First Cook: Hetty Lui McKinnon Retains Her Salad-Queen Status with Latest Cookbook, Linger

If you’ve been living under a salad-less rock for the past 13 years, Hetty Lui McKinnon is one of our best cooking exports. She began tossing her salads in 2011 in her Surry Hills kitchen (aka Arthur Street Kitchen) and delivering them via pushbike around Sydney. Now she lives in Brooklyn, writing cookbooks (six to date) and contributing to the likes of NYT Cooking and Bon Appetit.

There’s no doubt Lui McKinnon is one of Australia’s most creative recipe developers. Her ingredient combos, uncomplicated approach to cooking, use of plant-based ingredients and easy swaps are all signatures in her recipes. She keeps this reputation and continues her fearless feather-ruffling of purists in her latest release Linger. It’s all intriguing pairings like peaches and cream with chilli crisp, and bibimbap-style gnocchi with gochujang vinaigrette.

Unlike other cookbooks, this was created at a slower pace: in Lui McKinnon’s home, over the course of a year. Dishes were captured as she cooked and enjoyed with friends — a nice change from the highly stylised studio set-up you usually find in a cookbook.

When it came to picking something, it would make sense to choose a Hetty salad, right? That’s pretty much the premise of the book. But with only one recipe to take for a spin, how could I not make the matcha and ginger custard pie? I am only human. Inspired by Brooklyn’s Four and Twenty Blackbirds, it begins with a simple crust made from gingernut biscuits and butter (or a plant-based alternative), before it’s filled with a coconutty matcha and ground ginger custard. The mix bloomed in the oven, rising above the golden, spicy crust, and once cooled, settled back down to a slick, smooth, pastel-green custardy centre.

In true Hetty style, Linger is about bringing people together to cook, eat and enjoy interesting food simply. Twelve chapters follow monthly seasonality – each packed with her signature plant-based salads and a sweet or two – and are each accompanied by a curated QR-linked playlist. I found the latter particularly helpful, with Linger by The Cranberries taunting me while I read through the recipes.

Chapter 11: Unfinished Symphony celebrates the cross-legged, around-the-coffee-table chat that flows easily after the main meal has finished. When I tried this dessert, I could see it all unfolding: the conversation is easy, the tea is hot, and this matcha and ginger custard pie is sliced and passed around with joy. Light, sweet and made for the post-dinner symphony of chat.

Linger by Hetty Lui McKinnon is available in bookshops across Australia.

Gemma Plunkett is a Sydney-based dinner party tragic and home cook who is a writer, content strategist and recipe developer. Find her (but mostly food) in pictures or in your inbox via her free newsletter Ding!