There has been a lot of chat about vegetarian-only cookery books recently, partly inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s newest offering but also resulting from the financial and ethical requirements of our age: properly bred meat is expensive and who has £14 for an organic chicken these days? I know I don’t; I can reach the free-range level (even then you’re paying £8-9), but everything else is out of my reach. What’s more, vegetables generally keep longer and are more versatile. So, although I am unlikely ever to give up pork belly or squid, I do love new ways with the less sexy food groups.

My newest discovery is the Riverford app (for which you will need a smartphone). It has 770 recipes, a helpful description of each vegetable to help you distinguish kohl-rabi from kale and a rather fun ‘vegetable machine’: spin the wheels to select the vegetables that you have/want to use and it selects a list of recipes for you (might be useful for persuading younger members of the family to get involved with choosing and cooking the unmentionables). With the most basic of selections (onions, garlic, carrots, celery, celeriac and potatoes) it came up with three soups, a potato, celeriac and apple curry, a pork and root vegetable stew, a roasted vegetable toad in the hole and a beef and porcini pot roast with celeriac mash. Along with more unusual offerings (for example Javanese spinach soup, kachumber salad and onion borek) it also has lots of classic recipes like potato gratin, colcannon and tons of salad recipes as well as information about how to cook and store all the vegetables that feature. How much will all of this cost you? Nothing. Free and brilliant but don’t take my word for it: download it here.

On a completely other note, forgive the dearth of recipes this week. I’ve had a tax return to finish and I am still adjusting to a five-day working week which is playing havoc with my blogging. Hoping to be back with lots of recipes again from Monday.