East: 120 Easy and Delicious Asian-inspired Vegetarian and Vegan recipes

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Drawing from her 'New Vegan' Guardian column, Meera Sodha's collection features brand-new recipes inspired by Asian cuisine - from India to Indonesia, Singapore to Japan, by way of China, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Add the chillies and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Then add the tamarind and coconut milk, stir, and transfer half the mixture into your second large frying pan. As an outsider, I thought I was in a good place to create new and exciting vegan recipes. I understood meat-eaters and knew the textures, flavors, and the “richness” they might miss. But I had also spent two years writing a vegetarian book, Fresh India, and knew how to make bitter kale leaves sing and how to tempt a beet hater into eating a plateful. Pour the soy sauce, vinegar, caster sugar and 150ml of cold water into your chosen container and stir to mix.Thirdly, I’d just had a baby who was a few weeks old. Not only had life just been thrown into chaos with her arrival, but I’d planned to take a whole year off to get to know her.

Meera Sodha's stunning new collection features brand-new recipes from a wide range of Asian cuisines. This cookbook is a collaboration between Sodha and the East Asian and South East Asian home cooks and gourmet chefs who inspired her along the way. There are noodles, curries, rice dishes, tofu, salads, sides, and sweets, all easy to make and bursting with exciting flavors. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in the same pan and, when hot, return the ground spices with the onions, salt and curry leaves. Fry for 10 to 12 minutes, until the onions are golden and crisp-edged. Meanwhile, cut the vine tomatoes into eighths and the baby tomatoes in half. I found that I could travel to Asia without traveling very far at all. I spoke to my accountant, Ben, who is from Borneo, where Sarawak laksa is prized. I begged Wichet, the owner-chef of the Thai restaurant Supawan, to show me how to make a tom kha ghai soup, and Shuko Oda, the Japanese chef, to teach me how to make her walnut miso. I accosted home cooks on social media who had innocently posted photos of their breakfast to ask them more about what they ate and how they made it. This could and should be a cheap meal, especially if you buy the ingredients from an Asian supermarket (or one online). If you buy more curry leaves and lemongrass than you need, keep them wrapped up in the freezer for next time. Serve with paratha (you can buy these from the freezer section of many Asian supermarkets) or steamed rice.I was excited to enter this brave new world in which I found myself. Huge numbers of people, growing by the day, were choosing to eat a more plant-based diet, whether for political, environmental, ethical, or economic reasons. Although a relatively small number were actually becoming vegan, a larger number were looking to reduce the amount of meat and dairy in their diet. This felt like a big and important discussion—I wanted a chance to be a part of it and help move the conversation forward. Sodha, who has written three cookbooks, excels at fresh, vegetable-forward cooking, which often pulls from the Gujarati cuisine she grew up with, as well as other Asian cuisines, but always with results that are entirely her own.” Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a deep frying pan over a medium flame and, when hot, add the onions. Cook for 15 minutes until really soft, then add the ginger and garlic. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then add the tomato and cook for a further 6 minutes, until rich and paste-like.