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Our book Whole Food is out now! It's full of delicious, diverse wholegrain recipes to make you feel good, drawing culinary inspiration from our food history and food cultures around the world. |
Almost since we founded Hodmedod back in 2012 - with just four products - we've been asked when we might write a book. But we've been quite busy and wanted to be sure we could produce a book that communicated the joy of cooking and eating good pulses, grains and seeds along with their stories as crops and ingredients.
A little over a year ago DK editor Cara Armstrong invited us to write such a book with generous openness to our ideas and ambitions, and crucially with a great team to support us. We jumped at the opportunity and the beautiful Whole Food is the result.
Hodmedod grew from a simple idea almost 20 years ago: that bringing more British-grown pulses back into our kitchens could be a vital part of building a resilient, sustainable food system. Working with a growing network of agroecological farmers we soon realised that we needed to show how crops from across an arable rotation can provide wholesome food. Our range of wholefood products grew from beans and peas to encompass other pulses, cereal grains, pseudocereals and edible seeds.
Whole Food represents this mission: to bring forgotten, neglected and new crops back onto our plates, making connections between farmers and all of us who eat the food they grow, celebrating the joy of well produced simple ingredients.
Inside Whole Food, you’ll find 80 nourishing, vibrant, flexitarian recipes designed to show just how easy and versatile cooking with British grains, seeds, and pulses can be. And with wholefood ingredients at the heart of them, the dishes are naturally full of nutrition, packed with plant protein but more importantly plenty of diverse fibre too.
We've drawn inspiration from the ways that whole plant foods have been eaten over time and around the world to show how they can be at the heart of sustaining and stunning modern meals.
You'll find global flavours and everyday domestic classics, from ful medames, fava bean pappardelle and New York-style panelle to mushy peas, porridge and fudgy carlin brownies. We've recipes for gruel and pottage too.
We're lucky to also have ten contributed recipes from a brilliant group of guest cooks, writers, and food champions who share our passion for sustainable British agriculture. Look forward to inspiring recipes including a carlin pea and pink grapefruit Salad from Amelia Christie-Miller of the Bold Bean Co, Grace Regan's split yellow pea dal fry, and naked oat stuffed peppers by Joe Woodhouse. We've more delicious contributions from Henry Dimbleby, Julius Fiedler, Mallika Basu, Catherine Phipps, Riaz Phillips, Jenny Chandler and Hodmedod baker Henrietta Inman.
We’ve always loved the solitary pleasure of reading cookbooks for inspiration and insights into different ingredients and ways of cooking. What we didn’t realise, until we set out to make one, is that writing a cookbook is a different thing altogether.
Bringing British-grown crops from field to page takes a small army of wildly talented, endlessly patient people who truly believed in what we wanted to achieve. We couldn’t be more grateful to the incredible team who helped bring the Hodmedod’s Whole Food cookbook to life. Huge love and heartfelt thanks to everyone who poured their heart, soul, and hard work into these pages:
The editorial & publishing team: Our commissioning editor Cara Armstrong for inviting and championing our vision and ideas; Izzy Holton and Lucy Kingett for keeping us on track and wrangling every word; the entire team at DK Publishing for guiding us through the madness from start to finish.
Recipe developer: the brilliant Craig Morrison for turning our ideas into pure culinary magic.
Photographer & stylists: Joe Woodhouse for making every dish look as delicious as it tasted, along with food stylist Caitlin Macdonald, Emma Cantlay, and prop stylist Rachel Vere for bringing the recipes to life and setting the scene so perfectly.
Designers: Tania Gomes, Abi Hartshorne and illustrator Sarah Wisbey for giving the book such a gorgeous, vibrant look that beautifully conveys the joy of cooking with whole foods.
Above all, a seed can only grow with strong roots. Our incredible network of British farmers is at the root of everything we do. They’ve taken risks, experimented with novel crops like quinoa and lentils, and shared their deep knowledge with us. Their dedication has been fundamental to all we’ve achieved.
Beyond this is a wider ecosystem: the hauliers, crop cleaners, millers and processors; the cooks, bakers and makers; the thinkers and campaigners whose ideas inspire and motivate us.
And nothing would happen without the small but mighty Hodmedod team, their hard work in the warehouse, mill, bakehouse, packing rooms and offices, and everything in between that keeps us moving.
Honestly, this is about so much more than just a book. This milestone belongs to every single one of you who has supported us over the years.
Whether you’ve bought a single packet of our British-grown lentils. Or ranted passionately to a friend about beans and "this quirky little company with the funny name". Or stopped us at a noisy food festival just to say hello and share your favourite recipe. Or generously shared a Hodmedod gift voucher to spread the word. Or tagged us in your gorgeous dinner photos on social media…
...you’ve built this with us. Every single pulse, grain or seed cooked, each shared post, and every conversation started has made a genuine difference. You’ve helped us champion British agroecology in the field and bring delicious, nutritious whole foods to people’s plates.
We couldn't do any of this without our amazing community. Raise a glass (or a bowl of fava beans) with us today, here’s to the journey so far, and to many more delicious chapters ahead!
Have you driven or cycled past our front door and wondered what goes on behind it? Last June we opened our big Bean Store doors for a chance to shop with us in person and have a look behind the scenes. It was such a success we're now opening monthly through the spring and summer.
On the Essex coastline, where arable fields meet salt marsh and sea air, Frinton Farms is quietly doing something remarkable. What began as a traditional arable operation has, over the past decade, evolved into one of the UK’s only producers of pumpkin seed oil and snacking seeds – supplying Hodmedod with nutrient-rich pumpkin seed oil, golden linseed and roasted seeds.
Hodmedod's pop-up Shop! will be open again on Saturday 7th February alongside Barleybird's annual Seed Swap.
