Review: Martha Stewart’s Vegetables

Early adopter.  That’s how I would describe myself when it comes to Martha Stewart.  Years ago I invested in a copy of Entertaining the book that put her on the map.  In a tiny apartment, on a student’s budget, I dreamed of hosting a Hawaiian luau or an elegant holiday soiree’. Ok, never did the luau or soiree’ but I have used many of her recipes and tweaked her entertaining ideas.

But it has been quite awhile since I have picked up one of her books.  But Vegetables caught my eye.  We have made a concerted effort to eat more vegetables and less meat, this book was right up our alley.   First, this is not a vegetarian cookbook.  Though vegetables are definitely the star of this book there are quite a few recipes that contain meat or seafood.  Each and every recipe has a beautiful photo of the finish dish.  How cool is that?  The photos are up close, clean with simple backgrounds so focus stays on the food. The book is divided by type of vegetable such as bulbs, roots, tubers, greens and stems.  Each chapter starts with an introduction covering seasonality, buying, storing, prepping, flavor pairings and cooking.  Recipes are straight forward and uncomplicated.  Helpful hints are offered in sidebars.  As I flipped through the pages I bookmarked quite a few recipes to try.

Always looking for new ways to serve carrots I tried rainbow carrots and chard. The vegetables are steamed and drizzled with a citrus vinaigrette.  Colorful and appetizing perfect for a summer or fall meal.  Quick and easy.  I tackled the recipe for leek and parsnip soup next. Parsnips, I have to admit, is not a vegetable I cook very often, actually ever.  Loved it.  The parsnips give the soup a sweet earthy flavor, a nice twist to the classic potato leek soup.  I also managed to make the lone dessert recipe in the book.  Cornmeal shortcakes with corn ice cream and blueberry compote.  I substituted vanilla ice cream for the corn ice cream but if Santa brings me an ice cream maker with its own compressor (hint hint) I’ll definitely try the corn ice cream.  The shortcakes were buttery with a slight crunch from the cornmeal and the lemony blueberry compote a lovely accompaniment.

I received this book from Blogging for Books and I recommend it to anyone wanting to expand their “veggieverse”.   It’s filled with simple, delicious recipes with gorgeous photos and plenty of valuable information.  It’s a good thing.

Here is a link to Cornmeal Shortcakes from Martha Stewart’s Living.  It is not exactly the same as the one in the cookbook. The difference being instead of 3 cups of all purpose flour the book’s recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups AP flour and 3/4 cup fine cornmeal.