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Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen
Community
is all about sharing good food, giving you endless ideas on delicious salads to serve up for your family, friends and neighbours. These simple, sustainable and healthy recipes feature fresh, seasonal produce and inject colour, life and flair into that most modest of everyday meals: the salad. Rather than being simply sides,
Community
's salads are meals in their own right, giving vegetables, legumes, herbs and nuts their moment to shine.
The recipes in Community are inspired by author Hetty McKinnon's community kitchen, Arthur Street Kitchen, where Hetty single-handedly makes and delivers homemade salads to residents in Surry Hills, Sydney, on Thursday and Friday every week. All by bike! Hetty's salads use only the freshest produce, sourced locally wherever possible. Inspired first and foremost by the seasons, Hetty also takes cues from what she sees, smells and experiences from the world around her. At the heart of every dish is a core vegetable, around which a thoughtful culinary story is built, resulting in honest, inventive and hearty salads that deliver big, punchy flavours.
The recipes in Community are inspired by author Hetty McKinnon's community kitchen, Arthur Street Kitchen, where Hetty single-handedly makes and delivers homemade salads to residents in Surry Hills, Sydney, on Thursday and Friday every week. All by bike! Hetty's salads use only the freshest produce, sourced locally wherever possible. Inspired first and foremost by the seasons, Hetty also takes cues from what she sees, smells and experiences from the world around her. At the heart of every dish is a core vegetable, around which a thoughtful culinary story is built, resulting in honest, inventive and hearty salads that deliver big, punchy flavours.
184 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2014
About the author
Hetty McKinnon
4 books59 followersHetty McKinnon is a home cook who grew up devouring the colours, aromas and flavours of her mother's ebullient Cantonese cooking. Formerly a beauty PR, she is now the one-woman show behind the incredibly successful Arthur Street Kitchen, whipping up flavour-packed salads and sweets in her home kitchen then delivering them by bike to hungry Surry Hills locals. Hetty lives in Sydney with her husband, Ross, and three children, Scout, Dash and Huck. Community is her first cookbook.
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 1, 2015
This is the best cookbook I have ever come across. I am not a vegetarian but these recipes are all delicious and many of them are fantastic as a main course. I have not found a single recipe that my family did not absolutely love. It also makes generous size dishes which is useful as then we get to eat the leftovers. They are not overly difficult to make, the instructions are clear and the photography is beautiful.
If you can believe this, I actually had a question about one of the recipes and sent an email to the author via her website. She wrote me back within a few hours, a very lovely message.
If you can believe this, I actually had a question about one of the recipes and sent an email to the author via her website. She wrote me back within a few hours, a very lovely message.
October 16, 2020
How I found out about Hetty McKinnon and her recipes was by word-of-mouth. Everyone knows that I am a cookbook enthusiast, which is great because people love to give recommendations on cookbooks I might enjoy. Word-of-mouth is good because it means (at least in my mind) that someone has loved and enjoyed something enough to tell people about it. And, while “Top” lists are great, it doesn’t necessarily mean that someone has taken the time to cook from or immerse themselves in the intentions of an author. But if my friend Sal calls to rave about this great book she’s cooking from, then I know its a keeper! Hetty’s popularity is built on these personal accounts of home cooks who love her recipes so much that they become an indelible part of family mealtime.
Hetty’s second cookbook, Neighborhood, was a recommendation and, when it arrived it really changed the way I define what a salad is. Here is what I said in my review of this book: “Neighborhood (her second cookbook) focuses on taking the schematic version of a salad (think: leafy) and works to change the schema so that salads become something new. More hearty, less leafy. To be honest her salads are so out of the realm of what I’m used to where salads are concerned, I had to keep reminding myself that the basis of this book are, in fact, salads. Almost a dozen recipes in and I’m completely enamored with the way Hetty constructs a salad because what she does is make it into a true meal. She deftly shows how the different places that she’s lived in influence the types of ingredients she uses and how she uses those ingredients.” So, from the early days of her salad delivery service in Sydney, Australia, she has been defining salads in her own way.
Once I cooked through Neighborhood, I was literally and figuratively hunger for more — her first cookbook, Community, was unavailable outside of Australia. Community was brought into being through the love of her customers — wanting to share the recipes, Hetty wrote and self-published Community as a way to share these favourite dishes with her friends. Australian publisher Pan MacMillan approached her to publish an edition in 2014, which became an unqualified success. During a recent Book Larder web conversation about the newly released edition of Community between Aran Goyoaga and McKinnon, Goyoaga mentions how the last edition of Community has sold over 100,000 copies! Incredible, but not surprising given how much people love Hetty and her recipes.
