Well-known South African author, Heleen Meyer, has produced yet another well illlustrated and useful cookbook.

Heleen takes a number of ingredients ranging from veggies such as butternut, mushrooms and tomatoes to kitchen cupboard staples such as tinned fish, beans, tomatoes, eggs, rice and pasta and gives  five different ways to use each ingredient. In addition, you will find basic recipes for mince, caramelised onions, steak, bread, cakes and cookies.

Heleen believes that food should be simple, yet delicious and she really succeeds in bringing this credo to the fore in this book – she keeps things as natural as possible, cooking with either olive or avocado oil, fresh herbs and lemon – her favourite spice is ground cumin and it crops up in many of the recipes.

You will find this book useful when you open the fridge to see what you can cook for supper at the end of a long day and all you find is a butternut and some rather tired looking mushrooms – you can turn them into something new and exciting with one of the recipes from the book or you can be inspired and cook up a delicious dessert for that special occasion. It’s a good, basic cookbook to add to your collection.