Veg-Table - by Nik Sharma (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Nik Sharma, blogger at A Brown Table, Serious Eats columnist, and cookbook author, brings us his most cookable collection of recipes yet in Veg-table. Here is a technique-focused repertoire for weeknight mains for cooks of all skill levels looking to add more delicious and satisfying vegetable dishes to their diet. Combining the scientific underpinnings of The Flavor Equation with the inviting and personal recipes of Season, this book features more than fifty vegetables, revealing their origins, biology, and unique characteristics. Vegetable-focused recipes are organized into chapters by plant family, with storage, buying, and cooking methods for all. The result is a recipe collection of big flavors and techniques that are tried, true, and perfected by rigorous testing and a deep scientific lens. Included here are Sharma's first-ever pasta recipes published in a cookbook: Pasta with Broccoli Miso Sauce, Shallot and Spicy Mushroom Pasta, and more. And vegetable-focused doesn't mean strictly vegetarian; bring plants and animal protein together with delicious recipes like Chicken Katsu with Poppy Seed Coleslaw and Crispy Salmon with Green Curry Spinach. A wide variety of hot and cold soups, salads, sides, sauces, and rice-, egg-, and bean-based dishes round out this collection." --

Book Synopsis

Named a Best Cookbook of the Year by NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Epicurious, Vice, Food Network, Good Housekeeping, and more, and a Best Cookbook of Fall 2023 by Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Eater, The Strategist, and more.

From the bestselling author of The Flavor Equation and Season, host of America's Test Kitchen's Flavor Forward, and winner of the 2023 IACP Trailblazer Award: A fascinating exploration of the unique wonders of more than fifty vegetables through captivating research, stunning photography, and technique-focused recipes.

"Groundbreaking, inspiring, delicious: Nik Sharma's Veg-table is everything I'd hoped for and more!"--Nigella Lawson, author of Cook, Eat, Repeat

Nik Sharma, blogger at A Brown Table, Serious Eats columnist, and bestselling cookbook author, brings us his most cookable collection of recipes yet in Veg-table. Here is a technique-focused repertoire for weeknight mains for cooks of all skill levels looking to add more delicious and satisfying vegetable dishes to their diet.

Combining the scientific underpinnings of The Flavor Equation with the inviting and personal recipes of Season, this book features more than fifty vegetables, revealing their origins, biology, and unique characteristics. Vegetable-focused recipes are organized into chapters by plant family, with storage, buying, and cooking methods for all. The result is a recipe collection of big flavors and techniques that are tried, true, and perfected by rigorous testing and a deep scientific lens.

Included here are Sharma's first-ever pasta recipes published in a cookbook: Pasta with Broccoli Miso Sauce, Shallot and Spicy Mushroom Pasta, and more. And vegetable-focused doesn't mean strictly vegetarian; bring plants and animal protein together with delicious recipes like Chicken Katsu with Poppy Seed Coleslaw and Crispy Salmon with Green Curry Spinach. A wide variety of hot and cold soups, salads, sides, sauces, and rice-, egg-, and bean-based dishes round out this collection.

Featuring more than 100 of Sharma's gorgeous and evocative photographs, as well as instructive illustrations, this cookbook perfectly balances beauty, intellect, and delicious, achievable recipes.

FOLLOW-UP TO TWO CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED BOOKS: Season was a finalist for a James Beard Award and an IACP award. It was on the most prominent cookbook best-of lists, including the New York Times Best Cookbooks, NPR's Favorite Cookbooks, and Bon Appetit's Best Cookbooks gift guide; it was also an Amazon Book of the Month. The Flavor Equation was named one of the best cookbooks of the year by the New York Times, Eater, Epicurious, Food & Wine, Forbes, Saveur, Serious Eats, Smithsonian magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, CNN Travel, The Kitchn, Chowhound, NPR, The Art of Eating 2021 longlist and many more; plus it garnered international media attention including from the Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times (U.K.), Delicious Magazine (U.K.), The Times (Ireland), and Vogue India. It was the winner of the Guild of U.K. Food Writers (General Cookbook). It was a finalist for the 2021 IACP Cookbook Award.

AN ESTABLISHED AUTHOR: Sharma is a regular contributor to the popular Serious Eats food platform, where his pieces on the science of flavor reach millions of readers nationwide.

UNIQUE YET ACCESSIBLE VEGGIE-FORWARD RECIPES: Not only does Sharma write recipes for every palate, but he writes them for every level of cook, from novices to seasoned chefs. This book melds his science-forward thinking with accessible yet delicious vegetable-based recipes for an engaging and unexpected combination.

