Mollie Katzen: Vegetables that Maybe You Can’t Live Without
Mollie Katzen and I spoke about the book. She tells me that she’s very pleased with the book. “It’s storybook-sized which is 8 ½ by 11 inches. I did all the hand lettering and the fonts. It took me 1 ½ years.” She said that she felt the need to get back to something closer to the Moosewood style of a hand written and illustrated book. The bright green cover and colorful vegetable illustrations give away what’s inside the book.
The 90-something recipes in the book are organized alphabetically using a wide range of vegetables from artichokes to zucchini, covering most of them including frisee and parsnips (but alas no kohlrabi). Katzen says that the vegetables are most important part of the book and here she pairs them with various pantry ingredients such as roasted nut oils and really good olive oils. “The recipes are not too long and not too involved,” she states emphatically.
Katzen says that she doesn’t mention seasonality in the book but uses the various vegetables that she likes. “The book is about vegetables and doesn’t have any meat but it’s not about being vegetarian,” she says. We talk more about the recipes and Katzen tells me that most of the recipes are very vegan friendly. “There’s some optional butter and eggs and some cheese but that’s in less than 10 percent of the recipes,” she states. (A review of the recipes indicates that Katzen is correct in her assertion.)
Mollie says that she can’t choose her favorite recipes because all of these made her “favorite” list but she mentions how much she likes Brussels sprouts. (In my cookbook, I say that they are the vegetable “we love to say we hate” but many people do seem to like them, judging from how quickly they disappear in my classes.)
Most of the recipes are perfect for daily eating and include appetizers, saladitas (little salads), stir-fries, roasted vegetables, stove-top veggies and more. Additionally some of the dishes have other components such as risotto, polenta, pasta but it’s truly about the vegetables. Each recipe has a description and many of them have notes about helpful cooking techniques and storage.
Mollie Katzen includes an interesting section on Ten Ways… to sneak a few more vegetables into your diet… that include vertical pizza stacked high with vegetables or salad, vegetable noodles with a one-to-one ratio of vegetables to noodles (amen to that one), vegetable-stuffed potatoes, wraps and more (only one suggestion Green Eggs is clearly not vegan). The pantry section will give you many ideas for how to dress up your vegetables so that you’ll want to eat them every day.
When it comes to vegetables, Mollie and I are on the same path, in our quest to get people to eat more of them. Hopefully her large audience will embrace the idea and pass it on to others. Mollie’s advice, “Just do your best to get the best produce available.” I encourage you to do the same.
Jill Nussinow, MS, RD The Veggie Queen™, is the author of The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment which has more than 100 recipes listed according to the season. She also recently released the DVD Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes which shows you how to prepare 14 vegan recipes in almost no time at all. You can find more info at www.theveggiequeen.com or www.pressurecookingonline.com.
Sweet Potato Hash with Smoked Tofu and Red Onions
Notes:
Cook the sweet potatoes ahead of time by boiling or steaming them in their skins. After they cool down, they’ll be very easy to peel.
Smoked tofu comes in shrink-wrapped packages, similar to the variously seasoned “savory baked” tofu in the health food section of most grocery stores. If you can’t find it, you can also use any soy-based “veggie bacon"-type product in its place.
1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups minced red onion
2 ½ pounds sweet potatoes – cooked, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons minced or crushed garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
About 4 ounces smoked tofu, cut into thin strips
Balsamic vinegar (regular or the reduced, thickened kind)
- Place a large skillet over medium heat. After about a minute, add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan. Add the onions and sauté for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Add a little more olive oil to the pan, then stir in the sweet potatoes, garlic and salt, spreading the mixture out to allow maximum contact with the hot pan. Wait about 5 minutes, then stir it around again, letting it cook until everything becomes exquisitely crisp.
- Season to taste with black pepper, then stir in the tofu. Taste to adjust the salt and serve hot, drizzled with balsamic vinegar (or balsamic reduction).
Yield: 4 to 5 servings
Reprinted with permission from The Vegetable Dishes That I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen, 2007, Hyperion, $22.95
Crispy-Edged Roasted Brussels Sprouts
If you think that you dislike Brussels sprouts, think again. Or don’t think at all – just go get some and roast and eat them. By then everything will likely have changed. Pleasantly crusty on the outside and soft and savory on the inside, roasted Brussels sprouts are a revelation. Added bonus: The outer leaves that invariably fall off during the baking process will crispen into little “chips.”
Note:
These will keep for up to 5 days in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (possibly more)
4 cups (1 pound) Brussels sprouts, halved or quartered lengthwise (or left whole if small)
Salt (optional)
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking tray with foil and coat it with oil.
- Place the Brussels sprouts cut-side down on the prepared tray, moving them so that all the cut surfaces touch some of the oil.
- Place the tray in the center of the oven for 10 minutes. At this point, shake the tray and/or use tongs to redistribute the sprouts so that more surfaces can come into contact with the hot oil.
- Roast for another 5 minutes, or until a taste test tells you that the sprouts are done to your liking. (They will cook a little further from their own heat after they come out of the oven.)
- Remove the tray from the oven and let the sprouts cool for about 10 minutes on the baking tray. You can salt them lightly during the time, if you wish. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature.
Yield: 4 servings
Reprinted with permission from The Vegetable Dishes That I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen, 2007, Hyperion, $22.95
Mollie’s Quite Surprising Mashed Parsnips
Parsnips are out there just waiting for you to discover them. Here’s a good way to do that. I guarantee that you will be quite surprised by their subtle sweetness.
Notes:
Parsnips come in many sizes. Try to get small or medium ones (up to 8 inches long) as the giant ones tend to have a tough inner core that doesn’t soften up well.
This will keep for up to 5 days in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator. It reheats really well in a microwave.
2 pounds parsnips (about 6 medium ones, approximately 8 inches long, 2-inch diameter)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Put up a large saucepan of water to boil.
- Meanwhile, peel the parsnips and discard the ends. (Jill’s note, save these for stock.) Chop the parsnips into 2- to 3-inch pieces.
- When the water boils, add the cut parsnips and cook them for about 10 minutes, or until very soft. Use a mesh scooper or a slotted spoon to remove them from the water, shaking out the excess, and transfer them to the work bowl of a food processor. (Remove the saucepan of water from the heat, but don’t dump it out yet.)
- Add the olive oil, vinegar and salt to the parsnips, and process until very smooth. If they seem a bit dry, add little of their cooking water. (If you don’t have a food processor, just put everything in a bowl and mash well with a fork or a potato masher.)
- Season to taste with black pepper (correcting the salt and vinegar along the way, if you so choose) and serve hot or warm.
Yield: 4 to 5 servings
Reprinted with permission from The Vegetable Dishes That I Can’t Live Without by Mollie Katzen, 2007, Hyperion, $22.95
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