NancyM's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
Recipes from the Root Cellar: 270 Fresh Ways to Enjoy Winter Vegetables
By Andrea Chesman
Storey Publishing, LLC - 2010
I don't know about you, but I find it harder to cook inspired dishes other than soups in the winter. In the summer it's easy; just about all the veggies in the garden can be eaten raw, either alone or in a big salad, maybe dressed with a fast herb vinaigrette or quickly steamed or sautéed and you're done. But the winter vegetables seem to stump me frequently.
I was delighted to come across this book. It's a great collection of recipes using vegetables that are in season in the winter for all courses, not just side dishes. The first chapter of this book describes these vegetable families: Hearty Greens and Cabbages, The Onion Family, Tubers, Root Vegetables, Winter Squashes, and Dried Beans. Some of the individual vegetables in these families that are described in detail are: beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celery root, collard greens, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks, mustard greens, onions, parsnips, potatoes, rutabagas, salsify, shallots, sweet potatoes, turnips, and various winter squashes. Each vegetable in this chapter has information on availability, storage, how to buy, preparation, cooking ideas and math. The math portion describes how much chopped, sliced, diced, shredded or pureed vegetable you get per pound of raw vegetable.
At the beginning of each chapter, the recipes included are listed in their order of appearance. This is a feature I really appreciate. Oddly, the page numbers for the recipes aren't included which would be helpful. Everything is very easy to read and recipes each have their own page with only a handful sharing a page. The couple that need two pages are printed on facing pages, so you don't have to turn the page to finish the recipe. There aren't any nutritional analyses of the recipes. Another missing feature is prep time and cooking times. The number of servings is noted and also, many substitutions or variations are given in the recipes making them more versatile. There is a great index in this book with recipes listed by title and also by their ingredients.
The recipes seem to be quite straightforward without lots of ingredients or any hard to find ones. Some of the ethnic recipes have ingredients specific to them, like sesame oil or chile paste with garlic for a Chinese recipe, but if you like those foods, you'll probably have those few things on hand anyway. The vast majority of recipes call don't call for any ingredients that aren't already pantry staples for most of us.