Saasha Celestial-One

Founder, Olio food sharing app

https://www.olioex.com

Biography

Saasha Celestial-One is the daughter of Iowa hippies and was raised with a deep appreciation for the planet and its scarce resources. She spent 13 years in the corporate world, feeling a bit like a fish out of water. After opening her first business (a PAYG high street creche, which she outfitted entirely from FreeCycle) in 2012 she knew entrepreneurship was her path. Given her dislike for waste of all kinds, it was a short skip and a hop to cofounding OLIO, a food sharing app aimed at reducing food waste in the home and local community, in early 2015.

River Cottage Love Your Leftovers: Recipes for the resourceful cook

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Obviously, I am very conscious of waste and I hate throwing things away, which I no longer do, what with having OLIO at my fingertips! What I love about Hugh’s resourceful book is that he manages to inspire you to take a look at the odds and sods in your kitchen and inject a new lease of culinary delight into them with ease and simplicity. Some old potatoes in your fridge and flour in your cupboard? Voila - you’ve got gnocchi!

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy & Grace

Tamar Adler

This is a really beautifully written book. Tamar Adler transcends the conventional recipe formula, opting for a more natural and intuitive approach that has more soul than technical ability. There are no step-by-step instructions or long ingredients lists, instead, poetic and personal reflections on food, dotted with recipes of sustaining meals that champion frugality and cherish leftovers.

The Vegetarian Epicure

Anna Thomas

I have been a vegetarian from birth, so this classic has been plucked off my shelf and used plenty of times. Many of my favourite veggie comfort dishes have sprung to life from the pages of this book, particularly the Spinach Lasagne recipe. It is also full of charming illustrations which make leafing through it all that little bit more pleasurable.

A Modern Way to Eat

Anna Jones

From one veggie Anna to the next. While Thomas paved the way for pioneering vegetarian cooking back in the day, Anna Jones is grabbing the baton and running with it into the modern age. Her book is crammed with plant-based, sustainably conscious recipes that will excite and inspire any vegan or vegetarian. Her recipes are also easy and accessible to execute, which is what I look for with my busy schedule.

Save With Jamie

Jamie Oliver

I read somewhere that nearly every household in the UK has a Jamie Oliver cookbook! Well, this one adorns my shelf. Much like Hugh’s conscious, waste-reducing ethos, Jamie favours thrift and savvy frugality, with no compromise on flavour or imagination. I have a 3 year old at home, so the fact that these are simple, quick and tasty recipes that use-up my leftovers, is just perfect.

A Girl Called Jack:100 delicious budget recipes

Jack Monroe

Jack Monroe’s economical and unpretentious approach to cooking is refreshing and inspiring. There’s no pricey, extravagant ingredients here, just simple and honest food. Jack encourages the reader to raid their store cupboard and pair those uninspiring tins, such as chickpeas or kidney beans, with fresh, seasonal ingredients, creating nutritious, low-budget meals for the family.

Plenty

Yotam Ottolenghi

Ottolenghi is the master and this is one of my all time favourites. This is a vegetarian book, with an Israeli/ Middle Eastern influence, that will sway the most hardened carnivore. Ottolenghi works his magic with vegetables, grains and spices and he consistently delivers combinations that are interesting, bold and innovative.

The Natural Cook

Tom Hunt

I absolutely adore Tom Hunt’s root-to-fruit approach to food. His philosophy is all about eating seasonally and sustainably, while curbing your food waste footprint in the process. Seasonal veg is the hero, and his inventive recipes show you how to make the most of a versatile vegetable, with no scraps remaining. For example, beetroot can be made into a hummus, roasted and put in a salad or candied in a chocolate pot.

Savour: Salads for all Seasons

Peter Gordon

In his words, “Salad is the main course now” and I’m in agreement! I’m a big fan of salads and I eat them by the bucket load. I purchased this book fairly recently and I was amazed first by the striking photography, and then by the imagination and vibrancy of the recipes. The book is split into 8 sections, from simple salads to meat and poultry - the latter will appease my meat-eating husband who sometimes gets fed up with my veggie making ways!

Tender: Volume I: A cook and his vegetable patch

Nigel Slater

I had to include a Nigel Slater title on my list because they’re simply beautiful things to behold. Slater’s evocative prose and easy-to-follow recipes are a joy to read, and his words are elevated by the eye-catching photography. I like the fact that Slater encourages creativity and appreciates simplicity in his uniquely warm way, and in this book, the vegetable is the star, which aligns well with my vegetarianism.