Whether vegan, veggie or simply an avid home cook, this exquisitely designed cookbook is full of simple recipes that will have every recipient swooning. The rest of my family were sceptical (my dad and brother think a meal "isn't filling" if there isn't meat in it - insert eye roll emoji), but East: 120 Vegetarian and Vegan recipes from Bangalore to Beijing won everyone over. That doesn’t mean you can’t experiment, but if you do stick to the recipe, you’ll get consistent results. And with 120 recipes crammed inside, Meera introduces you to dishes from every corner of the East and South Asia whilst placing vegetables at the heart of them all.

I expected the tofu chunks to be a little more crisp (the method asks you to coat them in cornflour and fry first) but the sweet tomato and soy sauce coating took away from that a little. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

However, I don't "read" cookbooks just for the recipes, I read them for the voice of the cook and their stories. I made this for a family dinner and tossed everything together beforehand, which yes, I know you shouldn't do but I lacked the Tupperware to separate everything. This time, I travelled by reading: I followed Fuchsia Dunlop around the streets of Chengdu and saw 90s Jakarta through Madhur Jaffrey’s eyes. Bring to the boil – but watch it doesn’t boil over – then turn the heat down to a whisper and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring fairly frequently to make sure the rice doesn’t stick and burn. Salted miso brownies: I am obsessed with all things miso so when I read that, I knew that was the first dessert I would try.

When the rice is nearly done, it will start to bubble and burp more furiously and will need more attention. All the freshness and lightness that hot weather demands, but with enough in there to keep tummies full.Her recipe instructions are very easy to follow and are also accurate, so if she says the sauce will be ready after simmering for 7 minutes, that’s when it will be ready! Just before serving, grind the remaining tablespoon of sugar, the pistachios and the edible flowers as finely as you can, using a mortar and pestle or an electric spice grinder. There are really simple cupboard supply dishes and some that will stretch you in terms of technique or flavour. Expanding on her unrivalled knowledge of Indian cuisine demonstrated in her two previous cookbooks, Meera Sodha goes a step further with East, exploring the diverse and celebrated vegan and vegetarian dishes in Eastern cooking.