The Vegetable Butcher: How to Select, Prep, Slice, Dice, and Masterfully Cook Vegetables from Artichokes to Zucchini Hardcover – Illustrated, April 19, 2016

Good value lots of good info

This will be a fabulous addition to your cookbook collection, whether you're an omnivore, vegetarian or vegan. Cara Mangini does an excellent job explaining how to expertly handle a variety of common and less typical vegetables (e.g., cardoons, fiddlehead ferns and scorzonera). Each chapter lucidly outlines best seasons for buying a selected veggie, ingredients to accentuate its flavor and taste, varieties to try and storage tips. What Cara Mangini terms "butchery essentials" for each veggie featured in the book is accompanied by a number of photos, illustrating prepping techniques. Even if you've never handled a fresh artichoke in your entire life, fear not: the author's step-by-step instructions will propel you to the advanced level. I find the recipes themselves quite original - neither too fussy nor so simplistic that you feel you've wasted your money again on trite and cliched renditions of avocado toast (which we all love, but seriously, do you really need instructions for making one?). Some of the recipes that caught my attention include cardoon and fontina bread pudding; escarole and fuyu persimmon salad; honeyed eggplant and polenta cake; kohlrabi and cheddar strata; parsnip-ginger layer cake; daikon and mushroom miso soup; rutabaga and apple cardamom pie; as well as kabocha squash, adzuki bean and ginger-coconut curry. I've already made roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed chard and coconut black rice with toasted pine nuts (see the photo) and it was outstanding: flavorful, fresh and moreish.

The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini intrigued me as soon as I heard the title: The Vegetable Butcher. That seemed a little silly. Do we really butcher vegetables?! But, I was instantly interested in reading it and bought it sight unseen. So, I guess it wasn't so silly after all.This book is a fantastic resource for vegetable veterans and those who are just getting acquainted with produce. She provides a visual guide to cutting vegetables, showing you how to cut matchsticks from conical vegetables, how to cut oblong slices from cylindrical vegetables, how to use a mandoline, and how to chiffonade leafy greens.She has organized the book alphabetically, starting with artichokes and arugula all the way through turnips and zucchini. Each vegetable has an informational page that tells readers when it's in season, what varieties to try, how to make your selections, which ingredients that are good partners, and how to store it. Then Mangini shows you how to butcher it and provides a handful of recipes for the vegetable.I have to admit that I squealed with glee when I saw her section on cardoons. I have rarely met anyone in America who cooks cardoons much less knows what they are.This cookbook already has a prominent place in my kitchen! And I look forward trying all of her recipes!

Author has friendly demeanor and extensive training, sharing clear instructions on preparation of a wide array of vegetables. I am not sure I will make many of the recipes, as they didn't grab my attention re: overall ingredients or prep time. However, it inspired me to use more obscure or overlooked vegetables, now that I know how to prepare them. A good reminder that veggies can and should be be easily included in most meals. Worth the price for descriptions, photos.

I have been wanting this book ever since I saw an article about it in Midwest Magazine a few years back. I am SO glad I finally got it. The veggies are listed in alphabetical order like a dictionary. Each section lists varieties, storage info, prep methods (with pictures), food pairings, cooking options, and yummy recipes. I have become adventurous with produce, and I feel more confident in the grocery store. It encouraged me to start ordering “misfit” produce from an online company that delivers every week or two. Thanks to Cara I have tried artichokes, bok choy, romanesco cauliflower, sunchokes, and a boatload of squashes, greens, and herbs. I’m not even vegetarian, but I will be gifting this to all my friends that are. Thanks for a useful guide.

If nothing else this book is worth it if only for the information alone! From the start, before you get to "butchering" or recipes this book gives one the best breakdown of kitchen utensils I have come across with tips and recommendations on what you need and do not need. It then gives other information on sweeteners, grains, oils and vinegars and their use in way I would not have known. Finally you get to the recipes. Their is not an index of individual recipes but instead they are broken down by vegetable and also by season. By "forcing" you do go to each vegetable you will look through a specific vegetable and find new ways to us them that go beyond your traditional without being overly complicated. By indexing by vegetable each are highlighted to bring out the best in them. Just wish she had included Kale and collared greens.

The food we had at the restaurant was incredible, so I was looking forward to the release of this book. I really wanted to love this cookbook, but the layout is such a problem for me. It's arranged by vegetable, so you can't easily find entrees, appetizers, dips, soups, etc. The fact that there are so few recipe photos makes it even harder to get inspired and find what you're looking for. Although I understand what they were trying to do with the book and why they arranged it the way they did, it just doesn't work and seems gimmicky. Sure, it stands out from all the other vegetarian books out there, but after going through the book 3 times, I still have no sense for how many recipes there are or even what types of meals I can make. At the very least, a guide at the beginning of the book with the recipes categorized by course would have made a huge difference in the reader's experience.

Love this book, i always wanted to improve my vegetable cooking skills. It's is a concise encyclopedia of vegetables. It follows a format. Each vegetable has 2-3 pages, how to shop, different varieties of that vegetable. Different techniques to cut and appropriate cooking methods followed by a few classic and unique recipes. It covers just about every vegetable available in a very good grocery store/farmers market in North America. But I would not call it a definitive guide to vegetables, some Asian and Indian vegetables but no depth there. But this book is not intended to be definitive.All around the best book I have seen on vegetables, love the format.

Great book. High quality production, and extremely informative - I've learnt loads about vegetable preparation and cooking, and haven't come across anything else like it. Definitely a cook book that will be used regularly, unlike many which just get flicked through once or twice. What I like most about it is its' premise that vegetables are delicious as they are, and don't need to be messed about with to make them more palatable - highly recommend.

No es vegano, ojo: es vegetariano, pero todas las recetas son fácilmente veganizables, a poco que hayas cocinado algo en esta vida. Analiza cómo se cortan todas las verduras, cómo se almacenan, los sabores que casan con la verdura a la que se refiera... Es una maravilla que viene, además, llenita de recetas.

This is full of lots of information and some lovely recipes.

This book is very inspiring for a meat-eating family. We have enjoyed any recipe we tried. Lots of great tips on roasting things better. Lots of great meatless meals and fancy unexpected yet non pretentious desserts. My only complaint is I still don't understand how to cut up an artichoke after reading her instructions and looking at the pictures.