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Hetty McKinnon

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Tenderheart: A book about vegetables and unbreakable family bonds Kindle Edition

by Hetty Lui McKinnon (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 251 ratings

Editors' pick Best Cookbooks, Food & Wine

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Tenderheart is a book about vegetables. It is also a story of unbreakable family bonds, love and loss, and the legacy of food as a way to stay connected to loved ones, including those who have passed.

In this masterwork from Australia's most respected vegetable-loving food writer, Hetty Lui McKinnon takes readers on a vegetable-by-vegetable journey, packed with clever and inventive ways to combine ingredients, flavours and texture. With practicality, accessibility and economy in mind, Hetty devotes one chapter to each of her 22 favourite everyday vegetables, from Asian greens to zucchini. As is Hetty's signature, the flavours are globally inspired, with an emphasis on simple yet inventive weeknight cooking.

180 new, inspired and always delicious recipes will change how you see the humble vegetable and what it is capable of, forever. This is the ultimate vegetable bible from Australia's reigning salad queen.

Recipes include: Broccoli wontons with umami crisp; Cauliflower and kale pesto pasta salad with burrata; Smoky eggplant and lentil stew with baked feta; Tiger salad with green tea noodles; Torn lasagne with kale and kimchi; Southern fried mushrooms; Tingly 'cacio e pepe' snow peas with rice noodles; Salt and pepper potato gems; Seaweed burnt butter pasta; Spinach and mint ruffled milk pie; Carrot and almond polenta cake with lemon drizzle; Ginger and date sticky rye puddings; Spiced pumpkin doughnuts.

LONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2023 FOR ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tenderheart delivers on everything we have come to expect and love from the force of nature that is Hetty Lui McKinnon: gorgeous, down to earth, vegetable-driven dishes that strike the most delicious balance between fresh and exciting, and cozy and approachable. What Tenderheart also reveals are the beautiful stories about Hetty’s family and upbringing that will have you reaching for the tissues before opening up the pantry. Prepare to be utterly moved by this book." –Molly Yeh, Food Network host and NYT Bestselling author of Home Is Where the Eggs Are and Molly on the Range

"A love letter to vegetables and almost a memoir through recipes, this truly special book speaks to the soul as much as to the stomach. I loved it more than I can say!" –Nigella Lawson

"Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy!" –Dorie Greenspan, author of Everyday Dorie

"At its core, this is a book about vegetables and how to treat them in the kitchen with the love and respect that they deserve. However, there is a deeper parallel story here, told through Hetty Lui McKinnon’s personal journey of love, loss, and grief -- and how transformation through healing and grace makes us evolve as people and teaches us how to be better humans." –Nik Sharma, James Beard Award-nominated author and photographer of The Flavor Equation and Season

“[When] I don’t know what to cook for dinner, I can always cook something of Hetty’s. . . . She’s a beautiful writer. . . . Come for the recipes, stay for the stories. Delicious!”
—Emma Straub, on NBC's Today Show

"[Hetty Lui McKinnon’s recipes] prove that vegetarian cooking is anything but boring. The book is an ode to her late father, a fresh produce supplier who passed away when she was just 15 . . . . Incredibly touching and relatable. . . . What I appreciate most about Tenderheart is how McKinnon highlights different ways to use Asian vegetables beyond how they’re typically prepared: stir-fried, poached, or stirred into a casserole. . . . If you’re looking for creative ways to eat more vegetables, Tenderheart is a great place to begin." –Genevieve Yam, Bon Appetit (23 Best Cookbooks of 2023)

“A very moving book about family love and how everyday cooking is built into that. Hetty McKinnon is never sentimental. She truly understands how to nurture - deliciously - with vegetables. When you cook out of this book you can’t not think of that. You feel as if every dish is you make is a tribute to this approach to life.” – Diana Henry
"Stunning. . . . The combination — fresh produce given powerful injections of flavor from smart pantry ingredients — is the backbone of virtually all of her cooking."
—Joe Yonan, The Washington Post

"This approachable tome of vegetarian recipes will teach you how to make fruits and vegetables taste really, really good. The dishes are doable for just about every culinary skill level and use few ingredients—many of which are inspired by Lui McKinnon’s Chinese Australian upbringing. . . .
Packed with interesting-yet-approachable ways to use vegetables, this delicious book of true comfort food represents everything we’ve come to expect from Lui McKinnon’s coveted recipes." —Ali Francis, Bon Appetit (12 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks of All Time)

"Multiple times while reading and cooking through Tenderheart, Hetty Lui McKinnon’s brilliant new volume of produce-forward cooking, I remember thinking, Now this is how you write a cookbook. Blending a deep and pathos-filled personal history with a truly interesting approach to vegetarian cuisine (chocolate-eggplant brownies? pea and kimchi falafel?), it’s a crowning achievement in a career spent working in plant-based recipes. . . . If you love vegetables and Asian-influenced cuisine, you’re probably already a huge fan of Hetty McKinnon (or are soon to be)...The opening sections are some of my favorite literature I’ve read this year, full stop; this book makes me want to trick out the crispers of my fridge at full force and cook for everyone I know." —Adam Rothbarth, Vice

"[McKinnon] has written a vast collection of endlessly adaptable, always approachable recipes that front-load vegetables not as replacements to meat but as stars in their own right." —Danielle Cohen, The Cut

"Author of four best-selling cookbooks. . . McKinnon has a knack for flavoring familiar dishes with simple yet intriguing twists. And her latest project, Tenderheart, uses these twists to help you appreciate vegetables at their core." —Anikah Shaokat, Epicurious

