ENGINEERING student Emilia Russell is offering to make cooking easy peas-y with her plant-based recipes for all the family.

Emilia, 20, from Knutsford, is in the third year of an engineering degree at Durham University, and has created a 200-page cookbook packed with 90 no-nonsense recipes.

The Easy Peas-y Cookbook was inspired by her love of cooking and the scrapbook of recipes she made to take with her when she went to university.

Emilia wanted the cookbook to be suitable for everyone, so used her family as guinea pigs to trial all the recipes.

Her mother Sue is gluten intolerant, brother Seb is allergic to eggs, her other brother Theo needs lots of energy for the exercise he does, and her father Mike wanted to lose weight and lower his cholesterol.

When Emilia was 11 she was accepted to go on Junior Master Chef, but due to being away was unable to make the filming.

Knutsford Guardian:

She was set to complete a work placement this summer for a global engineering company, but it was cancelled because of the coronavirus.

Wondering what to do with her time, she rekindled her passion and love for cooking.

“I thought it would be fun to make a cookbook to share my love of cooking,” she said.

“I wanted to make the cookbook easy peasy to follow, whatever your level of experience, so that everyone can enjoy good, healthy food.”

Emilia is delighted with the support she’s had from local businesses, with the book due to be stocked at Jonty’s fruit and veg stall at Knutsford Market Hall, Knutsford Art Shop and Stationery House and Bax Bees Honey at Plumley.

She added: “One of the beauties of the book is that it’s all about shopping locally, which is vital in times like today.

“It’s a no-nonsense, no fancy ingredients, no fuss cookbook, explaining everything from how to cut an onion to how to make a showstopping pavlova.

“It’s ideal for people living on a budget, those who want to learn the basics of cooking, eco warriors, people wanting to improve their health, students with little freezer space, people who want to reduce their meat consumption or just those who want fast, easy and delicious meals.”

The book features about 100 colour illustrations, and Emilia has also produced a digital version, which is available on Amazon.