Community Cookbook

Community is Australian salad-extraordinaire Hetty McKinnon's best-selling first cookbook.

It brings together sixty of Arthur Street Kitchen's best loved seasonal, hearty, big-flavoured salads. 

What We Love About It

This cookbook changed the way Gingerfinch cooks. No exaggeration.

Leaving no vegetable, herb, legume, nut or spice unturned, Community shows you how to effortlessly and confidently dish up healthy, meat-free comfort food, perfect heart-and-soul meals to share with family, friends and neighbours.

Community is brought to life by the warm and honest images of renowned photographer Luisa Brimble. Styled by Erika Raxworthy.

Community was shortlisted for the 2015 Australian Book Industry Awards in the category of Illustrated Book of the Year.

Things to Know

Size: 173 pages, Softcover 

Publishing Details: 2014 by Pan MacMillan

Shipping: $10 flat rate shipping. Free shipping on orders over $150 

The Story Behind It

Hetty Mckinnon started making salads from her home kitchen in Surry Hills, Sydney, in 2011. Twice a week, she would invent hearty, delicious, vegetable-packed salads, pop them onto the back of her bicycle and cycle them around her neighbourhood, delivering lunch to locals. 

She called her little project Arthur Street Kitchen, because she lived on Arthur Street and her home kitchen was her happy place. Soon, the local salad-eaters became an intrinsic part of her community. The exchange of the salad box was accompanied by lively conversation, exuberant laughter and a constantly evolving hunting and gathering of stories and histories. 

Hetty has been vegetarian for over twenty years, but her food is not just for vegetarians. Her plant-based recipes are truly egalitarian, for every person who enjoys a flavour-packed, vegetable-heavy dish. No labels required. 

Hetty continued to deliver salads in Surry Hills for four years. In 2015, her family was given the opportunity to move to New York City. With her husband and three children Scout, Dash and Huck, Hetty lives in a leafy part of Brooklyn. Here, she continues to make friends with salad.