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Veggies & Fish: Inspired New Recipes for Plant-Forward Pescatarian Cooking
A modern pescatarian cookbook with over 95 plant-forward, sustainable seafood recipes, featuring stunning photography from Jamie Oliver’s longtime food photographer
Author of the acclaimed The Tinned Fish Cookbook, Bart van Olphen knows fish. Jamie Oliver has called him his “fish hero.” Now, Bart shares his best recipes yet in this essential pescatarian cookbook—this time, focusing on the vegetables. With over 95 fish and vegetable recipes for soups, salads, sandwiches, pizza, pasta, curries, barbecue, and more, this book expands your culinary limits, turning the beginner home chef into a culinary savant.
Whether you’re a longtime pescatarian or just looking to add more seafood and vegetables into your diet, Veggies & Fish has something for you. With modern, sustainable recipes covering a wide range of seafood and vegetables—from tuna to oysters, fennel to snow peas—Bart proves that there are no limits to the different ways you can prepare fish and veggies. Classic Salmon Burgers are here, but so is Pear and Fig Salad with Cod Liver and Orange Dressing. You’ll find Gnocchi with Tomato and Tuna but also Spinach Pancakes with Cream Cheese, Avocado, and Smoked Salmon. Or how about a Paella with String Beans and Tiger Prawns for dinner—or Latkes with Smoked Mackerel, Apple, and Parsley for lunch?
Bart teaches you how to make delicious dishes that are rich in taste, presentation, and health. Veggies & Fish is filled with mouth-watering recipes that taste as good as they look in dazzling photos by David Loftus (Jamie Oliver’s trusted photographer). Snacks, breakfasts, elaborate dinners; with this book in hand, adding seafood and vegetables into your diet is a breeze. After all, there are plenty of fish in the sea . . . so let’s eat!
Author of the acclaimed The Tinned Fish Cookbook, Bart van Olphen knows fish. Jamie Oliver has called him his “fish hero.” Now, Bart shares his best recipes yet in this essential pescatarian cookbook—this time, focusing on the vegetables. With over 95 fish and vegetable recipes for soups, salads, sandwiches, pizza, pasta, curries, barbecue, and more, this book expands your culinary limits, turning the beginner home chef into a culinary savant.
Whether you’re a longtime pescatarian or just looking to add more seafood and vegetables into your diet, Veggies & Fish has something for you. With modern, sustainable recipes covering a wide range of seafood and vegetables—from tuna to oysters, fennel to snow peas—Bart proves that there are no limits to the different ways you can prepare fish and veggies. Classic Salmon Burgers are here, but so is Pear and Fig Salad with Cod Liver and Orange Dressing. You’ll find Gnocchi with Tomato and Tuna but also Spinach Pancakes with Cream Cheese, Avocado, and Smoked Salmon. Or how about a Paella with String Beans and Tiger Prawns for dinner—or Latkes with Smoked Mackerel, Apple, and Parsley for lunch?
Bart teaches you how to make delicious dishes that are rich in taste, presentation, and health. Veggies & Fish is filled with mouth-watering recipes that taste as good as they look in dazzling photos by David Loftus (Jamie Oliver’s trusted photographer). Snacks, breakfasts, elaborate dinners; with this book in hand, adding seafood and vegetables into your diet is a breeze. After all, there are plenty of fish in the sea . . . so let’s eat!
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 23, 2021
Very gourmet, a bit above my pay grade.
This cookbook is beautifully photographed with a photo for every recipe. Olphen gives you lots of info about all kinds of seafood and veggies, and the recipes all seem more than restaurant worthy. They are more elaborate and sophisticated than my usual recipes, but this will be a great book if you really want to impress or eat the kind of meals you might not be able to afford in a restaurant. I appreciated the nutritional information for each recipe, too. This isn't ultimately cookbok that I'd use but it will be a wonderful book for those looking for this type of sophisticated pescatarian recipes.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
This cookbook is beautifully photographed with a photo for every recipe. Olphen gives you lots of info about all kinds of seafood and veggies, and the recipes all seem more than restaurant worthy. They are more elaborate and sophisticated than my usual recipes, but this will be a great book if you really want to impress or eat the kind of meals you might not be able to afford in a restaurant. I appreciated the nutritional information for each recipe, too. This isn't ultimately cookbok that I'd use but it will be a wonderful book for those looking for this type of sophisticated pescatarian recipes.
I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
June 17, 2022
This is the kind of inspiring cookbook that makes me want to deep clean my kitchen, source sustainable ingredients, and cook gorgeous meals served on fancy plates. This cookbook has almost 100 recipes designed to pull more vegetables into your fish meals. Bart van Olphen focuses on healthy, sustainable food.