This latest 5th Anniversary edition of Community recognizes and celebrates how the home cooks of Australia have adored and embraced this cookbook. Written back in 2014 in the original introduction to Community, Hetty says, “In our age of ephemera, Community invites the reader to find more meaningful ways of connecting through food. This book is not about cooking and eating a meal at lightening pace. Rather, it encourages us all to take the time to find comfort, pleasure, celebration and inspiration in both the process of cooking and the art of eating together.”(7) This is what makes Hetty’s vision so timeless: it’s not about trends but about building a foundation. It’s about nourishing our emotional well-being as well as our bodies by making food and being together.
Luckily, this new edition of Community has been released worldwide so that home cooks everywhere can enjoy Hetty’s recipes. This year has seen so many changes, too numerous to count, and it’s been through cooking at home that I’ve found comfort. The life within my kitchen has remained constant — reaching for the well-used and stained cookbooks has been the tangible reminder that eating together as a family will buoy us until times are better. And what I appreciate about Hetty’s approach is that her recipes serve as a guide — ingredients can be substituted or added depending on taste or situation. When I make her recipe for Smoky Baba Ghanoush w/ Roasted Cauliflower, Lentils and Pomegranate, I blend the Baba Ghanoush until it’s smooth (I prefer this texture) and, I serve it on mixed greens (we’ve been really loving the leafy greens from the market this year). Drizzled with a bit of pomegranate molasses, it’s such a hearty meal which is full of different flavours and textures.
There are new recipes too — ones that are inspired by the people and places she’s experienced since moving from Australia to the United States. One of these recipes — the Fennel, Chickpea and Orange w/ Harissa — is inspired by her friends Leetal and Ron at New York Shuk. Juicy orange segments, thinly shaved fennel and chickpeas are made even more delicious with a drizzle of sauce made from harissa paste. I took Hetty’s advice in the recipe notes and used the best harissa I could find (I also used some of the New York Shuk Preserved Lemon paste in the recipe for Moroccan Sweet Potato, Chickpeas and Couscous w/ Chermoula from the book).
Community is organized into 8 wonderfully named chapters: Welcome to the Roots, Everybody Love Brassicas, The Kingdom of Fungi, The Goodness of Cereals, Love, Legumes, Hello, Nightshades, Meet the Marrows, and In the Mood for Asian. Even more wonderful are the interviews and stories from “friends of Community” — those who love this book and have made it apart of their family. One of my favourite stories is from Benjamin Law, who tells us “Since my friend Sophie gave me a copy for my birthday, I’ve lost count of the number of copies of Community I’ve given as a gift, like the good little — and probably annoying — disciple I am. I’m borderline evangelical.”(89) I really appreciate and relate to Law’s words because I think anyone who cooks Hetty’s recipes feels this need to share — which is how the phenomenon of Community (and Hetty’s work in general) can be explained.
Looking at the body of her work, what Hetty offers is both cohesive and timeless — it’s about being grateful for the ingredients we have and for the people around us. As she says in the forward to the new edition, “Discovering the power of food to bring people together, and to evoke memories, was the turning point of my life, both professionally and personally. These recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen gave me life. To cook for others fulfilled me in ways I could have never previously imagined or understood.”(5) While this is true for Hetty, I think this is true for all of us who have found or have continued to build on a culinary legacy. To look at home cooking as being a meaningful, important endeavor is McKinnon’s legacy, along with delicious recipes to share.
Please note that this an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com
I used my own personal copy to happily write this review.
Hetty’s second cookbook, Neighborhood, was a recommendation and, when it arrived it really changed the way I define what a salad is. Here is what I said in my review of this book: “Neighborhood (her second cookbook) focuses on taking the schematic version of a salad (think: leafy) and works to change the schema so that salads become something new. More hearty, less leafy. To be honest her salads are so out of the realm of what I’m used to where salads are concerned, I had to keep reminding myself that the basis of this book are, in fact, salads. Almost a dozen recipes in and I’m completely enamored with the way Hetty constructs a salad because what she does is make it into a true meal. She deftly shows how the different places that she’s lived in influence the types of ingredients she uses and how she uses those ingredients.” So, from the early days of her salad delivery service in Sydney, Australia, she has been defining salads in her own way.
