I am so excited to share my new favourite cookbook with you! ROOTS gathers together many of my favourite things: healthful food; well thought-out, approachable recipes; stunning photography; and root vegetables. In this season of root vegetables patiently waiting to be pulled from our cellars and pantries, it felt like a timely post. For me, root vegetables are amongst my favourite healthy comfort foods.
ROOTS is truly a comprehensive reference for the global roots that have made their way onto our forks and into our kitchens as a result of becoming what Diane calls “global eaters.” From Thai to Indian to Japanese to Peruvian and Chinese restaurants, our palates and our repertoires are expanding.
In addition to an amazing and educational reference, this is a cookbook packed with incredible recipes and ideas for exploring familiar flavours and new ones alike, awakening the palate to the wonders that the world of root vegetables has to offer! Diane is also an amazing educator, offering all kinds of practical tips on how to get greater joy out of working in your kitchen.
I love beets so much that I probably would have picked up this cookbook if it had been nothing but that chapter. But I’ve loved exploring the amazing root vegetables Diane highlights in the book and I can’t wait to experiment!
Not surprisingly, the first recipe I’ve cooked and the one I’m going to share with you today features – you guessed it – beets. It is simple, beautiful, exploding with fresh flavours and works as a gorgeous plate-partner to the Asian Glazed Salmon I chose to create to complete this meal. This recipe also allowed me to live up to my promise to use more fennel this year, so naturally it was the place to start.
Here’s the recipe:
I love the hay-stack quality of the very precisely mandolined matchstick vegetables and green apple. There is a delightful mingling of sweet and tart in this recipe, balanced perfectly by the savoury parsley. I will absolutely be making this recipe again and again! No doubt it will become a favourite of family and friends year-round.
The Asian Glazed Salmon was super simple. I just grated about 2 Tbsp of ginger and whisked that together with 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 c. wheat-free Tamari, 1/4 c. toasted sesame oil, 4 Tbsp maple syrup, 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. I baked the salmon at 375°F uncovered for about 20 minutes and voila! A match made in foodie heaven.
With recipes such as “Chicken Fricassee with Parsley Roots and Chanterelle Mushrooms” still awaiting my kitchen, I have no doubt Diane and I will be spending a lot of time together in 2013!
So…the next time you see a gnarly and bizarre-looking root vegetable at the market, take the challenge and bring it home! With Diane’s cookbook as your guide, you’ll no doubt fall in love and add many new root vegetables to your repertoire of kitchen classics.
xo
s.
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