Tenderheart is my vegetable manifesto, an ode to 22 of my favourite everyday vegetables. Over 500 pages and 180+ recipes, I show you how to create simple, delicious, economical and pantry-led weeknight meals with vegetables.

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PRAISE for Tenderheart

“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

“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, cookbook author and food writer
 
“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

WINNER OF THE GASTRONOMISCHE AKADEMIE DEUTSCHLANDS SILVER MEDAL, 2022 FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

NOMINATED FOR 2022 JAMES BEARD AWARD

Featured as Best Cookbook of 2021 on Epicurious, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Food52, Simply Recipes

Named by Vogue as one of “15 Cookbooks That Everyone Should Own”

As seen in New York Times 2021 Summer Book Review

'To Asia, With Love is my homecoming, a joyous return to the humble, yet deeply nurturing flavours and meals of my childhood as a Chinese girl born in Australia. It is also a celebration of the exciting and delicious possibilities of modern Asian cooking.'

Recipes range from the traditional - salt and pepper eggplant, red curry laksa, congee, a perfectly simple egg, pea and ginger fried rice - to Hetty's uniquely modern interpretations, such as buttery miso vegemite noodles, stir-fried salt and vinegar potatoes, cacio e pepe udon noodles and grilled wombok caesar salad with wonton crackers. All share an emphasis on seasonal vegetables and creating irresistible Asian(ish) flavours using pantry staples. 

Whether it's a banh mi turned into a salad, a soy-sauce-powered chocolate brownie or a rainbow guide to eating dumplings by the season, this is Asian home cooking unlike anything you've experienced before.

ORDER NOW IN AUSTRALIA:

Readings / Booktopia / Pan Macmillan

ORDER IN USA / WORLD

Book Larder / Now Serving LA / Omnivore Books / Archestratus / Books Are Magic / Amazon US / Book Depository