After ten years of working in restaurants, I’ve been working intimately with vegetables for the past ten years. I have met farmers and planted gardens and had daily walks among the vegetables. But eating vegetables is different, you have to come home and actually do something to eat them.
They don’t have cooking directions or any marketing information on the package, most of the time they have no packaging at all. They can’t speak and tell you to undercook them, overcook them, or maybe leave them alone and eat them raw. If you store them incorrectly, they will die in your fridge, but you’re not quite sure what is right or wrong.
Eating better is great, eating more vegetables is better, but if you have never cooked vegetables before, or if your mom only made them one way, you don’t know what you’re missing.
I’ve spent these past years, trying to sell vegetables direct from the farm. And realized that if you don’t have the cooking skills from your past, you won’t be happy cooking fresh from the farm. You’ll gravitate back to bagged lettuce and baby carrots and choke down your recommended daily servings of vegetables with disappointment. While missing all of the great vegetables that are out in the markets throughout the year.
Over the next 31 days, I’m putting together a functional guidebook, for home cooks. One that will tell you what you really need to know to make cooking fresh produce easier and hopefully expose you and your family to vegetables and fruit that you might otherwise give to a neighbor or loose at the bottom of the produce drawer.
Carrots
Broccoli and Cauliflower
Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Kohlrabi
Beets
Fennel
Celery and Celeriac (Celery Root)
Citrus Fruit
Asian Greens
Lettuce and Arugula
Peas
Artichokes
Asparagus
Alliums – Garlic, Onions, Leeks, Shallots, Green Onions
Potatoes
Fresh Herbs – Cilantro, Parsley, Basil, Dill
Berries
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Green Beans
Summer Squash
Corn
Peppers, Hot and Sweet
Eggplant
Melons
Sweet Potatoes
Winter Squash
Hardy Herbs – Rosemary, Sage, Oregano, Thyme
Greens – Kale, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Collards
Parsnips
Root Vegetables – Turnips, Rutabagas, Radishes