"[Tenderheart] will be forever filed on my kitchen shelf, next to her 2021 award-winner To Asia With Love. I read her books when I want a warm, instructive voice telling me stories that point me toward what to make next; I cook from her recipes when I’m craving something innovative and surprising (but not gimmicky, an important distinction!); and I’d say that my whole family, by extension, gets an embarrassing amount of joy sparked from all of this. Her books are capital-K Keepers." —Jenny Rosenstrach, Cup of Jo

"McKinnon (To Asia, with Love) returns with a cookbook that is deeply personal and uniquely vegetarian. Organized by the star vegetable, recipes are easily homed in on based on season or garden glut....A variety of flavors can be found throughout the distinctive dishes, such as fennel and black pepper ice cream and Broccoli Forest Loaf, which are equally whimsical and comforting. McKinnon’s voice is very friendly and will be familiar to fans of her writing as she invites readers on her journey to explore ingredients and raise up vegetables....Home cooks will love the versatility and innovation she delivers, whether they are vegetarians or not, while readers will revel in the sweetness and beauty of her story...Calling all vegetarians and veggie lovers; this is the inspiration you have been looking for. —Sarah Tansley, Library Journal

“In the stunning pages of Tenderheart, Hetty McKinnon takes readers to the origins of her love for vegetables, teaching us to view them the way she does: brimming with memories and the intractable things life inevitably brings our way—loss, resilience, determination, and joy. At the center of each recipe is McKinnon’s father, Wai Keung Lui, known in Australia as Ken, and the man who Tenderheart is named for: a generous and affectionate caretaker who made a livelihood working in a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, had a love for photography, and shared with McKinnon a passion for food. The stories McKinnon weaves about food and family—through her recipes and the narratives that she welcomes us into—allow her father to live on. A wonderful, moving tribute to the people and tastes that indelibly shape us. I will be cooking from Tenderheart for years to come.” – Kat Chow, author of SEEING GHOSTS

"I love Hetty’s recipes for how brilliantly accessible, thoroughly researched, touchingly personal, and vibrant and fun they always are. . . . Tenderheart delivers mightily on recipe expectations with a whopping 22 chapters and 528 pages. . . . Her touching reflections, and the artful way she has infused the book with his presence, makes this hefty collection of useful recipes much more than just a cookbook: it’s a uniquely personal and moving work of memoir, too." —Lukas Volger, Family Friend by Lukas Volger

"Few people understand the healing qualities of food better than cookbook author Hetty McKinnon. All of her cookbooks are deeply personal and [Tenderheart] serves as an ode to her father, who she lost as a teenager, through vegetables." —Leslie Stephens, Morning Person

"In the pretty pages of Tenderheart, McKinnon weaves her love story for vegetables with playful, assertive recipes that honor her late father and explore the gentleness of love, human resilience and unbreakable family bonds." —Hira Qureshi, The Philadelphia Inquirer (9 must-read cookbooks for your summer cooking)

"[Tenderheart] offers an abundance of brilliant recipes as well as brief but thoughtful essays on family, grieving, rituals, and, of course, the 22 vegetables featured in this collection. McKinnon brings a global perspective rooted in Chinese culture and the flavors of her family into every page of this beautifully photographed (by the author herself) and well-written cookbook and memoir. . . . For fans of McKinnon's work or those just discovering her, Tenderheart is sure to delight with mouthwatering dishes and beautiful reflections on the many legacies that can be found around a dining table." —Sara Beth West, Shelf Awareness

"Even though it’s 525 pages long, [Tenderheart] contains zero (that’s 0) recipes that I do not want to make. . . . Rather than turn vegetables into something else, McKinnon puts them centerstage and shines a beautiful spotlight on them." —Emily Nunn, The Department of Salad

"Tenderheart is such a precious cookbook, at once unique and utilitarian." —Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study

About the Author

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cook and food writer. A James Beard Foundation finalist, she is the author of four other cookbooks, including the much-loved To Asia, With Love (2021), the award-winning Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Food to Nourish Every Day (2019), Neighbourhood: Hearty Salads and Plant-Based Recipes from Home and Abroad (2017), and Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen (2014). Hetty is also the editor and publisher of multicultural food journal Peddler and the host of the magazine’s podcast The House Specials. She is a regular recipe contributor to The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Epicurious.com, and ABC Everyday; and her recipes have appeared in Food52, the Guardian, The Washington Post and more. Born and raised in Sydney, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

A Book About Vegetables . . . and So Much More

This book is about vegetables but, for me, there can be no story about the significance of vegetables in my life without telling you about my father, and the enduring legacy of the fresh, tender world he created for his family.

I only knew my father for a short time. He slipped away quietly on a Sunday afternoon on the last day of 1989. As the world outside prepared to celebrate the dawn of a new decade, our world fell apart. I was 15 and my life would never be the same again.

My father’s name was Wai Keung Lui, but in Australia he was known as Ken. Born in Guangdong, China, he came to Sydney, Australia, as a teenager during the mid-1950s to study business. He learned to speak his special version of English, heavy-accented, with many endearing language quirks. As a young man, he lived in Sydney’s Chinatown, above a grocery store. The inner city of Sydney is now home to sought-after, urbane neighborhoods, but back then it was where postwar immigrants landed, crammed into tiny terrace houses or apartments. He eventually joined the urban sprawl, moving to a house in the southwestern suburbs of Sydney, next door to my Goo Ma (Aunt Betty) and Goo Jeung (Uncle Benny). My Yee Goo Ma (my dad’s second eldest sister) and my Paw (his mother) lived on the same street, in the house “on the corner.” In 1967, he married my mother, and it was in this house that my siblings and I grew up, where my father would see out his unexpectedly short life.

