Middleton Susie - Simple Green Suppers: A Fresh Strategy for One-dish Vegetarian Meals

L ife is funny. Youre busy doing one thing, focusing on the road ahead, and meanwhile something else entirely unplanned is taking shape around you.

I was pretty sure that my chief job as Miss-Spread-the-Vegetable-Gospel was to share everything I knew about cooking vegetables with you and everyone else who wanted to eat more vegetables. And by everyone else, I mean not just vegetarians. I didnt want to leave anyone stranded out there with a fennel bulb and no chefs knife, if you know what I mean.

So I wrote three vegetable cookbooks filled with useful vegetable-cooking techniques and flavorful recipes. Meanwhile, I started growing and selling my own vegetables (dozens of different varieties), and my overall crazed enthusiasm for vegetables did not exactly wane. I went into my kitchen with fistfuls of baby kale, armloads of pattypan squash, and baskets of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes and French fingerling potatoes. I dared those vegetables to be boring, to give up trying to be so versatile, to disappoint me. And it simply didnt happen. Not only were they star performers, but they also played so darn well with all the other kids in my pantry and larder.

Gradually, I began to eat less meat, and theneven less. (There were a few other reasons for this, and Ill spare you the details, but lets just say that after my Winter of Pork, which followed the Summer of Raising Three Pigs, I was, I guess, meat exhausted.) One day I realized that the fence between my (metaphorical) vegetarian neighbors and me was awfully low. So I just stepped over it.

And that day, I tumbled into one of the most engaging creative challenges in my cooking career: making a veggie supper every night. (And when I say every night I mean that. I live on the island of Marthas Vineyard year-round, and options for dining out are slim during the off-season and expensive in the summer. Most Islanders cook at home regularly.)

I didnt mention to anyonefamily or friendsthat I had every intention of taking up this path as a permanent occupation. I didnt want to put anyone off, and maybe I doubted whether my resolution would be steadfast. (Who ever really knows about the future, right? And also, you never want to be the bore who insists on knowing whats best for everyone!) But right from the start, I had a curious sense of contentment about eating and cooking vegetarian.

For one thing, it immediately made my life simpler, as I didnt have those agonizing moments in the grocery store, staring once again at the over-priced, under-inspiring meat selection. And now there were natural parameters for what I could cook. Yet instead of feeling limited by this challenge, I felt stimulated: How would I turn all those beautiful veggies (whether they came from my garden or the grocery) into a filling, satisfying supper tonightand every night? I began to look forward to my time in the kitchen each evening with a new sense of pleasure and excitement. Here was a fun puzzle to solve.

A puzzle that called for a strategy, I soon realized.

Ill tell you straight out that this book is the result of my honing, day after day, week after week, my own veggie supper strategy. What I will deliver to you here, in the next few hundred pages, is a simple explanation of my strategy, plus a whole lot of (delicious!) ways to practically execute it. Ill also point out lots of veggie cooking tips and tricks along the way. And, thanks to my collaboration with photographer Randi Baird, youll also get a sense of the real enjoyment that lies ahead when you create delicious, substantial, and beautiful meals out of fresh vegetables and a well-stocked larder. (Larder is an old-fashioned concept referring to a pantry with cold storage, but its also a handy modern term for all of our ingredient-storage spots, including the pantry, fridge, and freezer.)