Book Review: Root to Stalk Cooking, by Tara Duggan

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Tara Duggan’s Root to Stalk Cooking: The Art of Using the Whole Vegetable tweaks a few of my obsessions.  I love cookbooks generally (I requested my first, Sheila Lukins Around the World Cookbook, as a 15th birthday present) and particularly, I favor books that expand my repertoire of vegetable dishes.  My affection for vegetables led me to a career near, though not quite in, farming.  Finally, I love life-hacks that help me cut down on waste.  I wanted to share the book and the philosophy behind it with you EarthDance fans, since I’m sure many of you find yourself with similar preoccupations during the bountiful months of CSA shares and farmers market splurges.

I picked up the book while browsing at Left Bank Books last winter.  I was charmed by the title’s play on the Snout-to-Tail movement, popular among certain creative and brave chefs. In this style of cuisine, “off-cuts” of meat such as organs, offal, feet and ears are rendered into delicacies.  StT is adventuresome beyond my attempts so far, but I’ve made soup from broccoli stems and pesto from carrot tops, so I knew I was game for finding new uses for my vegetable peels.

In the introduction to Root to Stalk, Duggan explains how she came to write a book on cooking the dregs of the crisper drawer.  At the heart of this book is the admonition to waste not.  Duggan reports findings from a University of Arizona study, the Garbage Project, in which researchers found that American households throw out 25% of their groceries, and that almost a third of all vegetables in homes, restaurants, and supermarkets are wasted.  Though Duggan admits that preventing herbs from turning to sludge in your refrigerator won’t end world hunger, she argues that, “Just as foraging for wild blackberries or growing your own tomatoes helps you appreciate food more, learning creative uses for underutilized parts of your vegetables makes you more aware of the small things you can do to prevent waste.”

Still the cookbook is far from merely dutiful.  Duggan also has foodie cred: she relates her experiences as an eater in two food meccas, San Francisco and Naples, Italy. (She also shares with readers the delightful Italian term, mangiafoglie, or “leaf eaters” a description of Neapolitans, known for their vegetable worship.)  But don’t be intimidated: for a decade, Duggan wrote a column called “The Working Cook” for the San Francisco Chronicle, publishing recipes that could be prepared in 30 minutes or less.  Most recipes in Root to Stalk are of this same level of simplicity.

The book features plenty of food porn: eye-popping rainbow chard stems, close-ups of frilly fennel fronds, potatoes bathed in oily, herby, oniony broth, and ingredients casually arrayed on rustic wooden cutting boards.  My favorite cookbooks are more austere, but I have to admit that the photo of Duggan’s Pan Roasted Cauliflower Steaks is so tempting that it will inspire me to try this dish, in spite of my general disinterest in cauliflower.

As CSA season just started, I admit that I haven’t made it through the book cover to cover.  So far I’ve prepared Duggan’s Scraps Latkes (even better than the whole potatoes version), the Butternut Squash Soup with Toasted Seeds, and just recently, the Beet Green Strata (a bit like a savory bread pudding).  While preparing the strata, I marveled over what a perfect dish this was for late spring.  I had a small collection of EarthDance’s baby beets: the four were enough to generously garnish a salad for two, but not much more.  However, the beet stems and leaves were lush and abundant!  They cried out for a fate more glorious than the compost pile.  The strata put them to fine use.  I was a little disappointed that after cooking, the stems’ powerful magenta color had faded to a smoky tomato.  But then again, the change fooled my husband into thinking I’d made lasagna, not a bad look-alike at all.  The taste was substantial and decadent.  It was amazing that the star of the dish was a part of the vegetable that usually doesn’t even make it to the supermarket shelves.

I’m excited for Root to Stalk to accompany me throughout the farm year, for experiments with everything from fennel and broccoli stalks to squash blossoms and carrot tops.

Do you dig the idea of using more of your vegetables, in creative ways, but don’t have room for another cookbook?  Or maybe you just prefer the internet for recipes.  Check out the blog 2 Minutes to Dinner, from Purple Kale Kitchenworks.  PKK is a Brooklyn-based culinary education business, teaching chef skills to the general public. Check out the blog’s Otherwise, Trash section for inventive recipes like Beet Peels Vinaigrette, Corn Cob Stock, and Kale Stem Pickles.

Are you using EarthDance produce in your culinary creations?  Send us a picture, or tag us on your Facebook posts!  We’d love to know what you’re cooking.