My memories of my father are suspended in time, a disrupted dream without an ending. Every memory I have of him is through the lens of a child. He was tenderhearted—generous, caring, affectionate, kind and playful. Solidly built with a booming voice, he looked and behaved as the model immigrant—polite, well dressed, respectful and gregarious. His charcoal hair was neat, perfectly slicked with Brylcreem; he wore button-down shirts and meticulously ironed slacks to work, saving his three-piece suits for our weekend visits to Chinatown. He took photos constantly, filling album after album with images of family celebrations and outings, turning the laundry into a makeshift darkroom. On our first family holiday to China in the early 1980s, he traveled with a camera bag the size of a suitcase. Through my child-eyes, he embodied strength; he routinely carried boxes of vegetables and sacks of rice on his shoulders. For years after his death, I dreamed of this image on repeat, my dad entering the house like a hologram, a sack of rice stacked upon his broad shoulders.

My dad woke at 3 a.m. every morning. In darkness, he dressed swiftly and met my Uncle Benny outside, traveling together to work at Flemington Markets (now known as Sydney Markets), the largest wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Australia. During the week, my dad worked for my Uncle Benny, who oversaw a banana wholesale business. On the weekends, he worked part time as a waiter at a Chinese restaurant.

In many ways, his job at the markets defined him. He became known as a supplier of fresh produce not only at work, but among our family and friends. Every day, he came home from work with trays and boxes of vegetables and fruits, ready for our family meals, but always enough to share with others. Crates of mangoes for our elderly neighbor Earl who lived two doors away, oranges and apples for our family doctor, boxes of cherries as gifts at Christmastime, peaches, plums and apricots for aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. There were bananas, too, in excessive quantities. My older sister Letty recalls that, as a small child, she walked around the neighborhood distributing fruit baskets to the neighbors.

For my mum, he brought home gai choy (Chinese mustard greens) for pickling, fresh gai lan, ong choy, choy sum and bok choy for nightly stir-fries and juicy iceberg lettuce for braising. Mammoth, plump heads of cauliflower and broccoli, hefty daikon, tender cabbage and shiny eggplant sat in deep cardboard boxes left around the kitchen, dining room and laundry. As a child, I didn’t see living among cartons of fresh produce as anything but normal. We snacked on fruit all day, often making ourselves sick on it (there was a notorious cherry overconsumption incident, which my mother still laughs about today). One summer’s day, I ate an entire basket of apricots in one sitting; they were the best apricots I’d ever tasted—plump, sweet, floral and tenderly firm—spoiling apricots for me forever. I am still constantly searching for the apricots of my youth.

My father had an indulgent side. On Fridays he brought home live mud crabs from the market, their shells trussed in pink string. He left them in a large bucket in the kitchen, their death row. I would prod at them, childishly taunting them in their final hours of life; they responded with snapping claws and flailing legs. At the deft hands of my mother, they would soon lose their lives, wok-tossed with ginger and shallots, a succulent, irresistible dish.

My father’s job meant he kept strange hours, which filtered into our daily lives. Due to his early start at work, he was always home when we arrived back from school. “After-school snack” was an official meal in our house because this was my dad’s time to shine—he relished the opportunity to purchase or prepare more “Western” foods for us. From our local bakery he would pick up meat pies, sausage rolls, finger buns, custard tarts or apple turnovers. But my siblings and I agree that our favorite afternoon snack was his salad roll, which he filled with iceberg lettuce so finely shredded with a cleaver that we wondered if he was hiding some secret ninja kitchen skills. My dad was the type of person who, if we told him we liked a particular food, would inundate us with it; once my sister told him she liked orange juice, and for weeks he bought her an entire bottle of orange juice every single day. It was my dad I turned to when I wanted to try cheese; he brought home packs of Kraft singles, which were like gold to me, and later introduced me to blocks of cheddar. My dad possessed a child-like wonderment about life in the West and a palpable excitement about the world, which I sensed was too often suppressed by his predestined duty as an earnest Chinese man, bound by tradition and responsibility.

My father went to bed at an early hour, so we rushed through evening activities. We ate dinner while the sun was still up. At around 5 p.m., we would hear my mother bellowing through the rumble of the kitchen exhaust fan—“hong toi” (set the table), “sik faan” (the Cantonese term for dinnertime, which translates to “eat rice”). Dinner in our house was a noisy affair. My father liked the hectic sounds of the television while we ate, so, to the soundtrack of the nightly news, we devoured our dinner swiftly and neatly. My parents didn’t allow a messy table and every grain of rice needed to be accounted for. At the end of every meal, like clockwork, my father remained at the table, peeling himself an orange. On occasion, I would stand beside him, hoping to snare a segment or two.

Losing a parent or carer (or any loved one) as a child, or before we fully understand who we are or who we will become, changes us in a profound, uncomfortable way. The reverberations of loss echo throughout our lives, in ways that we don’t expect. It’s a crack that keeps opening, a knife that keeps twisting. It is a dull ache that lingers in our soul. I have carried this memory of my father as the generous “fruit and vegetable guy” close to my heart my entire adult life. It is a memory that fills me with pride. When I stopped eating meat as a teenager, I felt comforted by this choice, a quiet contentment in centering the vegetables and fruits that sustained me as a child. When I started my food journey at Arthur Street Kitchen, vegetables naturally served as my main source of inspiration, sparking a deep and enduring passion for creating big-flavored, vegetable-centric food for my community. Every day, vegetables and fruits are a tangible force, shaping the way I think about food, how I cook for my family, the recipes I share with the world and, indeed, the recipes in this book. Today, my endless love for vegetables is one of the ways I honor my dad’s legacy, by cooking them every day, with detail and care.

