Bell and Star: Cookbooks For Gardeners

La Tartine Gourmande

Globe zucchini flavored with marjoram and stuffed with sweet potato

I was very slow to come to any level of sophistication with vegetables. My first job was a Summer gig working in a small-town vegetarian restaurant where the workers were all "partners" (a legal structure that permitted paying us under the minimum wage) and the weekly staff meetings ended in a group hug. I remember a lot of soggy vegetable soups, raw broccoli florets, and copious amounts of hairy sprouts.

By and by, I started to catch wind of a new idea (thank you Italy) that vegetables should be respected, eaten in season, and when served at peak ripeness needed little to no intervention. Next came the Japanese, who I learned take vegetables (like most things) very, very seriously whether fried, pickled, or braised.

Four more things happened subsequently to turn me into a vegetable aesthete:

1. I moved to the foodie haven of Portland where I have lived for the last 12 years.
2. I became a food blog addict, learning from the glorious light-drenched photos of vegetable lovers such as Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks and La Tartine Gourmande.
3. I started growing vegetables.
4. I started buying beautiful cookbooks to help me learn how to best eat those vegetables.

101 Cookbooks Shaved Fennel Salad

Here are some of the glorious cookbooks that provide me with inspiration when I'm thinking from farm to table. I must say that Plenty by Ottolenghi in particular has been a revelation, introducing me to a whole new spectrum of Middle Eastern flavors.