It is definitely a challenge yourself cookbook, not a 30 minute instantpot cookbook. However, the directions are clear and thorough. If this guy taught a cooking class near me, I'd take it. The front has a section on ingredients and the back has a section on skills. Read both before pulling things out to start cooking. With a little preparation (and a willingness to fail because eventually we all do—ask me about my grand fondant disaster) this book can help you learn new recipes.
In the front section, ingredients are grouped into vegetables, seaweeds, herbs. Each item has a description that includes texture and flavor with ideas of what to pair it with. Do I really need someone telling me how to cook carrots? Maybe not, but tell me when was the last time someone broke down seaweeds and what vegetables they go with AND gave you a picture so you could find exactly what they're talking about?
I have seen reviews talking about how expensive these recipes are... yes, definitely some of the ingredients (mainly wild caught fish) aren't cheap, but I did check a local Asian market for the seaweed and the price per lb was on par with what I pay for organic vegetables (I'm in Southern California). I also grow micro greens on my kitchen counter with a set I bought on Amazon, so even if you have zero space and no natural light, you can start growing something for under $30. It's worth checking out your area to see what's available and basing your choice of recipe on what works for you. You could definitely break your budget on this book, but you can also find things that work.
There are also recipes for fresh water fish you can realistically catch in many parts of the US. Walleye, bass, and trout are included in the book (these fish are often skipped in other books).
Also, some of the recipes work well without the fish if you can't find what you're looking for. I made the miso eggplant with fried mackerel without the mackerel.
By far my favorite recipe (and easy enough that anyone can do it) is the spinach pancake with cream cheese, avocado, and smoked salmon. I used dried dill and skipped the arugula but everyone loved it.
The skills section in the back has very clear directions with blow by blow photos that show how to gut and clean large and small fish, how to cut fillets, how to skin fish, how to clean squid, open oysters, and shell shrimp. I do wish that section included how to pick the right knife (because your steak knife won't fillet a fish) but that's the most negative thing I can say. So, yeah, this book has fancy recipes, but it also has the baby steps to get you there.
One of my favorite features of this book is the nutritional information at the end of every recipe. That said, it's only useful if you're following the directions, so if you don't have a food scale and measure things, now is a good time to start.
The recipes are grouped by occasion/ type. There's a section for salads, soups, brunch, oven dishes, snacks and sandwiches, etc. Van Olphen put green pea guacamole rolls with pulled salmon into the snack and sandwich category... at my house it was supreme ultra fancy dinner of the month.
Another really helpful part is the basics section that covers currys, stocks, and mayonnaise based sauces. The details matter, so when he says room temperature for making mayonnaise, it makes a difference... the directions are there but he doesn't tell you what happens if you pull things straight out if the fridge (you get nasty oily egg sludge that doesn't whip. Source: experience because patience isn't my thing). Bottom line, read the directions before you go shopping and before you start cooking. My failed mayo was a long time ago... I haven't screwed anything from this book up yet. (I haven't made mayo from scratch in forever).
I got this book from my local library but it's on my list to purchase. This would make a good gift for a cook with a little bit of experience or someone trying to expand their skillset. Not many currently popular cookbooks have a lot of variety in how to approach bass and trout, so this would be a good addition to a fisherman's library. It's also a freaking GORGEOUS book so it's a good gift for someone who just appreciates killer food photography.
It is definitely a challenge yourself cookbook, not a 30 minute instantpot cookbook. However, the directions are clear and thorough. If this guy taught a cooking class near me, I'd take it. The front has a section on ingredients and the back has a section on skills. Read both before pulling things out to start cooking. With a little preparation (and a willingness to fail because eventually we all do—ask me about my grand fondant disaster) this book can help you learn new recipes.
In the front section, ingredients are grouped into vegetables, seaweeds, herbs. Each item has a description that includes texture and flavor with ideas of what to pair it with. Do I really need someone telling me how to cook carrots? Maybe not, but tell me when was the last time someone broke down seaweeds and what vegetables they go with AND gave you a picture so you could find exactly what they're talking about?
I have seen reviews talking about how expensive these recipes are... yes, definitely some of the ingredients (mainly wild caught fish) aren't cheap, but I did check a local Asian market for the seaweed and the price per lb was on par with what I pay for organic vegetables (I'm in Southern California). I also grow micro greens on my kitchen counter with a set I bought on Amazon, so even if you have zero space and no natural light, you can start growing something for under $30. It's worth checking out your area to see what's available and basing your choice of recipe on what works for you. You could definitely break your budget on this book, but you can also find things that work.
There are also recipes for fresh water fish you can realistically catch in many parts of the US. Walleye, bass, and trout are included in the book (these fish are often skipped in other books).
Also, some of the recipes work well without the fish if you can't find what you're looking for. I made the miso eggplant with fried mackerel without the mackerel.