Loss, Life and a Legacy That Lingers

I have often felt estranged from the person I was before my father died. So much of my “living,” my big moments, happened in the years following—graduating from university, getting married, having children, my career in food, moving around the world. Memory is fragile. It is not easy to hang on to the voice, the touch, the laughter and the mannerisms of someone no longer with us. But living away from home, geographically distant from my mother and my siblings, has taught me that our past, our legacy, is not always something we can hold on to physically, but it already lingers deep within us.

Food has always been emotional for me. It is tied to my identity, my heritage, my family and my community. It represents the experiences of the generations before me, and it is a legacy for my children. In food, I find my home, and in this vegetable life I have found a way to stay connected to my dad.

Through my parents, we saw the many sides of food. Where my mum held on tightly to tradition, my dad offered us gateways to the West. My dad was a foodie before the term existed, often introducing us to new ingredients and foods that were not common in a Chinese immigrant household. In my early teenage years, he began taking the family to “fancy” restaurants. On weekends, we got dressed up and dined at The Summit and Sydney’s Centerpoint Tower, both “expensive” revolving restaurants serving Western buffets high in the sky, offering 360-degree views of the city. We visited hotel restaurants, mostly gorging on seafood buffets. To our family, buffets, with their limitless servings and copious amounts of raw salad greens, seafood, roasted meats and dainty pastel desserts, were an indulgence, the antithesis of the food we ate at home. I remember my siblings and I wondering about this sudden burst of “eating out” instigated by my father. We may have joked that it felt like our last supper; we didn’t know that it was almost his. When we were young, my parents put a lot of trust in “tomorrow” or “another day”—it was their typical answer to big questions like When are we going to go on a family vacation? When are we getting a new car? When can I have a genuine Cabbage Patch Kid? Looking back, I assume these indulgent lunches were a sign that my father had stopped living for tomorrow.

My father’s work ethic, his generosity, his openness and his kindness, are attributes that inform the way I navigate the world as a mother, as a writer, as a cook, as a human. His influence is not as overt or as present as my mother’s, but it is still there, a flame that flickers with constancy and devotion. And nowhere do I feel his presence more than when I fill my kitchen and dining table with fresh vegetables and fruit.

Everyday Heroes

This is a book about my favorite vegetables, though some of them are technically fruit. But for the purposes of this book, I will be treating them and referring to them as vegetables.

Vegetables are foundational to my everyday cooking and at the very heart of every dish I create. Preparing them daily, with respect and care, is a ritual that I observed in my parents’ kitchen growing up and is now crucial to my days, too. At the end of the day, no matter how tired I am, the act of washing, peeling, chopping and preparing vegetables for dinner helps me stay grounded, a way to bring order to my day.

My approach to vegetables is unapologetic. I’ve long believed that almost any dish—even dishes that are meaty in origin—can be created with vegetables at the helm. Vegetables are inherently more flexible and adaptable than people think, and the more you cook with them, the more you experiment and explore, the more multifaceted they become. Having grown up around big-flavored vegetable meals, and as a vegetarian for almost three decades, I have always seen plants as the most exciting couriers of flavor. Often, vegetables are treated with excessive delicacy, or simply overlooked on the plate. But vegetables are robust, they are hardy, and they are ready to be challenged.

While vegetables have been central to my cooking for many years, my relationship with them continues to evolve. Our year plus–long quarantine in New York changed my appreciation of vegetables and made me think about them in a different way. I reveled in experimenting with them, scheming on all the ways I could fashion several diverse meals from just one cabbage or a single butternut squash. With access to food, and particularly fresh vegetables, uncertain, I would stock up on carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, squash and the like, always seeing how far I could push them. Frozen vegetables, such as peas and corn, became indispensable—they could be used to make curries, stews, pasta and salads. Choosing vegetables that were easily accessible and versatile became my lockdown priority. I found myself seeking solace in the everyday vegetables I grew up eating and cooking them in ways that I normally may not have considered. To me, these vegetables were my everyday heroes.

When I set out to choose the vegetables I would include in this book, it wasn’t hard. In short, these are my favorites, the hardworking, dependable vegetables that I turn to most in my daily cooking. They were also chosen for their accessibility, versatility, adaptability and practicality—with our busy lives, these qualities are always paramount to me. I’ve also included a few of the lesser-known vegetables that I grew up eating; vegetables like taro, daikon or seaweed may not be household names to some but, in many parts of the world and in homes like mine, they are staples. I felt it important to share my love of these vegetables, too, and perhaps inspire more people to cook creatively with them.

Many will be surprised by the vegetables that don’t get their own chapter—for example, there is no onion or garlic chapter, yet they feature in almost every savory recipe. This is because I rarely conceive a recipe based upon these two ingredients; it is automatic that they will be used. There are also many “notable” everyday vegetables that I have not afforded their own chapter—corn, asparagus, leek, cucumber, avocado, bell peppers, etc.—but they do appear in recipes throughout this book.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B68BNJL9
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Plum (September 27, 2022)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 27, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 157.1 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 528 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,512,675 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,464 in Vegetable Cooking (Kindle Store)
- #1,614 in Cooking, Food & Wine Reference (Kindle Store)
- #2,255 in Individual Chefs & Restaurants

Customer Reviews:
4.7 251 ratings

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Hetty McKinnon

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Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cook and food writer. A James Beard Foundation finalist, she is the author of four bestselling cookbooks, including the much-loved To Asia, With Love, her genre-defining Community, Neighbourhood, the award-winning Family.

