Vegetables: A Love Story

A Globe and Mail Top 100 Books of 2021

In this follow-up cookbook to her Taste Canada Gold Winner All the Sweet Things, Renée Kohlman turns her attention to vegetables . . . and her love for a handsome vegetable farmer.

On Renée Kohlman’s very first date with her partner Dixon, he presented her with a bundle of asparagus. She knew immediately it was love and that her next cookbook would be all about vegetables.

In 23 chapters organized by vegetable, from that auspicious Asparagus to the reliable Zucchini, Vegetables: A Love Story includes 92 delicious and easy-to-follow vegetable-forward (but not exclusively vegetarian) recipes. Soups, salads, sides, tarts, casseroles, pastas, snacks, and more are accompanied by vivid photography that celebrates both raw ingredients and finished dishes.

The book is prefaced with a recommended ingredient list for pantry, fridge, and freezer; the author’s favourite kitchen tools; tips for successful cooking and vegetable storage. It also includes seven essays that tell the story of Ren and Dix’s relationship and the significance of vegetables to the life they’ve built together, all delivered with the signature blend of humour and heart that readers of Renée’s blog and newspaper columns have come to love. With a little cajoling she was even able to get Dixon to contribute some of his own insights to the pages. In Renée’s own words, “it’s a love story about food and a food story about love.”