Once I cooked through Neighborhood, I was literally and figuratively hunger for more — her first cookbook, Community, was unavailable outside of Australia. Community was brought into being through the love of her customers — wanting to share the recipes, Hetty wrote and self-published Community as a way to share these favourite dishes with her friends. Australian publisher Pan MacMillan approached her to publish an edition in 2014, which became an unqualified success. During a recent Book Larder web conversation about the newly released edition of Community between Aran Goyoaga and McKinnon, Goyoaga mentions how the last edition of Community has sold over 100,000 copies! Incredible, but not surprising given how much people love Hetty and her recipes.
This latest 5th Anniversary edition of Community recognizes and celebrates how the home cooks of Australia have adored and embraced this cookbook. Written back in 2014 in the original introduction to Community, Hetty says, “In our age of ephemera, Community invites the reader to find more meaningful ways of connecting through food. This book is not about cooking and eating a meal at lightening pace. Rather, it encourages us all to take the time to find comfort, pleasure, celebration and inspiration in both the process of cooking and the art of eating together.”(7) This is what makes Hetty’s vision so timeless: it’s not about trends but about building a foundation. It’s about nourishing our emotional well-being as well as our bodies by making food and being together.
Luckily, this new edition of Community has been released worldwide so that home cooks everywhere can enjoy Hetty’s recipes. This year has seen so many changes, too numerous to count, and it’s been through cooking at home that I’ve found comfort. The life within my kitchen has remained constant — reaching for the well-used and stained cookbooks has been the tangible reminder that eating together as a family will buoy us until times are better. And what I appreciate about Hetty’s approach is that her recipes serve as a guide — ingredients can be substituted or added depending on taste or situation. When I make her recipe for Smoky Baba Ghanoush w/ Roasted Cauliflower, Lentils and Pomegranate, I blend the Baba Ghanoush until it’s smooth (I prefer this texture) and, I serve it on mixed greens (we’ve been really loving the leafy greens from the market this year). Drizzled with a bit of pomegranate molasses, it’s such a hearty meal which is full of different flavours and textures.
There are new recipes too — ones that are inspired by the people and places she’s experienced since moving from Australia to the United States. One of these recipes — the Fennel, Chickpea and Orange w/ Harissa — is inspired by her friends Leetal and Ron at New York Shuk. Juicy orange segments, thinly shaved fennel and chickpeas are made even more delicious with a drizzle of sauce made from harissa paste. I took Hetty’s advice in the recipe notes and used the best harissa I could find (I also used some of the New York Shuk Preserved Lemon paste in the recipe for Moroccan Sweet Potato, Chickpeas and Couscous w/ Chermoula from the book).
Community is organized into 8 wonderfully named chapters: Welcome to the Roots, Everybody Love Brassicas, The Kingdom of Fungi, The Goodness of Cereals, Love, Legumes, Hello, Nightshades, Meet the Marrows, and In the Mood for Asian. Even more wonderful are the interviews and stories from “friends of Community” — those who love this book and have made it apart of their family. One of my favourite stories is from Benjamin Law, who tells us “Since my friend Sophie gave me a copy for my birthday, I’ve lost count of the number of copies of Community I’ve given as a gift, like the good little — and probably annoying — disciple I am. I’m borderline evangelical.”(89) I really appreciate and relate to Law’s words because I think anyone who cooks Hetty’s recipes feels this need to share — which is how the phenomenon of Community (and Hetty’s work in general) can be explained.
Looking at the body of her work, what Hetty offers is both cohesive and timeless — it’s about being grateful for the ingredients we have and for the people around us. As she says in the forward to the new edition, “Discovering the power of food to bring people together, and to evoke memories, was the turning point of my life, both professionally and personally. These recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen gave me life. To cook for others fulfilled me in ways I could have never previously imagined or understood.”(5) While this is true for Hetty, I think this is true for all of us who have found or have continued to build on a culinary legacy. To look at home cooking as being a meaningful, important endeavor is McKinnon’s legacy, along with delicious recipes to share.
Please note that this an excerpt of a review posted to www.shipshapeeatworthy.wordpress.com
I used my own personal copy to happily write this review.
January 1, 2020
I prefer some of Hetty's other books. I had read a new article and had high hopes for this book, but was a little disappointed. There will be a few recipes I am still to try, but on the whole the content was less appealing than I expected it to be.
However, I also looked at Family and have made several great meals from that book.