Hetty is a regular recipe contributor to New York Times Cooking, Bon Appetit and Epicurious, ABC Everyday and her recipes have appeared in Good Food, Food52, the Guardian, The Washington Post and more. Hetty is also the editor and publisher of multicultural food journal Peddler and the host of the magazine’s podcast The House Specials. Born and raised in Sydney, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Visit hettymckinnon.com or follow @hettymckinnon

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Customers say

Customers find the recipes delicious and well-crafted, with great flavor. They appreciate the stunning photography and beautiful layout of the book. Customers describe it as a fantastic cookbook with simple, straightforward instructions. The stories are engaging and interesting, providing personal insights and joy. Many appreciate the clever vegetable-forward combinations and substitution options provided. However, some customers find the book too heavy to carry.

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Recipes quality Photography Cookbook value Ease of use Story quality Vegetable content Substitution options Weight

34 customers mention "Recipes quality"34 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the recipes in the book. They find the recipes easy to follow, with illustrations and simple instructions. The book provides a variety of Asian vegan recipes that are easy to prepare for weeknight meals. Readers appreciate the easy-to-understand recipes and the ability to prepare Asian dishes.

"...she offers great substitutions for each recipe and shows you how to make them vegan! I’ve already put her other cookbooks on my wish list...." Read more

"...I trust that the recipes will turn out well, and she provides suggestions on almost every page for substitutions on how to make it vegan or what..." Read more

"...Beautiful photos, unique recipes with heartfelt stories to match. It lives in the kitchen, beside my reading chair and beside my bed!" Read more

"...Recipes are easy to understand and typically quite simple. I happily recommend this to anyone who says 'yum - where did you get this recipe!?'..." Read more

27 customers mention "Photography"27 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's photography. They find it visually appealing with large, perfect pictures for every recipe. The book is well-curated and organized.

"...it has beautiful photos for every recipes, 2)..." Read more

"...The photographs are evocative and stunning and the stories are beautiful as well. It’s organized by vegetable which is my favorite...." Read more

"This will be a prized part of my recipe book collection. Beautiful photos, unique recipes with heartfelt stories to match...." Read more

"...Absolutely stunning photography - truly a feast for the eyes - and the recipes themselves are a delight to cook and eat!..." Read more

24 customers mention "Cookbook value"24 positive0 negative

Customers find the cookbook valuable. They say it's a nice addition to their recipe collection, with wonderful recipes and delicious ideas. It complements Hetty's other book, "To Asia with Love" as it's well-organized.

"...Update: I've had this cookbook for months and it's the best cookbook I've owned. I now cook any Hetty recipe I can get my hands on. Keep it up, Hetty!" Read more

"...I trust that the recipes will turn out well, and she provides suggestions on almost every page for substitutions on how to make it vegan or what..." Read more

"This will be a prized part of my recipe book collection. Beautiful photos, unique recipes with heartfelt stories to match...." Read more

"...This book has reinvigorated my arsenal and as a bonus is filled with empathy, personal tales and joy...." Read more

9 customers mention "Ease of use"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to use with illustrations and simple instructions. They appreciate the straightforward, interesting, and tasty recipes that are fast and easy to follow.

"...the recipes are straightforward, simple yet so interesting and tasty, 3)..." Read more

"...favorite new cookbook - Hetty McKinnon’s Tenderheart has both super fast easy recipes (see the ramen noodles with zucchini and za’atar above) and..." Read more

"...Recipes are easy to understand and typically quite simple. I happily recommend this to anyone who says 'yum - where did you get this recipe!?'..." Read more

"...full of clever vegetable-forward combinations that are surprisingly easy to put together...." Read more

7 customers mention "Story quality"7 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the stories. They find the stories personal, interesting, and filled with empathy.

"...the recipes are straightforward, simple yet so interesting and tasty, 3)..." Read more

"...The photographs are evocative and stunning and the stories are beautiful as well. It’s organized by vegetable which is my favorite...." Read more

"...Beautiful photos, unique recipes with heartfelt stories to match. It lives in the kitchen, beside my reading chair and beside my bed!" Read more

"...reinvigorated my arsenal and as a bonus is filled with empathy, personal tales and joy. Recipes are easy to understand and typically quite simple...." Read more

7 customers mention "Vegetable content"7 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's organized vegetable content. They find it useful for learning about under-appreciated vegetables and finding creative, easy-to-make combinations. The chapters are well-organized and the recipes are detailed.

"...the book is organized by the main veggie in the dish which saves you from the “I have this head of..." Read more

"...It’s organized by vegetable which is my favorite. So glad to have found this one! I cook from it 2-3 times a week at least." Read more

"If you love veggies you must have this book. Over 500 pages and well organized. A stunning book with a photo for every recipe...." Read more

"This cookbook is full of clever vegetable-forward combinations that are surprisingly easy to put together...." Read more

5 customers mention "Substitution options"5 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the substitution options provided in the book. They mention that it offers substitution ingredients for turning a vegetarian recipe into a vegan recipe. The author also provides substitution notes for things you don't have.

