Comments: These are not your mother's vegetable recipes.
For anyone who thinks vegetables are dull, Mollie Katzen has an antidote, and her new book is a revelation. Her favorite vegetable recipes are bursting with flavor, and offer unexpected dimensions, without ever venturing into the silly "fusion" world of incompatible ingredients and flavor combinations. Among the surprising recipes:
- Roasted Asparagus with Pomegranate-Lime Glaze
- Broccoli in Peanut Sauce (a great hit with kids, Katzen says)
- Roasted Beets with Tart Pink Grapefruit Glaze
- A salsa that mixes fairly neutral jicama and avocado with strawberries, lime juice, and tablespoonsful of crystallized ginger
- Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and Hazelnuts
Katzen is certainly a fan of garlic, and the accent flavors in a few of these recipes are likely to overwhelm the primary ingredients — a cup of diced onion and two tablespoons of minced garlic in a rather plain mixture of artichoke hearts, spinach, and parmesan cheese, for example, tastes primarily of onion and garlic. But it's still really good.
Katzen's signature illustrations and hand-printed text are charming, and the hand lettering is certainly legible, but it's a little harder to read than regular printed typefaces. It's a small quibble, though, with a wonderful book.
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