How does a chef step into a restaurant like Greens and its storied legacy? Chef Katie Reicher, who took on the role of Executive Chef in 2020 after five years on the line, honors the legacy of the legendary Chefs Annie Somerville and Deborah Madison with her cooking, holding onto classics while finding new ways to bring flavor to the dishes served at the long-running farm-to-table San Francisco restaurant. Reicher’s vegetarian cookbook, Seasons of Greens, updates the vegetarian idyll of the Grande Dame to one that is globally-focused while honoring its farm-to-table roots. Call it a cooking for the seasons cookbook.
Coaxing Flavors from Vegetables
Let’s start with the obvious: Seasons of Greens is a vegetarian cookbook. No meat of any kind graces its pages. Reicher notes when recipes are vegan or vegan-possible and looks for accommodations for gluten-, dairy-, nut- and soy-free variations.
Though seasonality is noted for each recipe, chapters are not organized by season but instead by style of dish – Snack & Things to Share, Soups & Salads, Doughs & Savory Pastries and the like. Desserts are given ample space – where would we be without Greens’ Blueberry Lavender Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (p. 230) or Sesame-Brown Sugar Cookies (p. 212)?
Recipes I Made
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- veg for Linguini with Cauliflower and Chard
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- Shepherd’s Pie with Half Vegan Cheese
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- Roast Potatoes
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- Rhubarb Muhammara – not a beauty but delicious
I found myself drawn to dishes that felt familiar. Shepherd’s Pie (p. 188) contains no lamb, roasted mixed mushrooms standing in for ground meat. Like its meaty brethren, the dish is labor-intensive, roasting mushrooms and making mashed potatoes before bringing everything into one pan to bake. And like a meat-based pot pie, the ingredients’ flavor makes the dish – skip the smoked cheddar cheese in the potato topping or the porcini jus in the veggie mix at your own peril. Linguini with Cauliflower & Chard (p. 132) similarly builds layers of flavor with multiple steps – sauté chard, onions and garlic in one pan while roasting cauliflower on another, boiling water for pasta in a third, and toasting panko in a fourth. What comes together at the end is tasty but you’ll have plenty of dishes afterwards.
I made Rhubarb Muhammara (p. 56) and Roasted Potatoes with Dill & Garlic (p. 174) as side dishes for a traditional ham dinner. The additions of a compound lemon butter and herbs for the potatoes made them delicious and fresh, the lemon pinging through the garlic and mild herbs. The muhammara’s drab color was off-putting to my children – next time I’ll add more pomegranate molasses to boost its reddish tint – but the flavor was delicious. I had plentiful leftovers and used it as a spread for my morning toast and as a companion for vegan cheese.
Who Would Like This Cookbook
I am not vegetarian or vegan but appreciate vegetarian cookbooks for their deep consideration of veggie-derived flavor. This is true of Seasons of Greens. I’m probably never going to make macadamia nut “ricotta,” but, as someone who cannot eat dairy, I am thrilled that someone figured out how to make macadamia nuts delicious in a whole new way. Many dishes here layer multiple vegetables – Spring Yellow Curry (p. 197) has seven, Ethiopian Cabbage & Potato Puffs (p. 143) has five. The number of vegetables is a tell – you’re eating healthfully – and also a warning – there is plentiful prep involved.
Recipes are hearty and satisfying with no need to hunt down unique ingredients. No special knife skills needed. Consider them dishes to bring to a potluck or entrees to make at home when you have a bit more time to cook than the average weeknight. Restaurant-quality vegetarian dishes with one foot in Greens’ future and one in the past are one part comfort, one part homemade flavor. It’s veggie passion writ large and a warm hug of a cookbook.
I was provided a preview copy of Seasons of Greens
