Vegetables’ dirty little secret

Julia Moskin in The New York Times has an excellent article this week, “Raw Panic” on how to cope with an overwhelming quantity of vegetables. As she writes,

“HERE’S a dirty little secret of summer. 

What should be a beautiful and inspiring sight – your kitchen, overflowing with seasonal produce – is sometimes an intimidating tableau of anxiety. The knobbly piles and dirt-caked bunches are overwhelming. Already the peak-ripe multicolored peppers are developing soft spots; the chard is wilting and the race is on.”

The article goes on to describe some excellent strategies for taming the little critters and learning to enjoy fresh vegetables rather than being intimidated by them. Among the strategies:

• Cook vegetables  immediately, rendering them much more useful as last minute items
• Take time to wash and store them properly – maximizing their keeping time.
• Look at some children’s cookbooks for easy, quick recipes.
• Put them on top of a pizza

Regarding resources, Moskin singles out one cookbook and one blog for especially good ideas: The Mom 100 Cookbook by Katie Workman and Smitten Kitchen. Both are indexed here, as are many other wonderful vegetable cookbooks. To get you started, here’s a list of 73 vegetable cookbooks all indexed and sorted by popularity. Just a little preparatory research will convert vegetables into welcome house guests.