Do you believe ? …

That the best meals come with the best stories? I believe we’ve forgotten that as a society.

You can’t have a story by consuming something you get at a drive-thru.

But you can have a story when you create a meal with love. Using fresh ingredients you’ve hand selected, possibly hand grown yourself. Sharing it with people you love.

I find GREAT cookbooks everywhere. And recently, a chef I follow talked about the most influential cookbooks she keeps in her own library. Tender was one of them.

So I quickly found a copy – it was published in 2009. The title instantly caught my eye – Tender: A cook and his vegetable patch by Nigel Slater. Yes, please! I knew instantly it would be an incredible story.

It’s broken down into chapters based on things you’d grow in a garden: asparagus, cabbage, eggplants, leeks, pole beans, pumpkins, tomatoes.

Each veggie section has a story and incredible recipes. I turned to “fava beans” because I’d just brought several pounds home from my local farmers market. A risotto with young beans. Beans with hot radishes and white cheese.

This isn’t a vegan book. He makes recommendations along the way on how to pair veggies with meat.

But he does admit “We have damaged this planet. We have plundered its natural resources. There have been decades, if not centuries, of take rather than give.”

He also says “Cooking with vegetables you have grown gives not only an extraordinary sense of completeness and a simplifying of the food chain, but also the chance to experience a profound respect for an ingredient.”

I’ve learned a lot from this book. I think you’ll enjoy it too.

About the GorgeousWellth Cookbook Club

Each month I select a cookbook for the month and use it as inspiration for dinner at least once a week. Each month I’ll choose a favorite I’m working with, and share a thing or two I learn.

Wanna play along? I’m keeping this pretty informal – I just want to inspire you to pick up a great cookbook and start cooking too. Hopefully, you can get a lot of these from your local library. If not, you might be able to pick them up gently used through Amazon. Or if you choose to use them for your inspiration as much as I do, maybe it’s time to invest in these and have them ready and waiting on your shelf.

I won’t be sharing the recipes, but I will share some of the results. Let me know if you try any of these, and let me know what you think. Be sure to tag me on IG @loriosterberg or use #GorgeousWellth Follow along as I’ll be adding new cookbooks each month!

Happy plant-based cooking!