Vegetables, Salads, Pulses and Fungi

People in Britain today care more about vegetables than they did even ten years ago, and more private cooks now understand about cooking them. The range and quality of fruit and vegetables from around the world available in our supermarkets is extraordinary, and has stimulated great interest in cooking vegetables as primary ingredients.

The role played by vegetables in our diet has changed dramatically. The number of those choosing to stop eating animal protein altogether is growing apace, with a current annual increase judged to be around 20 per cent. Leaving any moral, ethical or health issues aside, it is interesting to note the comparative costs of producing vegetable protein and animal protein. A chicken must eat three kilos of grain to produce one kilo of meat, a bullock 16 kilos. An acre of land growing soya beans produces 10 times the amount of edible protein – bean-curd – as the same amount of land growing cattle feed converts to edible animal protein.