Vegetable Literacy
Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom, with over 300 Deliciously Simple Recipes
From Deborah Madison, author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and America's leading authority on vegetarian cooking, comes a cookbook that explores the diversity of the vegetable kingdom and reveals the surprising relationships between vegetables, edible flowers, herbs, and familiar wild plants within the same botanical families.
Destined to become the new standard reference for cooking vegetables, Vegetable Literacy shows cooks that, because of their shared characteristics, vegetables within the same family can be used interchangeably in cooking. It presents an entirely new way of looking at vegetables, drawing on Madison's deep knowledge of cooking, gardening, and botany. For example, knowing that dill, chervil, cumin, parsley, coriander, anise, lovage, and caraway come from the umbellifer family makes it clear why they're such a good match for carrots, also an umbel. With 150 classic and exquisitely simple recipes, Madison brings this wealth of information together in dishes that highlight a world of complementary flavors. Griddled Artichokes with Tarragon Mayonnaise, Tomato Soup with Cilantro and Saffron Rice, Savory Buckwheat Crepes with Mushrooms and Sorrel Sauce, and Fresh Peas with Sage on Baked Ricotta showcase combinations that are simultaneously familiar and revelatory.
Hardcover | Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed | 416 pages