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Vegan dishes with a Bish Bash Bosh!


By Features Reporter

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Henry Firth and Ian Theasby are back. They’re the dynamic duo behind the plant-based recipe platform and social media sensation Bosh – which has had more than one billion views.

They’ve just released their second cookbook. “It had to be called Bish Bash Bosh!” says Firth, throwing his arms into the air gleefully.

This one is full of their favourite meals – ideas nicked from restaurants, takeaways and childhood memories; dishes they’d wanted to veganise but didn’t manage to squeeze into their debut collection.

Authors and vegan bloggers Ian Theasby and Henry Firth. Picture: PA Photo/Lizzie Mayson
Authors and vegan bloggers Ian Theasby and Henry Firth. Picture: PA Photo/Lizzie Mayson

It’s only been 12 months since the first Bosh! book, but in that time the friends have seen a major shift in attitudes towards veganism and the availability of plant-based products.

In the first book there was no seitan, little jackfruit. “We didn’t do any of these quirky fake meats, we just wanted vegetables”, they note. But this time around expect seitan burgers, ‘pulled pork’ jackfruit and ‘tofish’ finger sandwiches.

“The landscape has changed,” says Theasby. “Now you can go into supermarkets and buy banana blossom, whereas before you’d barely find jackfruit.”

Theasby admits some people still don’t get vegan food, so Bosh aims to make the whole no-animal product lifestyle more alluring.

“Colour is a great way to promote plant-based food,” says Firth. “Less beige, more rainbow.”

After all, although it’s possible to survive solely on chips as a vegan, Firth is adamant: “You won’t thrive.”

“It’d be really easy to be an unhealthy vegan,” agrees Theasby. But that’s not their style, hence tips on nutrition, so you can find a healthy balance to suit you.

“It’s great because you feel so good. Three, four days in, there’s this lightness of being that stays with you, that helps you persist – as long as you’re not just eating pasta and chips.”

Confront them with someone who says they don’t like vegetables and the duo will crush you with optimism. “They need to come round and have dinner with us!” yells Firth, as Theasby starts explaining how to blend mushrooms down into a creamy sauce for pasta, so you don’t even know mushrooms were ever even involved.

Firth points at all the different dishes on the new book’s cover, saying: “If you don’t like vegetables, that pizza’s good for you, that ‘pulled pork’, lasagne, cheesecake – to be honest there’s only one thing on here that even looks like vegetables, the tomato and avocado heavy ‘nuevos rancheros’ breakfast.”

In another 12 months, Firth’s hope for veganism is: “It will drop the ‘ism’ and be something everyone is down with, whenever they feel like it. Some people will do seven days a week, some one day a week, and it just becomes normal.”

“It’s less a hope, more an expectation that that’s what will happen,” adds Theasby. “All the signs are there.”


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