Shawarma-Style Mushroom Flatbreads and a Spanish Tapas Icon

Some sneak peeks & updates from the kitchen

The mornings have been sunny and crisp lately, and I never tire of watching the seasons change—like the slow march of guards, one shift giving way to the next. Now the bare branches spring back to life and are turning a thousand shades of green. Nature is undergoing its most powerful transformation—from the sleepy dead of winter to the vibrancy of spring.

For those who don’t know, I (temporarily) swapped London for a bit more greenery and landed in England’s first capital, Winchester. My morning commute no longer involves being vacuum-sealed inside the Central Line but instead consists of a stroll along the river Itchen—my partner and a coffee-filled KeepCup as company. These mornings, the conversation often circles back to a pretty wild fact: my book is coming out in exactly one month!

When I started a plant-based diet, I initially felt lost in a world of ultra-processed foods. My solution was to look back in order to look forward, and to learn from those who have eaten plant-based all along. Turns out, we’ve been doing it for thousands of years, all around the world—be it because of religion, poverty or even nature. The book is all about the foods I’ve discovered during my travels and research over the last three years—dishes from around the world that just happen to be vegan.

A sneak peek of the vegetables chapter

There are over 90 recipes from more than 20 different cultures. Each of those recipes has been tested at least three times until I arrived at the version that was deemed authentic by locals (thanks to everyone who gave feedback on Instagram), while hitting all the flavor and textural notes that make for a satisfying meal.

One of the recipes that took the cake in the test kitchen was hummus. I knew that if I included an authentic hummus, it had to be perfectly creamy and utterly delicious, but it also had to be achievable at home. I tried everything… from adding ice cubes to using a high-speed blender, from baking soda to freezing the chickpeas after cooking and before blending. From the grainiest hummus fails to successes I couldn’t recreate, this journey was a bit of a rollercoaster. But as with everything, persistence eventually paid off.

Outtakes from the 20 times I tested hummus + the winner you'll find in the book

Many first-time authors keep banging on about pre-orders, but I promise it’s only because they really do make a huge difference. Retailers look at pre-order sales to decide how many copies to stock, so those first numbers really get the ball rolling. If you haven’t yet, you can purchase a copy here. Depending on where you are, the link will show you your nearest retailers. Plus, you can always pre-order via your local bookshop.

I can’t express how much your support means to me. It’s something I’ll never take for granted, and I’m incredibly thankful for every bit of it.

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Shawarma-Inspired Roasted Mushrooms

This recipe is a plant-based twist on classic shawarma. Instead of slow-roasted meat, we’re stacking and roasting marinated oyster mushrooms until they’re tender and beautifully charred. Still not sold? Just wait until your mushrooms emerge from the oven like this…

…and are piled onto warm, homemade flatbreads with a generous drizzle of creamy tahini sauce, a fresh, crunchy salad and a hit of vibrant pickled onions.

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Patatas Bravas (Spanish Potatoes with Smoky Paprika Sauce)

There are few certainties in life, but finding Patatas Bravas on a tapas menu is one of them—and honestly, long may that continue. Some dishes don’t need reinvention, just a few humble ingredients that create a lasting impact. The bravas sauce has just the right amount of heat and smokiness without being overpowering and beautifully coats the crisp, golden potatoes—a marriage that was destined to be.

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What I Read

Sometimes you read a book that changes your perspective of what you’ve taken for granted, and Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them by Dan Saladino did exactly that. If you're like me, you can relate to the urge of jotting down notes every time an interesting fact or quote jumps at you from the page. In this case, it felt as if I transcribed the entire book.

Did you know there are more than 200,000 varieties of wheat, 10,000 varieties of legumes, 7,500 varieties of apples and 1,000 varieties of bananas (yet most of us only know one)? Each of these varieties is a gene bank that could hold the key to fighting plant diseases, or to tackling the effects of climate change, but most of them are at risk of being lost. The book is a timely reminder of what's at stake, while also planting hope for what we can do to preserve these treasures of nature.

I hope you enjoyed this round-up. I’ll be back on Friday with the exclusive recipe. Enjoy your week!

Much love,
Julius