of these few pages is really good and is a handy visual for thinking about your own recipes. It’s a big plus for me.

So, onto the recipes. In the last week I have made:

Sweet Dreams are Made of Greens

This is basically roasting avocado and asparagus and throwing in some spinach near the end with an orange tahini dressing. I really enjoyed this. Wouldn't have thought of roasting avocado but it came out lovely with asparagus. There was a delightful crunch with the roasted hazelnuts. Spinach and orange slices added with an orange and tahini dressing. I cooked some quinoa with it cooked in veg stock and everything came together really well and very tasty. Good start to the book!

All-in-one roasted tomato & bay orzo with black pepper

This is the classic ‘pasta and tomatoes’ but done in a roasting tin. This was absolutely delicious. The tomatoes came out lovely and the vine leaves gave the stock and pasta a lovely flavour. If anything, it needed more black pepper. The recipe calls for a fair bit of salt to bring out the tomatoes but I think if I made this again, I'd use half. Highly recommended, really liked this.

Roasted red cabbage with crisp garlic croutons, apple, raisins & lamb's lettuce

Here the roasting comes from bread and red cabbage and forming a salad around it. The proportions were all off here and I am not sure how you slice a red cabbage into cubes and then separate the leaves and lay evenly in a roasting tray without overlap or mess. Also, I noticed it with the previous recipe but this contains a lot of salt. When I had finished making this it was all I could taste. I think I will halve the salt requirements in future. There is a good idea in here but it did not translate to a nice meal at all.

I can see how some people would love this book. The organisation of the book is exceptional and my quibble about veganism won't matter to many. In the kitchen I have had two excellent recipes and one which really didn't work at all. Pretty sure I will continue to use this book but not sure it will become one of the 'loved' cookbooks on my shelf.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve borrowed this from the library and have dipped in and out. I’ll definitely use it again.

The Roasted Cauliflower with chickpeas is really tasty eaten cold with some green salad accompaniments. I ate it with a tin of mackerel as I needed a substantial lunch one day, very good.

25/3/22

Bought as a 99p KDD recently as I knew I’d use it after borrowing it from the library. I am making one recipe a week so it’s used as basis for more interesting veggie meals. Have made 4 now (including the first I made in March, repeated this week.) Favourites so far are probably the butternut squash and sweetcorn (who knew corn on the cob could taste so good roasted?) as the toppings at the end really make it. The tomato, olives and aubergine was very good. Nothing I haven’t made before on the hon, but in the oven it’s much richer. I always adapt recipes a bit; adding some ingredients and removing others. They’re good for inspiration.
I have found that the times are a little bit short, perhaps it’s my oven or personal preference? But I’m really pleased to have bought this book

14/9/22

[Mairead Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never normally add or review cookbooks but I just feel like this book is so painfully middle class. Every single dish in this book has about 20+ ingredients and I don’t understand with so many ingredients how any of these dishes can be quick? The expense of some of these ingredients make an effort to go vegetarian to reduce budgets redundant. The use of going vegetarian in an effort to help the environment is also thwarted by this book with such a wide array of more unique ingredients that half of them will go off before you can finish them

[MichaelK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the past three years, I've made 44/75 recipes from this book.

I found the dishes in this one a bit more hit and miss compared to The Roasting Tin Around the World: Global One Dish Dinners and The Quick Roasting Tin. I also found the structure - dishes organised by time requirements - less inspiring or useful to me personally. Many of the dishes were unsatisfying, and nutritionally unbalanced, as meals in their own right, but I could see them working well as part of a larger spread of dishes.

However, many of the dishes from this book which we liked, we LOVED, and they have become household staples. These are:

pg28 Tomato & Bay Orzotto: The recipe makes enough for two as a quick, light, and cheap meal, however it shines as part of an spread or feast.

pg36 Lunchbox Pasta Salad

pg38 Sichuan Roasted Sweetheart Cabbage: on its own I found it deeply unsatisfying as a meal, but it makes a great addition as a side with some tofu and other vegetables.

Pg40 Carrot & Bean Curry: quick tasty roasted veg which works really well alongside a saucy curry and dhal.

pg44 Tamarind Sprouts: I never thought sprouts could become a comfort food.

pg72 Tahini Cauliflower: Ditto, I never thought cauliflower would become a comfort food. This is a major household regular, a go-to when we're unsure what to have for dinner. A thoroughly satisfying meal.

pg84 Three-Bean Chilli: a very easy way of making chilli-in-a-tin.

pg88 Escalivada: eat it sat out on your garden furniture and pretend you're on holiday.

pg92 Minestrone: A very easy minestrone, another easy go-to for when I'm not sure what to make. Make the recipe even easier by subbing out the kale, so you don't have to pick through the kale to remove the stalks.

Pg114 Caponata Aubergines: savoury tomatoey aubergine goodness.

pg142 Harissa Sprouts: another sprouts-as-comfort-food shocker

Pg204 Jewelled Barley: my go-to Pearl Barley dish

pg216 Harissa Leeks & Bulgur: if I have leeks that need using, this is what I'll be making.

