Vegetable Recipes by Jess Elliott Dennison
Ricotta dumplings, spring onion cauliflower cheese and horseradish egg mayo on toast are just some of the dishes featured in 'Vegetable Recipes' by Jess Elliot Dennison. If you crave simple, seasonal, straight-forward food, this new publication, which offers another 46 wholesome ideas, is an inspiration and great addition to your repertoire.
A self-published 176-page green-cover paperback, it’s the third in Jess Elliott Dennison’s series of easy-to-follow and interesting-to-read cookbooks.
What makes this one a little different from the first two – Midweek Recipes (2024) and Weekend Recipes (2025) – is where the photography took place. Although published, written and tested from her Edinburgh studio like the others, this book takes a slice of the Scottish Borders for its backdrop. In Jess’s informal style, each dish, influenced by warm childhood memories of eating with family and times spent living abroad, is illustrated by an unposed, candid image taken in and around the glasshouses at The Hugo Burge Foundation.
Jess's connection to The Hugo Burge Foundation.
A few miles from her home in the Scottish Borders, the foundation, on the Marchmont Estate in Duns, is an independent charity dedicated to supporting arts and crafts across the UK. Among the studios and workshops for traditional chair-making, pottery and sliver smithing, is a significant and striking collection of modern art that intersperses the garden’s contemporary and traditional elements, such as the wildflowers and glasshouses. It’s the kitchen of the central glasshouse, designed by philanthropist and patron of the arts Hugo Burge, where Jess features the foundation as a authentic back drop to her cooking.
She was invited there by the foundation head, and for Jess, a serious food lover, she was ensconced. Captivated by the heady scent of jasmine, garlic and oregano, she beams: “There’s nothing quite like cooking among the plants, the trees and figs that are growing up the walls.”.
Hugo Burge (1972-2023) dedicated the last decade of his life to creating a cultural hub in the Scottish Borders. In 2022 he established The Marchmont Makers Foundation to support local makers, heritage crafts and expand access to the arts. It was renamed The Hugo Burge Foundation in his memory following his death in 2023.
Hugo and his father purchased Marchmont House, the Grade-A listed Palladian mansion, a decade before the redevelopment of the Walled Garden, which was once a supplier of fresh produce to the house and estate, but had fallen into a desperate state of decline: dead fruit trees, borders removed and glasshouses in ruins.
In 2017 Hugo reimagined the Walled Garden, and built a fruit cage, replanted the vegetable beds and spent four years refurbishing the old glasshouses. The garden was a place to bring joy and stir imagination. Thankfully, it’s now open to the public on selected days while the Kitchen Garden provides fresh fruit and vegetables to local communities, larders and charities.
The Walled Garden continues to evolve under the stewardship of the Hugo Burge Foundation.
All three of Jess's books are available in store and on-line. We are delighted to be hosting Jess in the shop this autumn do discuss her books.
Meet Jess Elliott Dennison in person here in store on Saturday 17th October to talk, taste some treats and purchase a signed copy of Vegetable Recipes
Niki Jones
496 Great Western Road , Glasgow G12 8EW
https://www.hugoburgefoundation.org/