This cookbook is a collaboration between Sodha and the East Asian and South East Asian home cooks and gourmet chefs who inspired her along the way. From India’s kanji to Japan’s kayu and Korea’s juk, there are a thousand variations, and it’s easy to see why: it demands so little of the cook, but gives so much back in providing just the sort of warm, nourishing bowl of goodness that is needed in the face of illness, cold weather or just a bad day at the office. There are just a few Indian dishes that truly celebrate the tomato, such as Keralan tomato fry and Gujarati sev tameta nu shaak (a sweet and sour tomato curry), but it’s thakkali kuzhambu, from Tamil Nadu, on which this recipe is (very) loosely based. Add the broccoli florets, sauce and spring onions (reserve a handful for garnish), stir to combine, then cover again and leave for 2 minutes.

I begged Wichet, the owner-chef of the Thai restaurant Supawan, to show me how to make a tom kha ghai soup, and Shuko Oda, the Japanese chef, to teach me how to make her walnut miso. 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. Add the garlic, ginger and the chopped and whole chillies, fry for five minutes, then add the ground pepper, tomato puree, soy sauce, sugar and salt. Modern, vibrant, fuss-free food made from British ingredients but with an Eastern slant, East is a must-have whether you're vegan, vegetarian, or simply want to eat more delicious meat-free food.Add the onions, garlic and salt, stir and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the onions become translucent. Put on the lid, turn the heat down to a whisper and cook for 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked through. I crave chilli tofu: the urge is so strong, I swear I can smell it the closer I get to into the city. In a large non-stick frying pan for which you have a lid, heat 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil on a medium-high flame, then fry the tofu for 5 minutes, turning every minute, until it’s pale gold. Once it’s hot, add the beans, stir to coat in the oil, then leave for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring once, until they blister and char.

This isn’t an attempt to be an authoritative voice on Asian food: to undertake such a survey would take years.

If you love Asian-style food, then East is a wonderful resource if you want to start cooking more of it at home – without the meat. Without peeling, cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out and discard the seeds, and cut the flesh into thin crescents, no more than 2cm wide. Not only had life just been thrown into chaos with her arrival, but I’d planned to take a whole year off to get to know her. This meant that elaborate dishes, or those that required too much time to prepare or cook, were left by the wayside. Put 300ml of the coconut milk into a blender with the garlic, ginger, 1 chilli, the turmeric and ¾ teaspoon of salt, then blitz smooth.

Turn the heat down to a whisper, add the noodles handful by handful, gently mixing them in until coated in sauce, then turn off the heat.But I had also spent two years writing a vegetarian book, Fresh India, and knew how to make bitter kale leaves sing and how to tempt a beet hater into eating a plateful. Add the remaining 100ml of coconut milk, the coriander, the other chilli, lemon juice, sugar and ½ teaspoon of salt. Varieties such as Crown Prince and Delica grace farmers’ markets, and their nutty, honey flavours make them a powerful weapon for the home cook.

Fry the onion for 10 minutes then add the coconut sauce and cook for 8 minutes, stirring frequently.If you’d like to add a final bit of pizazz, heat a little oil in a saucepan and, when hot, drop in a handful of extra curry leaves. Huge numbers of people, growing by the day, were choosing to eat a more plant-based diet, whether for political, environmental, ethical, or economic reasons. In a small saucepan over a low heat, combine the vinegar, sugar and two and a half tablespoons of water, and bring to a simmer so the sugar dissolves.