By far my favorite recipe (and easy enough that anyone can do it) is the spinach pancake with cream cheese, avocado, and smoked salmon. I used dried dill and skipped the arugula but everyone loved it.
The skills section in the back has very clear directions with blow by blow photos that show how to gut and clean large and small fish, how to cut fillets, how to skin fish, how to clean squid, open oysters, and shell shrimp. I do wish that section included how to pick the right knife (because your steak knife won't fillet a fish) but that's the most negative thing I can say. So, yeah, this book has fancy recipes, but it also has the baby steps to get you there.
One of my favorite features of this book is the nutritional information at the end of every recipe. That said, it's only useful if you're following the directions, so if you don't have a food scale and measure things, now is a good time to start.
The recipes are grouped by occasion/ type. There's a section for salads, soups, brunch, oven dishes, snacks and sandwiches, etc. Van Olphen put green pea guacamole rolls with pulled salmon into the snack and sandwich category... at my house it was supreme ultra fancy dinner of the month.
Another really helpful part is the basics section that covers currys, stocks, and mayonnaise based sauces. The details matter, so when he says room temperature for making mayonnaise, it makes a difference... the directions are there but he doesn't tell you what happens if you pull things straight out if the fridge (you get nasty oily egg sludge that doesn't whip. Source: experience because patience isn't my thing). Bottom line, read the directions before you go shopping and before you start cooking. My failed mayo was a long time ago... I haven't screwed anything from this book up yet. (I haven't made mayo from scratch in forever).
I got this book from my local library but it's on my list to purchase. This would make a good gift for a cook with a little bit of experience or someone trying to expand their skillset. Not many currently popular cookbooks have a lot of variety in how to approach bass and trout, so this would be a good addition to a fisherman's library. It's also a freaking GORGEOUS book so it's a good gift for someone who just appreciates killer food photography.
August 1, 2022
After a couple misses on the cookbook front lately (perfectly good books but not a good fit) I was excited to spot this one on the new arrivals shelf at the library; veggies & fish is a great description of my overall diet and fish in particular is something I want to understand how to cook better. This looks like a very challenging cookbook, one with unusual ingredients and a lot of prep work, but when I actually dug in and made a couple of the recipes they weren't nearly as intimidating as I'd thought. I think I personally need a bit more of a Fish 101 before trying some of the others that interested me, but I really liked the results of the ones I did cook.
The main complaint I have about the book is that there are very, very few notes about substitutions, and it's got a great deal of tricky to source ingredients. The seaweeds and sea vegetables in particular are really intriguing ingredients, maybe worth seeking out, but it would have been great to know if the recipes that called for them could be made with another green thing or shouldn't be messed with. Same with understanding better whether you need that particular fish and what to do if it only shows up at your grocery store frozen or canned. It's one thing I really appreciate about getting a cookbook writer's expert opinion, them telling me what can be adjusted and what's too essential to the recipe.
So definitely a book for pushing oneself to try new things, and whether or not I get around to making more recipes before returning it I'll hang onto some of the new ideas I got from it! The kale salad with lime zest, hazelnuts, coconut, jalapenos and tuna? Never would have thought that combo up on my own and it was delicious. Frying up garlic and ginger chips to top off eggplant, and pairing it with fish? Cool! I'm not enough of a raw fish fan to actually make the gin & tonic salmon recipe, but I love the idea of gin & tonic as a flavor profile and will have to try the dressing. Fancy ideas for canned tuna? Also throwing those on the to-do list! Recommended if what you're looking for is inspiration and a break from routine with perhaps a special trip to the fancy grocery store, not so much for standard weeknight meals.
The main complaint I have about the book is that there are very, very few notes about substitutions, and it's got a great deal of tricky to source ingredients. The seaweeds and sea vegetables in particular are really intriguing ingredients, maybe worth seeking out, but it would have been great to know if the recipes that called for them could be made with another green thing or shouldn't be messed with. Same with understanding better whether you need that particular fish and what to do if it only shows up at your grocery store frozen or canned. It's one thing I really appreciate about getting a cookbook writer's expert opinion, them telling me what can be adjusted and what's too essential to the recipe.
So definitely a book for pushing oneself to try new things, and whether or not I get around to making more recipes before returning it I'll hang onto some of the new ideas I got from it! The kale salad with lime zest, hazelnuts, coconut, jalapenos and tuna? Never would have thought that combo up on my own and it was delicious. Frying up garlic and ginger chips to top off eggplant, and pairing it with fish? Cool! I'm not enough of a raw fish fan to actually make the gin & tonic salmon recipe, but I love the idea of gin & tonic as a flavor profile and will have to try the dressing. Fancy ideas for canned tuna? Also throwing those on the to-do list! Recommended if what you're looking for is inspiration and a break from routine with perhaps a special trip to the fancy grocery store, not so much for standard weeknight meals.