"...Options for ingredient substitutes included making recipes more manageable for everyday use." Read more

"...Big perfect pictures for every recipe and I like the notes to swap things that you don’t have. Very nice book!" Read more

"...Every recipe I have tried has been a winner. The author offers substitution ingredients for turning a vegetarian recipe into a vegan recipe...." Read more

"There are so many great recipes in this book. I love that it tells you substitutions as well as what to omit to make a vegan version of the..." Read more

3 customers mention "Weight"0 positive3 negative

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"...I bought the spiral book which I don't recommend as it is bulky, however it does lay flat very nicely." Read more

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Abbie
If you’re reading this, buy the book
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2023
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I’ve had this cookbook for about a week and it’s already my favorite cookbook. In that time I’ve made 4 different recipes from it and all of them were home runs! Important things to know: 1) it has beautiful photos for every recipes, 2) the recipes are straightforward, simple yet so interesting and tasty, 3) the book is organized by the main veggie in the dish which saves you from the “I have this head of broccoli that I don’t know what to do with” problem, 4) she offers great substitutions for each recipe and shows you how to make them vegan! I’ve already put her other cookbooks on my wish list. I hope you get this book and get to make some really yummy food!

Update: I've had this cookbook for months and it's the best cookbook I've owned. I now cook any Hetty recipe I can get my hands on. Keep it up, Hetty!

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Anna Jaffe
Love letter to vegetables
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2023
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An absolute favorite new cookbook - Hetty McKinnon’s Tenderheart has both super fast easy recipes (see the ramen noodles with zucchini and za’atar above) and some longer (but still so well) explained ones (see sweet potato spiral mantou above). I trust that the recipes will turn out well, and she provides suggestions on almost every page for substitutions on how to make it vegan or what ingredients you may have on hand that you can swap in easily. The photographs are evocative and stunning and the stories are beautiful as well. It’s organized by vegetable which is my favorite. So glad to have found this one! I cook from it 2-3 times a week at least.

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Anna Jaffe

Love letter to vegetables

Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2023
An absolute favorite new cookbook - Hetty McKinnon’s Tenderheart has both super fast easy recipes (see the ramen noodles with zucchini and za’atar above) and some longer (but still so well) explained ones (see sweet potato spiral mantou above). I trust that the recipes will turn out well, and she provides suggestions on almost every page for substitutions on how to make it vegan or what ingredients you may have on hand that you can swap in easily. The photographs are evocative and stunning and the stories are beautiful as well. It’s organized by vegetable which is my favorite. So glad to have found this one! I cook from it 2-3 times a week at least.

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14 people found this helpful

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burgo
Beautiful book, wonderful stories to match
Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2024
Verified Purchase
This will be a prized part of my recipe book collection. Beautiful photos, unique recipes with heartfelt stories to match. It lives in the kitchen, beside my reading chair and beside my bed!

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BLitt
Truly an easily digestible and beautifully laid out cookbook
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2023
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As the spouse of a vegetarian, I am often at a loss on how to spice up my go-to weekly recipes. This book has reinvigorated my arsenal and as a bonus is filled with empathy, personal tales and joy. Recipes are easy to understand and typically quite simple. I happily recommend this to anyone who says 'yum - where did you get this recipe!?' 10/10 worth the spend.

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Marie
Wonderful gift for the plant forward cook
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2024
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This made for the perfect gift for my sister who wants to eat more plant-based. Absolutely stunning photography - truly a feast for the eyes - and the recipes themselves are a delight to cook and eat! I love that so many recipes were unexpected too. So many veg cookbook seem to have the same recipes; I love that Tenderheart has so many unique flavor combinations while using fairly common ingredients.

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Edward D. Glickman
Great Cookbook
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2023
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A super cookbook for vegans and non vegans.
Lots of great cooking ideas. Highly recommended.

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lisa hardy
Sweet and beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2024
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Love the story in this cookbook. Beautiful photos and inspirational text and photos. Really captures how food can translate into history and family. Options for ingredient substitutes included making recipes more manageable for everyday use.

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cdb
I wish I could give it 10 stars!
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2024
Verified Purchase
I’ve only made three recipes so far- but they have all been so delicious and I can’t wait to make more. Hetty McKinnon is my new hero. Recipes are easy to follow and don’t call for exotic ingredients or fancy tools, yet taste as if you are eating at a 5-star restaurant. They work just fine if you end up making g common substitutions little lime juice for lemons, basil for thyme- it tastes even better!) What I love about this cookbook is how unique it is. This is not just broccoli stir fry on repeat but an entirely new and exciting way to “eat your vegetables!”

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cdb

I wish I could give it 10 stars!

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2024
I’ve only made three recipes so far- but they have all been so delicious and I can’t wait to make more. Hetty McKinnon is my new hero. Recipes are easy to follow and don’t call for exotic ingredients or fancy tools, yet taste as if you are eating at a 5-star restaurant. They work just fine if you end up making g common substitutions little lime juice for lemons, basil for thyme- it tastes even better!) What I love about this cookbook is how unique it is. This is not just broccoli stir fry on repeat but an entirely new and exciting way to “eat your vegetables!”

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Kris
Tenderheart is full of delicious, craveable recipes
Reviewed in Canada on May 30, 2023
Verified Purchase

Hetty doesn’t develop recipes in the way most do. Hitting trends, trying to guess at the next viral dish or even thinking about what other people like is not what she thinks about, because she’s working on creating food that she finds delicious. It’s never about what’s come before, rather, it’s the promise of what’s to come that drives her on. And somewhere in finding enjoyment for herself, home cooks are vicariously welcomed into her kitchen via her recipes to enjoy these delicious meals too.

Her latest cookbook, Tenderheart, is about enjoying vegetables for their own sake. The “Everyday Heroes” (as she calls them) are “the hard-working and dependable vegetables” that she uses the most and, are her favourite. The book is about how the sum of our experiences tethers us to the people we love and the food we crave. She explains in the introduction that, “This book is about vegetables but, for me, there can be no story about the significance of vegetables in my life without telling you about my father, and the enduring legacy of the fresh, tender world he created for his family.” (9) From these sweet and warm moments of her childhood, Hetty shares the impact her father – Wai Keung Lui (Ken, as he was known in Australia) -- and his legacy has on her ever-evolving relationship with vegetables. As with all her books, she offers the reader a poignant glimpse at the people, places and ingredients that are at the heart of her work.