The 5-star rating reflects how much these recipes have improved my quality of life, even if as a whole I don't feel as positive towards this entry compared to the Quick and Around the World books from the same series.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot I liked about this book but I have mixed feelings. Fundamentally, the style of cooking appeals to me and the recipes look genuinely appealing, interesting yet straightforward. But there were several elements that rubbed me up the wrong way. Perhaps most seriously, this is a book labelled vegan and vegetarian and it would be great for anyone wanting to build a less meat based repertoire... but actual vegetarians? The vegetarian section of the book has a lot of recipes involving a wide variety of cheeses... the majority of which are *not* vegetarian. This could lead to some awkwardnesses if lovingly and innocently prepared by people for vegetarian friends and relatives.

Perhaps more personally and less importantly, I found too many of the photos are of the uncooked dish (the baked eggs were a particular mistake, slightly quease inducing) and the book generally feels aimed at a very tight demographic - references to what TV programme one might be watching are going to date and fast.

[otaku · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good ideas in here, but also some really weird and off-putting flavour combinations, especially if like me you hate licorice as there's a lot of licorice flavours in this book (fennel, chicory, celeriac etc). Also radishes and cauliflower, both of which I find unpleasant. I found this author has very different tastebuds to me. I've never been alarmed by so many recipes in any other cookbook. The one with chicory, radish and orange sounds like my nightmare. And too much hot avocado! Yet, there is genuine inspiration in some of the tarts especially.

These recipes aren't as one-dish as I'd hope, because often they are just a side dish, and you need to add a carb or another whole thing with many of the lighter salads.

I can't wholly recommend this, but I did get some ideas. Something I'd recommend instead for much simpler low effort cooking is Jack Monroe's Tin Can Cook. It's very different, but I found it comforting for store cupboard inspiration and quick meals when I'm really feeling low.

[PurplePrimula · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this recipe book for my birthday and I've been trying out recipes from it since then. I think we've tried five or six things at this point and all of them have been very easy to make and very nice to eat. Almost all the recipes have a colour photo as well which makes it much more likely that I will choose to try it. Half the book is vegan, half is vegetarian, and each half is further divided into sections of quick, medium or long recipes, depending on roasting time.

It's a great recipe book. If you eat meat, there are two other recipe books in the series as well that I expect are probably equally good.

[Macy Mckay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book. The premise is the same as Iyer's first book, The Roasting Tin, where everything is cooked in the oven in one tin; there really couldn't be anything simpler.
I bought because I now have a vegan in the family, and because I made a new year's resolution to try one new recipe a week to get out of my own cooking rut, but this book has earned its keep already.
Road tested at family meals, the stand out dishes are the smoked tofu with pak choi and satay dressing and fajita spiced mushrooms.

[Linda Semple · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to cook as many friends and family will attest. I also like to read cookbooks. I rarely cook *from* them; the contents just marinate away in my head and eventually form themselves into dishes all of their own accord.

So it’s almost unheard of for a cookbook (two by this author) radically to change the way I cook. But this and its sister book have done just that and for the better with less food waste, less energy and a wider range of foods getting eaten by Other Half.

Nearly Five Stars. But it would’ve felt odd to give a cookbook top ratings...

[Orione · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent cookbook. I have cooked about one third of the recipes - all were ACTUALLY easy to put together, flavorful, lovely. I highly recommend it, also for people with chronic Lyme and/or alpha gal allergy and/or POTS. It doesn’t contain mammal products obviously. This book does not require a lot of thinking power, and your upright time is truly under 15 minutes on average, and you’ll find new ways to to get lots of vegetables in you! Win, win, win!!!

[Anna Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Game changing for me!! Love the minimal dishes involved. Have had to sub some ingredients and find seasonal recipes within the book but generally have had success with them. I recommend buying sauces instead of making them for each recipe, since some of the recipes can feel less than one pan once they involve the side tasks. Lukewarm winter salad and fennel and lentil gratin are my favorites so far!

[P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and its recipes so much that I also bought the other books in the series. There are some similar meals, but overall I really like this set of books.

When you don't have much time and don't want to do a lot of cleaning up later, these one pot recipes are great and I adapt the recipes to whatever is in my fridge.

[Michael Shevlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really clear and easy to follow recipes that contain some really brilliant meals. Some of the recipes are super, super quick yet really tasty and the book is laid out logically with some stunning photos that actually look like what you will end up with (blessed joy!). No one cuisine is focused upon and there are enough great combos in here to keep you going for a few months.

[Moi · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boyfriend Alexis Hall turned me on to this author’s one-pan-recipe cookbooks. I have not tested any yet, but they all look easy, almost all of the ingredients are things I could find in my country grocery store, they’re mostly really healthful, and they look delicious. I’ve been in a cooking rut, and these simple recipes inspire me.

[AM · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not vegan or vegetarian but do want to reduce the amount of meat I eat. I love food and have been trying these recipes and love each of them. Very quick, easy dishes to prepare after work and gorgeous. My husband and 1 year old twins have enjoyed them too.

[Agata O c'mon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful and my favourite cook book for sure! Every single recipe bursts with flavours, which are so fantastically composed, I am in awe EVERY SINGLE TIME I try something new from it.

The yummiest! Thank you Rukmini for your talent you so beautifully shared with us all ❤️