December 26, 2021
Fantastic recipe book for adding more veggies in with your seafood. Yes the recipes are for more advanced cooks but the book has absolute mouth watering pictures!
What did I like? The cookbook has a Mediterranean feel but I largely acknowledged the Italian dishes. That Gnocchi looked amazing as well as the lasagna. If someone served any of these gorgeous dishes to me I’d not hesitate to eat.
Would I recommend or buy? I would love a copy for my shelf! This book is for brave beginners up to culinary gods. If you have a seafood lover then this would definitely appeal to them. I enjoyed looking at the recipes and amazing photos. Five stars for a beautiful cookbook!
I received a complimentary ecopy to examine and this is a voluntary review! Kudos to the author! Gorgeous book!
What did I like? The cookbook has a Mediterranean feel but I largely acknowledged the Italian dishes. That Gnocchi looked amazing as well as the lasagna. If someone served any of these gorgeous dishes to me I’d not hesitate to eat.
Would I recommend or buy? I would love a copy for my shelf! This book is for brave beginners up to culinary gods. If you have a seafood lover then this would definitely appeal to them. I enjoyed looking at the recipes and amazing photos. Five stars for a beautiful cookbook!
I received a complimentary ecopy to examine and this is a voluntary review! Kudos to the author! Gorgeous book!
December 11, 2021
Beautiful cookbook with some great photos! The recipes look very nice and fancy and they are the kind of food you would order from a nice restaurant. I'm not very good at cooking fish at home so this isn't the best cookbook for me but I would love to try these at a restaurant. The recipes look very colorful and fresh and uses a lot of veggies + seafood. There are recipes for soups, salads, brunch, sandwiches, pastas, grains, stews, bbq, oven, pan and more. The author also teaches the basics like how to open oysters, how to shell shrimp and clean fish. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review
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December 7, 2021This was an interesting little cookbook, and I appreciated the author's "can-do" attitude about sustainable seafood and responsible consumption.
But I felt like it needed to be dumbed waaaaaay the heck down for me personally. I guess I was hoping for something a little more practical and less gourmand-y. If ruling out at least a third of the recipes because I neither have nor intend to acquire a food processor or immersion blender makes me basic, then I'm happily basic.
More enthusiastic and experienced cooks may find the book better suited to them.
But I felt like it needed to be dumbed waaaaaay the heck down for me personally. I guess I was hoping for something a little more practical and less gourmand-y. If ruling out at least a third of the recipes because I neither have nor intend to acquire a food processor or immersion blender makes me basic, then I'm happily basic.
More enthusiastic and experienced cooks may find the book better suited to them.
December 10, 2021
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This is a book full of fancy seafood cooking. It was much more intensive than I expected. The recipes are not easy weeknight plant-based meals, but rather seafood heavy meals that require some time and knowledge and kitchen gadgets to happen. As someone who isn't super comfortable handling fish at home this book felt a little advanced for me. The recipes are given in cups and grams so you can choose how you measure.
Overall an interesting find, but not for me.
This is a book full of fancy seafood cooking. It was much more intensive than I expected. The recipes are not easy weeknight plant-based meals, but rather seafood heavy meals that require some time and knowledge and kitchen gadgets to happen. As someone who isn't super comfortable handling fish at home this book felt a little advanced for me. The recipes are given in cups and grams so you can choose how you measure.
Overall an interesting find, but not for me.
January 10, 2022
Wonderful. The tittle says it all.
March 4, 2022
Veggies & Fish... exotic yet comforting fresh dishes inspired by the sea and clean eating. Most of the dishes seem too advanced or complex in preparation and type of fish required/ suggested for daily meals. Nice for fancy dinners if you want to impress guests or for those with chef experience. Enjoyed explanations of unfamiliar ingredients.
March 13, 2022
Beautiful photographs.
January 13, 2023
Wide cuisine selection of vegetable forward dishes that use a variety of fish. Several recipes complex but interesting combinations.
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September 5, 2023Recipes looked delicious. Definitely not finding half those ingredients at the local Kroger though.
September 25, 2025
Too complex and fancy for a home cook trying to make healthy meals.
January 3, 2022
The photographs in this cookbook are gorgeous! As a pescatarian of many years who has now adopted a Mediterranean way of eating, I thought this book would be exactly what I needed. While the recipes are packed with veggies, it's the types of fish that threw me off. I was looking more for "poor man's fish" such as shrimp, salmon, tuna, cod, catfish, and tilapia. Instead, I found octopus, squid, clams, and oysters. This is a very high-end cookbook geared towards someone who has more time, money, and more adventurous tastebuds than me.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews