The Seasonal Pantry
75 Recipes to Waste Less and Enjoy More
Format:Hardback
Publisher:TRA Publishing
Published:12th May '26
£22.99
Available for immediate dispatch.
"Introduces an appealing repertoire of fresh, colorful, zero-waste homemade dishes...combines organic garden produce with a sustainable perspective." —Foreword Reviews
75 recipes cover a range of seasonal dishes as well as pantry essentials for eating all year round and avoiding any kind of waste.
In Seasonal Pantry, French artisan baker Benoît Castel shares recipes that respect the seasons as well as your budget. This simple and seasonal approach to cooking reduces waste: every crumb of leftover bread is used, and apples are consumed to the core.
Inside, you'll a collection of homemade recipes to make simple meals you can save and savor throughout the year. ?
- Vegetables from the garden (pickled carrots, aubergine caviar, tomato sauce)
- Fruits from the orchard (apricot jam, pear caramel syrup, apple sauce).
- Condiments made from cereals, dried fruit, and grains (mustard, pesto, salted dried fruit)
- Milk and plant-based dairy products (almond milk, yogurt, raspberry butter)
- Easy to dress doughs (pie crusts, quiches, profiteroles )
- Leftover bread preparations (biscotti, croutons)
In his first English-language cookbook, baker and pastry chef Castel, the owner of several bakeries and shops in Paris, shares his expertise and joy in making the most of fresh ingredients year-round. Recipes run the gamut from soup to nuts, appetizers and drinks to desserts. Almost all are plant-based. Instructions for making ahead of time, freezing, jarring, or otherwise storing are useful for incorporating fresh food into busy lives. Pickling and jarring recipes have novel taste combinations, like carrot, orange, cumin, and vanilla pickles. His Zero Waste Vegetable Broth is doable for even a novice cook. Other recipes may be more daunting, like Christophe Adam’s Caramel Nut Tart, but Castel's enthusiastic descriptions, clear instructions, and tempting color photographs of ingredients and finished products will encourage more advanced cooks and bakers to give them a try. An index by ingredients in addition to an alphabetical index of recipes is helpful. Those interested in reducing food waste at home or in making the most of their CSA boxes and garden bounty will especially appreciate this book. -- Laurie Unger Skinner * Booklist * ISBN: 9781962098373 Dimensions: 255mm x 190mm x 25mm Weight: 885g 220 pages
In his first English-language cookbook, acclaimed Parisian pastry chef Castel moves away from predominantly pastry- and dessert-focused recipes to offer readers a glimpse into how he utilizes raw, seasonal ingredients and reduces waste in his own kitchen. Readers will be inspired to preserve spring and summer produce for year-round use with Castel’s recipes for spreads, jams, dips, ferments, pickles, teas, and even homemade ketchup and barbecue sauce. Guidance for canning and preserving, as well as low- and zero-waste recipes such as vegetable broth, are included, and Castel also provides instructions for longer-term storage for each recipe when applicable. Many of the recipes offer multiple ingredient substitutions to encourage home cooks to use whatever seasonal ingredients are available to them; an ingredient index is also included. While this is not a book on baking, Castel does offer recipes for various pastry doughs and breads.
VERDICT With gorgeous photography and creative recipes, this is an excellent canning and preservation book for reference and inspiration for home cooks of all kinds. Good for public libraries with robust cookbook collections. --