Nikki Emmerton

"Dip into these books and you will find veggie cooking as you have never seen it before. This is food that is bursting with colour, flavour and good things, in fact, very much like Nikki herself. I know you will enjoy every mouthful". Mary Cadogan

It makes sense to me to eat well. In fact, it makes sense to me to live well! My desires to live well, live more off the land, and live without debt are what inspired me to leave London and a high-flying career in international business in 1999 and buy a former farm in rural France.

Being vegetarian and being in France are quite simply, incompatible! There is still no concept in France of what? no meat? no fish? not even occasionally? not even 'un petit peu' (a little?). In disbelief, you have to watch as the bacon bits are peeled off the grilled goat's cheese, or settle for salads and hope there's no tuna lurking amongst the lettuce.

The energy I put into cooking has come about because, really, there is no alternative. If you don't learn to cook, you don't get the variety of food required for a nutritious & healthy diet. My mum was a flamboyant cook & hostess so maybe I have inherited her kitchen know-how and never been phased with the idea of catering.

So I opened a B&B to cater to those with similar dietary needs ~ similar needs meaning tasty, homemade, hearty, mostly organic food, often from our garden, plenty of it too, and fairly traded where possible. Oh, and they happen to be vegetarian!

This eclectic and exciting collection recipes from the repertoire at Under The Lime Tree Spa B&B, are a colourful & charismatic compilation of simple & satisfying side dishes, mains & sweets that are full of flavour and packed with good-for-you-ingredients. Each recipe comes with it's own interesting fact-file of anecdotal, nutritional or historical information. They show how easy it is to provide vegetarian meat-free meals without missing out, and they show how easy it is to take a small step and leap into vegan animal-free territory with only a simple tweak here & there.

"These books are not simply a collection of recipes. It is a little taste of Under The Lime Tree, a magical place created by Nikki Emmerton & Sean Williams where their love of life, exuberance and enthusiasm is reflected in everything they put on the table. There is always something bubbling away on the stove, a cake in the oven filling the kitchen with delicious smells and a basket of picture perfect veggies waiting for the Nikki treatment. The vegetable garden provides Nikki with much of her inspiration and she nurtures her crops as she does her guests, with all her heart and soul".

Mary Cadogan

Food writer and cookery teacher