Playing with your Food adds Joy to your Kitchen, Fun to your Routine

March’s cookbook helps you get more comfortable in the kitchen

Welcome to Roots! A newsletter about plant-based: eating, nutrition, lifestyle, I cover it all. Join me, Lori Osterberg, as I explore good food, great health, and Gorgeous Wellth! New here? Get started.

Have you ever walked through the produce section and found something you weren't quite sure what it was? You’ve reached the point in your plant-based journey where you’re ready to be challenged.

The “What is that?” Challenge

It’s a question we’ve been pondering since we were kids: “What is that?” And if you have kids, you remember when they were little, they constantly went up to new things, asking, “What’s that?” They’d look for a simple answer, then run to the next unknown and start all over again.

I think that’s what plant-based did for me. It made me curious about all the things I’d overlooked before.

So, many years ago, when I first started noticing different things in my local market, I reached beyond the “What’s that?” while putting it back, and buying it instead.

Then I had to figure out what to do with it. And that’s where the fun comes in. 🎉

Of course, your local market tends to be somewhat repetitive in what they sell. Sometimes, it’s fun to stretch beyond and find other places to buy your fruits and vegetables. I’ve found my local farmer’s market to be teeming with unknowns. I love shopping there, keeping an alert eye out for new things. It gives me a chance to talk a bit with my local farmers. I’ll ask them what it is and what to cook. Local farmers are always a wellth of information.

As a part of this strategy, I’m also looking for cookbooks that use foods that might not be considered mainstay. I knew I had a winning cookbook when I came across this month’s selection.

Misunderstood Vegetables
By Becky Selengut

Even the cover does it, right? Have you ever looked at a romanesco and wondered what to do with it? Pick up this cookbook, and you’ll have a handful of recipes to give it a whirl.

What is a misunderstood vegetable, you might ask?

“If you’ve walked by a vegetable in the store and you have no idea what the bloody hell to do with it or even what the heck it is, it’s misunderstood. If a vegetable is one you’ve cooked or eaten once or twice and you think the texture is weird, or it’s bitter and you don’t really like it, then it may have been prepared improperly (and maybe you blamed the cook’s failed technique on the vegetable itself.) If so, it’s likely misunderstood.

And finally, what about those vegetables that you can only think about one or two uses for? When you read the word tomatillo, what dishes immediately come to mind? I’ll wait here for a moment.

That’s right: salsa came to mind, didn’t it? And for some of you, maybe you thought: chile verde.

If only one or two dishes come to mind, that’s a misunderstood vegetable, too.”

That’s the thing about cooking - most foods fall into that line of thinking. Until it doesn’t.

Joyful cooking is all about starting with things you’ve never experienced before and becoming familiar with them. Joyful cooking involves selecting cookbooks you can learn from, digging in, and getting to the point of feeling comfortable with the work you do.

You can do this with this cookbook. It’s not overwhelming. It’s not intimidating. Just good food and 75 recipes to help you create that good food.

I like how the author breaks it down by season. That makes it easy to glance at the recipes, pick a veggie you’re not familiar with, and then go and find it in the store or the farmer’s market.

Last year, I found a kohlrabi tucked in between veggies at one booth. I glanced at it, picked up everything on my shopping list, then came back and added it to my basket. I’d never seen kohlrabi before nor worked with it. So it gave me something new to work with and some exciting recipes I’d never cooked with before.

I bought several more. I became familiar with it. Not an expert. But familiar. To the point I will pick it up again this year.

Maybe you’ve worked with kohlrabi before. Maybe you’re unsure of what to do with more common foods that are always sitting on your local supermarket’s shelf. For me, that’s eggplant - I use it all the time. Yet there’s still a lot to learn. Becky gets into a little history, texture and consistency lessons, as well as different varieties and how they compare. I’ve wandered into Asian and Indian markets lately to find other varieties, to give my cooking different flavors and more depth.

Her Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes, Pomegranate, Spiced Yogurt, and Pine Nuts was a hit with my family. And I’m looking forward to trying it with different eggplants.

As we move into the growing season here in the Northern Hemisphere, I may still be planting squash and tomatoes and broccoli in my own garden. Still, I’m excited about getting a little more familiar with veggies I haven’t used much in the past. With a copy of Misunderstood Vegetables on my shelf, I’ll be on the hunt for new things this season, and have recipes at hand waiting for me to try.

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