However, I also looked at Family and have made several great meals from that book.
July 30, 2021
A wonderful book to read with many recipes to try. Enjoy!
September 4, 2020
Excellent recipes!!! I really really love these for work lunches, and because they’re primarily not leafy greens then they all keep really really well
Also the story behind the book, and the people it’s connected with is beautiful! Check out Hetty’s interview on the podcast “The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry” if you want to really connect with it ❤️
Also the story behind the book, and the people it’s connected with is beautiful! Check out Hetty’s interview on the podcast “The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry” if you want to really connect with it ❤️
January 27, 2020
Hetty McKinnon combines a plethora of uplifting ingredients to create combinations that make everyone at the table feel nourished and satisfied. Definitely find myself going back again and again to her recipes.
July 30, 2023
My go-to dinner party and pot luck cookbook. So healthy and delicious and the salads are always a hit with family and friends. Lots of my friends have bought their own copies after eating Hetty’s meals at my house. Vegetarian and whole food based. Cannot recommend highly enough.
March 9, 2019
Fabulous vegetarian recipes, loads of brilliant ideas. Already planned the next few nights dinners!
July 1, 2020
My favourite cookbook. I gift this to so many people.
November 3, 2021
I don’t understand the hype. Everything I’ve made from this book is bland and underwhelming.
February 18, 2017
Easy to follow instructions and easy to source ingredients. How to make everyday ingredients come alive! Great for hot summer nights when it's too hot to cook.
February 15, 2022
This was an excellent book for me, as I have been wanting to get better at making vegetarian salads for meals, particularly during the summer months. McKinnon provides a set of conceptual guidelines for making salads, and has introduced me to new recipes, ingredients, and approaches for making salads that are filling, tasty, and that provide leftovers for days. It is not a book that I would cook from all the time - after a while, my family felt that the salads had a bit of a "sameness" to them.
Her serving sizes are quite large and sometimes she makes the recipes more complicated than they need to be, but I will be hanging on to this recipe book as a useful guide for making salads for me and my family well into the future.
This was the anniversary edition, so it had lots of photos of very stylish wealthy people with their beautiful gardens, homes and salads, and their messages of how much they love the author and how her salads have changed their lives. I found that a bit annoying, but others may like that sort of thing.
Her serving sizes are quite large and sometimes she makes the recipes more complicated than they need to be, but I will be hanging on to this recipe book as a useful guide for making salads for me and my family well into the future.
This was the anniversary edition, so it had lots of photos of very stylish wealthy people with their beautiful gardens, homes and salads, and their messages of how much they love the author and how her salads have changed their lives. I found that a bit annoying, but others may like that sort of thing.
March 12, 2023
This book is glorious! It is like a salad encyclopedia - depending on what is in season and affordable and available I can look it up in the index and find inspiration for an exciting, tasty, wholesome meal. I love the combinations and the way she takes salads to such an amazing new level. There is not a big focus on health benefits which I kind of like - salads, for salads sake - however, I reckon with these in my life my whole family is going to be on the up and up health wise. I borrowed a copy from the library but would love to purchase this book for regular reference and inspiration.
April 20, 2016
Finally a salad book with not a lettuce leaf in sight!
Recipes look complicated, but aren't and not one has ever missed the mark!
Faves: Chargrilled Zucchini and Pearl Barley with Whipped Feta and Dill (pg151) Chargrilled Cauliflower with Fried Butter Beans and Pumpkin Hummus (pg77) and the Baked Sweet Potato with Rocket, Feta and Black Olive-Walnut relish (pg57)
Recipes look complicated, but aren't and not one has ever missed the mark!
Faves: Chargrilled Zucchini and Pearl Barley with Whipped Feta and Dill (pg151) Chargrilled Cauliflower with Fried Butter Beans and Pumpkin Hummus (pg77) and the Baked Sweet Potato with Rocket, Feta and Black Olive-Walnut relish (pg57)
December 6, 2015
Hands down my favourite cookbook! Every recipe is delicious and easy to make
May 11, 2018
This is a really fabulous cookbook- vegetarian recipes that are reasonably simple to make, taste delicious, and not overly dependent on tomato.
November 3, 2020
Adds a little more spice to already found original recipes. Gives a zesty new pleasure to stimulate all of the senses
January 3, 2021
Some great looking salads in here. Really can’t wait to try them out.
September 19, 2017
Great salad recipes - can't wait to try a few soon.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews