The Vegetable Butcher: How to Select, Prep, Slice, Dice, and Masterfully Cook Vegetables from Artichokes to Zucchini

The Vegetable Butcher is a root-to-leaf guide to vegetable preparation featuring 150 recipes. Winner of the IACP Cookbook Awards for Single Subject and People's Choice, the book applies butchery techniques to the unique anatomy of vegetables—whether leafy, lumpy, stalky, gnarly, thin-skinned, or soft. Cara Mangini demonstrates how to break down more than one hundred vegetables for optimal kitchen use. Instructions cover peeling tomatoes, butchering butternut squash, cutting cauliflower steaks, chiffonading kale, extracting artichoke hearts, and slicing kohlrabi into paper-thin rounds for carpaccio. The recipes span seasons: spring Grilled Asparagus, Taleggio, and Fried Egg Panini; summery Zucchini, Sweet Corn, and Basil Penne with Pine Nuts and Mozzarella; and Parsnip-Ginger Layer Cake with Browned Buttercream Frosting for winter. The book provides guidance for preparing modern vegetable-centered meals.