Throughout 22 chapters and 180 recipes Hetty demonstrates that vegetables are as versatile as any other ingredient and, it’s not about comparing. If you’re asking yourself “Where’s the beef?” then you’re asking the wrong question. What Tenderheart reveals is how truly versatile and satisfying vegetables are! The chapters are organized A to Z: Asian greens, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Eggplant, Fennel, Ginger, Kale, Mushrooms, Peas, Potato, Pumpkin & squash, Seaweed, Spinach, Sweet potato, Taro, Tomato, Turnip & daikon, and finally, Zucchini. You may notice some fruits in that list but for the purposes of her book they’re being treated as vegetables. She also notes that since onions and garlic are used pervasively throughout her recipes, they did not get their own chapters. Likewise, there are other “notable” vegetables (as she calls them) that, while they don’t get their own chapters, they play a supporting role in the recipes. As with her other work, she provides substitutes and swaps throughout the book to be helpful to home cooks. I’ve never felt that in cooking her recipes I needed to be exacting. I could meet the recipe where I was, use ingredients I had and make the dish my own. I like to think Hetty enjoys the felicity that happens when home cooks embrace her recipes because this is where communities are built.

Now, is this the part of the review I tell you that I am impatient? Unfortunately, it is either my best or worst quality depending on who you ask, and, in the autumn of 2022, I purchased an Australian edition of her book because I couldn’t wait until now to try Tenderheart. So, I’ve been living with and cooking from this book for the better part of 7 months and I can tell you that I adore it (it may even be my favourite of all her books)! Normally I try to touch on every recipe I make but, after cooking close to 20 of the recipes, I’ll give you some of the highlights.

Ever since making her recipe for Baking Tray Chow Mein from her last book, To Asia With Love (review here), there’s hardly a week that passes that I haven’t made it. After making her recipes for Kale Dumplings w/ Brothy Butter Beans, the Tomato and Coconut-Braised Cabbage and Lentils, and the Cabbage and Kimchi Okonomiyaki (my husband’s favourite), I find our weeknight suppers being populated by our favourite Tenderheart recipes. Her recipe for Cheesy Kale and Rice Cake Bake is another gem – before I was able to find rice cake sticks, I used gnocchi instead. While gnocchi are pillowy and cloud-like, I can tell you that rice cake sticks have a delicious chew. My family also prefers her suggestion to swap broccoli for kale – I think it’s the delicious bite broccoli offers that makes it our fav.

I appreciate that Hetty offers a sweet side to vegetables too. The recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Sesame Marble Bundt is delightful, and it’s just as she says in her recipe notes: “This cake is a triumphant combination of opposites, sharply contrasting flavours and colours that both compliment and highlight one another.” And, as I baked up her recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Doughnuts, I laughed as I read her boys commentary on the recipe: “My youngest, Huck, declared these ‘the best doughnuts I’ve ever eaten’ while middle child Dash, who is not a pumpkin fan, muttered ‘you can make anything taste good.” It’s funny because I think my husband (who is often a tough sell on new recipes) feels the exact same way about Hetty’s food. Even if he feels skeptical before the first bite, it soon melts away because he knew all along a recipe from Hetty couldn’t be anything else but delicious. Thinking about other treats from the book, there’s another I’d better mention – the mochi cake! I learned to make mochi from To Asia With Love (the Peanut and Coconut Mochi Muffins are pure dynamite) and then I jumped at the chance to try her recipe for Ginger and Coconut Mochi Cake from Tenderheart. Needless to say, it was perfect – chewy and not-too-sweet.

Even as I’m trying to sail into the conclusion here, I have pangs about not mentioning all the other wonderful food I made, and my family enjoyed. It was all a highlight for me because Tenderheart is yet another example of Hetty showing home cooks that we don’t have to – in her words – be a vegetarian to enjoy vegetables, and you don’t have to be a chef to be a good cook. Her work is humble yet generous and, no matter the day I’m having, especially on the days I have no idea what’s for supper, I can open the cover of Tenderheart and find a reliable, delicious meal.

While I have purchased copies for family/friends (this review is "verified"), I would like to take this opportunity to thank Penguin Random House Canada and Knopf for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

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Kris

Tenderheart is full of delicious, craveable recipes

Reviewed in Canada on May 30, 2023
Hetty doesn’t develop recipes in the way most do. Hitting trends, trying to guess at the next viral dish or even thinking about what other people like is not what she thinks about, because she’s working on creating food that she finds delicious. It’s never about what’s come before, rather, it’s the promise of what’s to come that drives her on. And somewhere in finding enjoyment for herself, home cooks are vicariously welcomed into her kitchen via her recipes to enjoy these delicious meals too.

Her latest cookbook, Tenderheart, is about enjoying vegetables for their own sake. The “Everyday Heroes” (as she calls them) are “the hard-working and dependable vegetables” that she uses the most and, are her favourite. The book is about how the sum of our experiences tethers us to the people we love and the food we crave. She explains in the introduction that, “This book is about vegetables but, for me, there can be no story about the significance of vegetables in my life without telling you about my father, and the enduring legacy of the fresh, tender world he created for his family.” (9) From these sweet and warm moments of her childhood, Hetty shares the impact her father – Wai Keung Lui (Ken, as he was known in Australia) -- and his legacy has on her ever-evolving relationship with vegetables. As with all her books, she offers the reader a poignant glimpse at the people, places and ingredients that are at the heart of her work.

