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Essential Ottolenghi: A Collection
Experience Yotam Ottolenghi's wholly original approach to Middle Eastern-inspired, vegetable-centric cooking with over 280 recipes in a deluxe boxed set of the beloved New York Times bestselling cookbooks, Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple, now in paperback for the first time.
From powerhouse chef and author (with over 4 million book copies sold) Yotam Ottolenghi comes this collection of two fan favorites in collectible paperback covers. These visually stunning books feature over 280 recipes--spanning every meal, from breakfast to dessert, including snacks and sides--showcasing Yotam's trademark dazzling, boldly flavored, Middle Eastern cooking style.
Full of weeknight winners, for vegetarians and omnivores alike, such as Braised Eggs with Leeks and Za'atar, Polenta Chips with Avocado and Yogurt, Lamb and Feta Meatballs, Baked Orzo with Mozzarella and Oregano, and Halvah Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce and Roasted Peanuts. Essential Ottolenghi includes:
* Plenty More More than 150 dazzling recipes emphasize spices, seasonality, and bold flavors. Organized by cooking method, from inspired salads to hearty main dishes and luscious desserts. This visually stunning collection will change the way you cook and eat vegetables.
* Ottolenghi Simple These 130 streamlined recipes packed with Yotam's famous flavors, are all simple in at least (and often more than) one way: made in thirty minutes or less, with ten or fewer ingredients, in a single pot, using pantry staples, or prepared ahead of time for brilliantly, deliciously simple meals.
From powerhouse chef and author (with over 4 million book copies sold) Yotam Ottolenghi comes this collection of two fan favorites in collectible paperback covers. These visually stunning books feature over 280 recipes--spanning every meal, from breakfast to dessert, including snacks and sides--showcasing Yotam's trademark dazzling, boldly flavored, Middle Eastern cooking style.
Full of weeknight winners, for vegetarians and omnivores alike, such as Braised Eggs with Leeks and Za'atar, Polenta Chips with Avocado and Yogurt, Lamb and Feta Meatballs, Baked Orzo with Mozzarella and Oregano, and Halvah Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce and Roasted Peanuts. Essential Ottolenghi includes:
* Plenty More More than 150 dazzling recipes emphasize spices, seasonality, and bold flavors. Organized by cooking method, from inspired salads to hearty main dishes and luscious desserts. This visually stunning collection will change the way you cook and eat vegetables.
* Ottolenghi Simple These 130 streamlined recipes packed with Yotam's famous flavors, are all simple in at least (and often more than) one way: made in thirty minutes or less, with ten or fewer ingredients, in a single pot, using pantry staples, or prepared ahead of time for brilliantly, deliciously simple meals.
672 pages, Paperback
Published November 5, 2019
About the author
Yotam Ottolenghi
63 books1,379 followersYotam Ottolenghi's path to the world of cooking and baking has been anything but straightforward. Having completed a Masters degree in philosophy and literature whilst working on the news desk of an Israeli daily, he made a radical shift on coming to London in 1997. He started as an assistant pastry chef at the Capital and then worked at Kensington Place and Launceston Place, where he ran the pastry section. Yotam subsequently worked for Maison Blanc and then Baker and Spice, before starting his own eponymous group of restaurants/food shops, with branches in Notting Hill, Islington and Kensington.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 29, 2025
This book sparked my love of cooking. Simple and delicious recipes that will build your confidence working in the kitchen and assembling a pantry.
August 24, 2022
Never made a disappointing recipe! Very accessible for the intermediate home cook. You have to get Ottolenghi’s suggest essential ingredients, they are palate expanding wonders.
November 17, 2019
To be honest, while I love to cook from and cherish my Ottolenghi books, I was sorry that the North American and UK versions of Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple did not share the same cover designs. No disrespect to the photographers or stylists, I think I much prefer the graphic designs to the photographic ones. Therefore, I am so pleased with the release of the Essential Ottolenghi boxset, which contains special edition paperback versions of both Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple complete with those graphic covers that I so admire. Each paperback contains all the mouth-watering photos of the original versions. I enjoy cooking Ottolenghi recipes because they offer interesting flavour combination and dishes worth serving. I’ve found that Plenty More (all-vegetarian recipes) is best suited to times when you have more time to focus on making a recipe (what I refer to as “weekend cooking”), while Ottolenghi Simple (recipes to suit many diets, from vegetarian to those that include meat/fish/poultry) offers recipes that can be easily made during busy weeknights. What this boxset offers are the best of all possible choices – many favourite Ottolenghi recipes from two of his most popular cookbooks. What a great gift idea (or, even just an opportunity to treat yourself to something special)! I think that this boxset would be the perfect gift for a home cook looking to add useful and delicious cookbooks to their library. Even though I own original copies of Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple, I am pleased to also own this special edition boxset as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Appetite by Random House / Penguin Random House for providing me with a free, review copy of this boxset. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Appetite by Random House / Penguin Random House for providing me with a free, review copy of this boxset. I did not receive monetary compensation for my post, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
May 17, 2020
The first dish I replicated in Simple was a winner. Vegetables in Plenty More are no longer intimidating.
January 5, 2022
Zklamání. Hledal jsem nové snadné a zdravé recepty pro změnu životního stylu. Kniha obsahuje cca tři sta stran receptů, které mě ale vůbec nezaujaly. Ani svými názvy, ani fotkami. Překlad z originálu do češtiny taky není dobrý (např. cherry rajčata jsou přeložena jako třešňová rajčátka - neslyšel jsem, že by to někdo někdy použil). Asi tři recepty jsem si vyfotil k vyzkoušení.
August 20, 2025
My mother uses this cookbook almost every time I go over for dinner. The recipes and flavours are just divine, every recipe is unlike any other I’ve ever seen or tasted. The only thing that’s missing for me personally are pictures - not every recipe has pictures which I think would be more useful to know what it should look like.
December 21, 2023
This cookbook set was gifted to me a couple years ago and contains two excellent cookbooks by Yotam Ottolenghi, one of my favorite chefs. Both are in an easy-to-read format with great color photos and a variety of delicious recipes that I can't wait to make!
October 9, 2020
einfach toll!
January 27, 2022
this is not SIMPLE if I sprain my wrist making a cheesecake
Want to Read
September 20, 2022Recomendación Vero Gómez
March 5, 2024
made my meals so much more interesting
March 10, 2022
Really pretty, fun to read (right balance of personal stories and informative details), and enough original recipe ideas to make it worth the investment. As always the most important thing is that the recipes I've tried out have all worked well.
May 5, 2020
Yotam Ottolenghi is a European icon of cooking, particularly of vegetarian cooking. His restaurants, his cookbooks, his television shows are known for his use of flavor, texture, and vibrancy to bring his dishes to life. I think Americans are less familiar with his work, and that’s why Essential Ottolenghi is the perfect way to get to know him.
Essential Ottolenghi is a two-volume set of his cookbooks, Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple, in paperback versions of their beautifully uncluttered original UK covers. These are two of his most inventive cookbooks, and as the box says, they are truly essential.
Plenty More is the continuation of his second cookbook, Plenty. Both are iconic masterpieces of a vegetarian kitchen, and while Plenty elevated him to a worldwide food celebrity, Ottolenghi wrote Plenty More at a time in his career when he’d had the opportunity to do a lot more traveling and a lot more tasting, meaning that the recipes that he was creating when he wrote this had more flavor, more depth, and more beauty. As he grew deeper as a chef, as he’d had more time to experiment, his recipes could only get better, and those of us who read and cook from Plenty More get all the benefits of that experience.
After a short introduction, where you get to meet Chef Ottolenghi and discover his point of view, the chapters are laid out in a progression that takes you through 12 different ways to prepare vegetables: tossed, steamed, blanched, simmered, braised, grilled, roasted, fried, mashed, cracked, baked, and sweetened. Filled with gorgeous photos and tempting combinations, you can be introduced to recipes like Tomato and Pomegranate Salad (tossed), Rice Salad with Nuts and Sour Cherries (steamed), Candy Beets with Lentils and Yuzu (simmered), Pea and Mint Croquettes (fried), and Eggplant Cheesecake (cracked). And there is so much more!
And then, if you’re looking for something more than vegetables, try Simple. In this incredibly clever cookbook, Ottolenghi studied the way people really cook and adjusted his recipes accordingly. Maybe you like to just grab things out of your pantry and start cooking, or you want to put something on to braise for hours while you do other things. Maybe you don’t like a lot of ingredients or like to keep the freezer stocked. No matter how you like to cook, Simple has recipes for you.
The chapters are divided into dishes or meals: Brunch; Raw Veg; Cooked Veg; Rice, Grains, and Pulses; Noodles and Pasta; Meat; Seafood; and Dessert. But the beauty of this cookbook lies in the code he’s used throughout to mark each recipe. They are all given one to six letters: S for short on time, I for 10 ingredients or less, M for make ahead, P for pantry, L for lazy, and E for easier than you think. Get it? He wrote these recipes so that they could be SIMPLE for home cooks. You just have to decide what kind of cook you want to be and pick a recipe that sounds good and fits your parameters.
Looking for a make-ahead brunch item that doesn’t take too many ingredients? Try the Zucchini and Ciabatta Frittata (it’s also just fun to say). Need a pasta dish that you can pull from your pantry and not have to bother too much? You can go with the Fettuccine with Spiced Cherry Tomato Sauce. Short on time? Tackle the Lamb and Feta Meatballs or Seeded Chicken Schnitzel. Looking for a seafood dish that’s easier than you think? There’s the Bridget Jones’s Pan-Fried Salmon with Pine Nut Salsa (as a book nerd, I love the story behind this one!). Need a make-ahead dessert to help clean out your pantry? That Mint and Pistachio Chocolate Fridge Cake is calling your name.
Essential Ottolenghi is a beautiful introduction to the universe of Yotam Ottolenghi. It offers you some of the best of his fundamental vegetable recipes along with a chance to cook simply and cleanly with the flair and finesse of a world-class chef. For me, the only thing that could make this boxed set better is the addition of his dessert book Sweet. Other than that, it’s pretty perfect. Gorgeous, varied, honest, flavorful, and with recipes for cooks of all skill level, Essential Ottolenghi is ideal for those who love the chef, those who want to get to know him, or as a gift for your favorite home cook.
I’ve received a free copy of Essential Ottolenghi from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
Essential Ottolenghi is a two-volume set of his cookbooks, Plenty More and Ottolenghi Simple, in paperback versions of their beautifully uncluttered original UK covers. These are two of his most inventive cookbooks, and as the box says, they are truly essential.
Plenty More is the continuation of his second cookbook, Plenty. Both are iconic masterpieces of a vegetarian kitchen, and while Plenty elevated him to a worldwide food celebrity, Ottolenghi wrote Plenty More at a time in his career when he’d had the opportunity to do a lot more traveling and a lot more tasting, meaning that the recipes that he was creating when he wrote this had more flavor, more depth, and more beauty. As he grew deeper as a chef, as he’d had more time to experiment, his recipes could only get better, and those of us who read and cook from Plenty More get all the benefits of that experience.
After a short introduction, where you get to meet Chef Ottolenghi and discover his point of view, the chapters are laid out in a progression that takes you through 12 different ways to prepare vegetables: tossed, steamed, blanched, simmered, braised, grilled, roasted, fried, mashed, cracked, baked, and sweetened. Filled with gorgeous photos and tempting combinations, you can be introduced to recipes like Tomato and Pomegranate Salad (tossed), Rice Salad with Nuts and Sour Cherries (steamed), Candy Beets with Lentils and Yuzu (simmered), Pea and Mint Croquettes (fried), and Eggplant Cheesecake (cracked). And there is so much more!
And then, if you’re looking for something more than vegetables, try Simple. In this incredibly clever cookbook, Ottolenghi studied the way people really cook and adjusted his recipes accordingly. Maybe you like to just grab things out of your pantry and start cooking, or you want to put something on to braise for hours while you do other things. Maybe you don’t like a lot of ingredients or like to keep the freezer stocked. No matter how you like to cook, Simple has recipes for you.
The chapters are divided into dishes or meals: Brunch; Raw Veg; Cooked Veg; Rice, Grains, and Pulses; Noodles and Pasta; Meat; Seafood; and Dessert. But the beauty of this cookbook lies in the code he’s used throughout to mark each recipe. They are all given one to six letters: S for short on time, I for 10 ingredients or less, M for make ahead, P for pantry, L for lazy, and E for easier than you think. Get it? He wrote these recipes so that they could be SIMPLE for home cooks. You just have to decide what kind of cook you want to be and pick a recipe that sounds good and fits your parameters.
Looking for a make-ahead brunch item that doesn’t take too many ingredients? Try the Zucchini and Ciabatta Frittata (it’s also just fun to say). Need a pasta dish that you can pull from your pantry and not have to bother too much? You can go with the Fettuccine with Spiced Cherry Tomato Sauce. Short on time? Tackle the Lamb and Feta Meatballs or Seeded Chicken Schnitzel. Looking for a seafood dish that’s easier than you think? There’s the Bridget Jones’s Pan-Fried Salmon with Pine Nut Salsa (as a book nerd, I love the story behind this one!). Need a make-ahead dessert to help clean out your pantry? That Mint and Pistachio Chocolate Fridge Cake is calling your name.
Essential Ottolenghi is a beautiful introduction to the universe of Yotam Ottolenghi. It offers you some of the best of his fundamental vegetable recipes along with a chance to cook simply and cleanly with the flair and finesse of a world-class chef. For me, the only thing that could make this boxed set better is the addition of his dessert book Sweet. Other than that, it’s pretty perfect. Gorgeous, varied, honest, flavorful, and with recipes for cooks of all skill level, Essential Ottolenghi is ideal for those who love the chef, those who want to get to know him, or as a gift for your favorite home cook.
I’ve received a free copy of Essential Ottolenghi from Ten Speed Press in exchange for a free and unbiased review.
October 13, 2020
Already fans of the other Ottolenghi books, we were excited when this one hit the shelves. Again, the dishes are actually quite easy to make and once you have your essential store of spices, really easy to shop for. Like all cookbooks, we have our favourites but also lots more marked to try. Yotam's recipes don't go overboard with unfamiliar flavours and hit the right balance. I can highly recommend this for a family cookbook, for adding new dishes to your roster.
January 17, 2021
Totalmente inspirador, gran selección de platos ottolenghianos que te hacen la vida más fácil y sin duda más mágica 😉.
La disposición del libro es maravillosa y la fotografía espectacular. Al final es un libro de recetas y es la función que cumple. Un libro de recetas mediterráneas y sanas.
La disposición del libro es maravillosa y la fotografía espectacular. Al final es un libro de recetas y es la función que cumple. Un libro de recetas mediterráneas y sanas.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews