Veg Forward

Stylish, practical meals that put vegetables first, by "an authentic culinary star" (Boston Globe) and the founding food editor of Martha Stewart Living.

After spending two decades at a leading lifestyle magazine, Susan Spungen is used to the questions cooks ask her in the produce aisle and at the farmers' market. Do you have a great zucchini recipe? What can you do with garlic scapes? What's an easy seasonal meal I can make for friends?

In Veg Forward, the veteran cookbook author, columnist, and culinary consultant supplies the delicious answers, with 102 recipes in which vegetables claim a starring role. Big platter salads. Soups for muggy days when all anyone can manage is to run the blender. Warm-weather grain bowls. Freeform fruit tarts and snacking cakes. Each one coaxes a maximum amount of flavor from a minimum number of ingredients; each looks as good as it tastes.

Veg Forward is full of extraordinary recipes for ordinary vegetables like tomatoes, corn, and potatoes, and it also offers beguiling choices for less familiar ones like fava beans, kohlrabi, and nettles. Spungen shares scores of tips from her years as a caterer and chef: the efficient vegetable prep technique professionals use, a genius tactic for cutting into hard squash, the single finishing touch that transforms a homey fruit dessert into something spectacular. Everything in this book makes cooking with vegetables easier, better, and more satisfying.

• Asparagus Pizza with Arugula Salad
• Sungold Spaghetti Carbonara
• Sheet-Pan Roasted Ratatouille
• Spoonbread-Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Tomato Cream
• Simple Gazpacho • Eggplant Parm and Pasta Bake
• Veggie Ragu Bolognese • Mushroom Bourguignon
• Cheese Blintzes with Sour Cherry Compote
• Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Susan Spungen was the editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. A New York Times contributor who also writes Susanality, a Substack newsletter, she was the culinary consultant and food stylist for the hit movies Julie & Julia and Eat, Pray, Love. She is the author of Open Kitchen, Recipes, and What’s a Hostess to Do?. She lives in New York City and East Hampton, New York.