Perfect for:

• Fans of Nik Sharma, Season, and The Flavor Equation
• Vegetarians and flexitarians
• Those looking to add more plants to their diet
• Home cooks looking for a new challenge who are interested in learning more about food and flavor
• Birthday, holiday, housewarming, or graduation gift for food enthusiasts
• Fans of The Food Lab, The Flavor Bible, and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
• Readers who like the diverse, modern approach to ethnic food found in publications like Lucky Peach, Indian-ish, and Koreatown

Review Quotes

"Offering new takes on a wide variety of vegetable dishes, this cookbook is recommended for vegetarian and international collections." --Library Journal

"A modern approach to flexitarian cooking, with the rigorous research and testing of a trained scientist." -- Good Housekeeping, Best New Cookbooks of 2023

"Mr. Sharma is a nimble tutor with a lithe palate and an evocative palette--the book's appealing photographs are also the author's work--and "Veg-Table" is a sure bet for inquisitive home cooks with wide-ranging tastes." --The Wall Street Journal

"Offering new takes on a wide variety of vegetable dishes, this cookbook is recommended for vegetarian and international collections" - Library Journal

"Sharma shows us just how exciting vegetables can be, utilizing interesting techniques: collards smeared with spiced yogurt, then rolled and fried, or brassica fritters in the style of okonomiyaki (the Japanese "as you like it" pancake). Sharma delves into plant science, how best to store produce and plenty of cooking tips." - Los Angeles Times

"The third book from Nik Sharma, a molecular biologist turned cookbook author and photographer, is a celebration of vegetables and offers an expansive guide to the different ways to clean, store, and prepare them. [...] Perhaps most valuable is Sharma's comprehensive explanation of vegetable's biology, how the environment it's stored in can impact its taste and texture (and how best to prolong its shelf-life), and most importantly, how to make them sing." - Bon Appetit

"Veg-table takes you through how vegetables grow, what they're made of, the best practices for preparing them, and even what properties make them vegetables in the first place. It's an amazing undertaking, and you'll quickly find yourself itching to make corn cakes with Sichuan chive butter, lettuce with avocado Caesar dressing, okonomiyaki-style brassica fritters, and Kung Pao sweet potatoes." - Vice

"Helpful, succinct 'cook's notes' follow each recipe. The stunning photographs are by Sharma himself. This cookbook more than holds its own but is especially recommended where The Flavor Equation has found favor." - Booklist

"Sharma's recipes, accompanied by his own beautiful photographs, demonstrate his gift for marrying the scientific with the sensual. [...] Sharma lists ingredients and their quantities within recipe steps, an approach that streamlines the instructions without sacrificing their clarity. Such clarity is one of his book's chief virtues and a boon for any cook guided as much by curiosity as appetite." - Eater

"The chemist-turned-cookbook-author plucks from the best of both of those to craft a worthy successor to his bestselling The Flavor Equation and Season, using principles of science to maximize the potential pleasures of grocery store familiars like broccoli, shallots, and zucchini, as well as perhaps less ubiquitous -- and thoroughly delightful -- vegetables like nopalito, jicama, and sunchokes." - Food Wine Magazine

"Veg-Table brims with the color, vibrancy, and life that is the delicious signature of Nik Sharma's food. Beautifully photographed and thoughtfully curated, this is an essential resource for both vegetable lovers and flavor hunters alike. Nik has once again proven he is the master of interlacing crave-able recipes with science and research."--Hetty Lui McKinnon, cookbook author and food writer

"If you've ever looked at an alien artichoke or spiky nopalito in fear, don't worry, because Veg-table is here for you! Everything you've ever wanted to know about produce is in Sharma's book, from their origins to the history of their cultivation, and, of course, all the ways to make them delicious. His cinematic photography and personal prose guide you through the veggie world, giving you so many tasty ways to turn plants into dinner (or lunch! or breakfast!)." --Sohla El-Waylly, author of Start Here and television personality on The Big Brunch and Ancient Recipes with Sohla

"Veg-table cements Sharma's status as one of the most important cookbook authors of our time. He always has his finger on the cultural pulse, and, with the recent uptick in interest in vegetable-forward cooking, this cookbook could not be more timely. Like his other books, this one is thoughtful, steeped in research, bold, and bursting with flavor."

--Bryant Terry, James Beard Award-winning author of Black Food and editor in chief of 4 Color Books

"Sharma is not only a talented recipe writer but a masterful food photographer. These pages will make you salivate and see vegetables in a new light. Veg-table is the perfect balance of the art and the science of good food."

--Padma Lakshmi, New York Times bestselling author and creator and host of Taste the Nation and Top Chef

"Phenomenal. The scope, the combining of flavors, the knowledge--both about technique and individual vegetables--the gorgeousness of the recipes: This is a must-have book."--Diana Henry, British food writer and author of the James Beard Award-winning A Bird in the Hand

"Nik Sharma weaves science and culinary creativity together beautifully in this collection of inspiring recipes that prove just how exciting and versatile vegetables can be."--Ixta Belfrage, author of Mezcla and coauthor of Ottolenghi Flavor

"Groundbreaking, inspiring, delicious: Nik Sharma's Veg-Table is everything I'd hoped for and more!"--Nigella Lawson, author of Cook, Eat, Repeat

About the Author

Nik Sharma is the bestselling author of cookbooks celebrated for blending culinary science with deeply personal storytelling: Season, The Flavor Equation, and Veg-table. A former molecular biologist, Sharma brings a unique lens to the kitchen, where flavor is both a feeling and a formula. He's the creator of the award-winning blog Nik Sharma Cooks (formerly A Brown Table), serves as Editor in Residence at America's Test Kitchen, and hosts the YouTube show Flavor Forwardwith Nik Sharma. His writing and photography have been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he's always dreaming up his next recipe.