Throughout 22 chapters and 180 recipes Hetty demonstrates that vegetables are as versatile as any other ingredient and, it’s not about comparing. If you’re asking yourself “Where’s the beef?” then you’re asking the wrong question. What Tenderheart reveals is how truly versatile and satisfying vegetables are! The chapters are organized A to Z: Asian greens, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Eggplant, Fennel, Ginger, Kale, Mushrooms, Peas, Potato, Pumpkin & squash, Seaweed, Spinach, Sweet potato, Taro, Tomato, Turnip & daikon, and finally, Zucchini. You may notice some fruits in that list but for the purposes of her book they’re being treated as vegetables. She also notes that since onions and garlic are used pervasively throughout her recipes, they did not get their own chapters. Likewise, there are other “notable” vegetables (as she calls them) that, while they don’t get their own chapters, they play a supporting role in the recipes. As with her other work, she provides substitutes and swaps throughout the book to be helpful to home cooks. I’ve never felt that in cooking her recipes I needed to be exacting. I could meet the recipe where I was, use ingredients I had and make the dish my own. I like to think Hetty enjoys the felicity that happens when home cooks embrace her recipes because this is where communities are built.

Now, is this the part of the review I tell you that I am impatient? Unfortunately, it is either my best or worst quality depending on who you ask, and, in the autumn of 2022, I purchased an Australian edition of her book because I couldn’t wait until now to try Tenderheart. So, I’ve been living with and cooking from this book for the better part of 7 months and I can tell you that I adore it (it may even be my favourite of all her books)! Normally I try to touch on every recipe I make but, after cooking close to 20 of the recipes, I’ll give you some of the highlights.

Ever since making her recipe for Baking Tray Chow Mein from her last book, To Asia With Love (review here), there’s hardly a week that passes that I haven’t made it. After making her recipes for Kale Dumplings w/ Brothy Butter Beans, the Tomato and Coconut-Braised Cabbage and Lentils, and the Cabbage and Kimchi Okonomiyaki (my husband’s favourite), I find our weeknight suppers being populated by our favourite Tenderheart recipes. Her recipe for Cheesy Kale and Rice Cake Bake is another gem – before I was able to find rice cake sticks, I used gnocchi instead. While gnocchi are pillowy and cloud-like, I can tell you that rice cake sticks have a delicious chew. My family also prefers her suggestion to swap broccoli for kale – I think it’s the delicious bite broccoli offers that makes it our fav.

I appreciate that Hetty offers a sweet side to vegetables too. The recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Sesame Marble Bundt is delightful, and it’s just as she says in her recipe notes: “This cake is a triumphant combination of opposites, sharply contrasting flavours and colours that both compliment and highlight one another.” And, as I baked up her recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Doughnuts, I laughed as I read her boys commentary on the recipe: “My youngest, Huck, declared these ‘the best doughnuts I’ve ever eaten’ while middle child Dash, who is not a pumpkin fan, muttered ‘you can make anything taste good.” It’s funny because I think my husband (who is often a tough sell on new recipes) feels the exact same way about Hetty’s food. Even if he feels skeptical before the first bite, it soon melts away because he knew all along a recipe from Hetty couldn’t be anything else but delicious. Thinking about other treats from the book, there’s another I’d better mention – the mochi cake! I learned to make mochi from To Asia With Love (the Peanut and Coconut Mochi Muffins are pure dynamite) and then I jumped at the chance to try her recipe for Ginger and Coconut Mochi Cake from Tenderheart. Needless to say, it was perfect – chewy and not-too-sweet.

Even as I’m trying to sail into the conclusion here, I have pangs about not mentioning all the other wonderful food I made, and my family enjoyed. It was all a highlight for me because Tenderheart is yet another example of Hetty showing home cooks that we don’t have to – in her words – be a vegetarian to enjoy vegetables, and you don’t have to be a chef to be a good cook. Her work is humble yet generous and, no matter the day I’m having, especially on the days I have no idea what’s for supper, I can open the cover of Tenderheart and find a reliable, delicious meal.

While I have purchased copies for family/friends (this review is "verified"), I would like to take this opportunity to thank Penguin Random House Canada and Knopf for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

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Kirsti Zimmermann
I Want to cook every recipe
Reviewed in Germany on November 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
It’s my favorite cookbook because most of the recipes are rather simple, you always get suggestions for replacements ingredientwise. If you want to cook fancy for friends you also get ton of ideas.
The recipes are so intriguing that I thought about cooking EVERY recipe. I never had that urge.

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Linda
One of my favourite cookbooks
Reviewed in Australia on July 9, 2024
Verified Purchase
So many good and easy recipes. All delicious and practical. It's a constant on my kitchen top

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Jacob Steven Huigen
Going vegan
Reviewed in Singapore on March 4, 2024
Verified Purchase
Considering the CO2 cows’ belching contribute to global warming, this book was purchased to help us wean of beef. The promotion in Amazon suggested this was a win win. Great tasting meals and survival of the planet thrown in for free. It did it quite work out like that. Don’t count on me to reduce CO2 anytime soon through my culinary travails. Look elsewhere pls quickly.

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Shirley
Cookbook
Reviewed in Canada on July 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
Looks like there is quite a few good recipes for being vegetarian, haven't made any of the recipes yet

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I wish I could give it 10 stars!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Tenderheart is full of delicious, craveable recipes

Tenderheart is full of delicious, craveable recipes

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5.0 out of 5 stars I Want to cook every recipe

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favourite cookbooks

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Tenderheart is full of delicious, craveable recipes

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