There comes a time in a dietitian’s and food blogger’s life when the culinary stars align, and you find yourself staring at an email in disbelief. For me, that moment came a few weeks ago when I opened an invitation to be on the virtual book tour for The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, a new book by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. This tour celebrates registered dietitians and National Nutrition Month.
Guys. My jaw dropped.
As long-time readers of this blog know, I’ve been a Karen-and-Andrew fan for years. Their book The Flavor Bible made the list of my five most influential cookbooks and served as the main inspiration in my contest-winning recipe for the the National Honey Board. Needless to say, I’ve treasured our dog-eared copy of The Flavor Bible.
I received a copy of The Vegetarian Flavor Bible to review–Christmas in February, indeed. The moment when I stacked my copy of The Flavor Bible and The Vegetarian Flavor Bible next to each other sent shivers down my spine.
Ooh, baby.
And when I opened The Vegetarian Flavor Bible for the first time, I squealed like a fangirl.
Karen and Andrew were kind enough to let me cartoonize them for this post. In retrospect, I’m not sure they would have agreed to be PowerPoint-ed if they had known what they were getting into (crazy-haired chef, anyone?). Yet I cackled like a mad scientist as I drew was given free rein, and below is the result. This, of course, is how I imagine them at work:
Clearly I’m obsessed with their books.
Those of you who clicked here while searching for a review of The Vegetarian Flavor Bible are probably wondering where it is (and possibly wondering what is wrong with the author of this post). Fear not! This book is incredibly informative and packed with inventive flavor pairings that just work.
Years of using The Flavor Bible has taught me to be creative with food, to step outside the confines of a recipe and go wild in the kitchen. As a registered dietitian, I love The Vegetarian Flavor Bible‘s emphasis on the flavors of a plant-based diet through pairing for vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and more. I’m not a vegetarian (and my time as a Kansas City BBQ Society judge would certainly shatter that impression), but I appreciate how this book offers ideas for how to include more produce in your diet in a light-handed way.
I couldn’t wait to try out a pairing. I decided to go from zero to 60 and try a pairing for a food that’s the only entry on my one-item “Foods With Which I’d Rather Stand Up in Front of an Audience and Give a Speech Naked Than Eat” list.
Yup, folks. I went for celery.
That smile is a grimace of pain.
According to The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, celery goes well with a multitude of flavors, including onions, apples, and walnuts. I read these pairing and was like, “wait, I love ALL of those flavors.” Why not add celery?
I decided to dust off an old THIH recipe and cook up some apples ‘n’ onions, Flavor Bible-style.
Topped with toasted walnuts, this apples ‘n’ onions ‘n’ celery dish was delicious. Sauteing chopped celery with apples and onions somehow softened the celery flavor and turned it into a fantastic complement for the rest of the dish. The toasted walnuts added crunch, while the honey gave the dish a little sweetness. Use maple syrup for a vegan version of this dish.
Honey Apples & Celery with Toasted Walnuts
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients (4 servings)
- 1/4 cup walnut pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 small onions, peeled and chopped
- 1 large apple, cored and chopped
- 1 large stalk celery, chopped
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Spread walnut pieces on baking sheet and toast in oven, stirring every five minutes, for 20 minutes, or until walnuts are light brown and fragrant.
While walnuts are toasting, heat olive oil in medium saute pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add apple and celery and cook for an additional five minutes. Remove from heat and stir in honey or maple syrup. Serve immediately.
*****
Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for: the giveaway! Karen is kindly offering a copy of The Vegetarian Flavor Bible to one lucky THIH reader!
To enter, leave a comment with your favorite fruit or vegetable. That’s it! Contest runs until next Thursday, March 12th at 9am PDT. Contest open to U.S. residents.
[bctt tweet=”Enter to win a FREE copy of The Vegetarian Flavor Bible and watch your cooking skills grow!”]
Healthfully yours, dear reader.
Jessie
I just got this and it is one of my favorite food resources!! Great review.
My favorite fruit is banana.
My favorite veggie is cauliflower!
Favorite vegetable: Broccoli. I eat it almost everyday!
Hi Jessie!! Congrats for being invited to do something you love by people you admire! Taste of success! (bad pun, sorry)
I cannot enter the competition but I wanted to leave a comment about the celery. Celery is at the very top of my list of foods I will not eat even if it could save the world from nuclear annihilation. Which, like your list, also only includes celery. The very smell of the thing makes me feel physically sick, and eating it, especially in soups, may even actually make me sick (if I were so silly as to try). Are you saying that cooking it with apple and walnuts will make me like it?
“Nuclear annihilation” – so true! And I love your pun 🙂
I usually have the same reaction to celery, but cooking it with apples and onions was really delicious! However, that doesn’t mean that you would like it, too – if you do try it, let me know what you think!
I hope you are doing well, Christa!
My favorite fruit is raspberry
I had never even seen that green kind of celery until I was in my late teens. Usually when you buy celery here in Germany you will end up with something looking like this: http://www.bioweber.ch/images/produkte/sellerie.JPG
It’s an essential part of vegetable soups and I like it a lot. But those green stalks? No thanks. I tried them in salad once and they completely ruined it!
Hi Sandi! The picture looks like celery root/celeriac, which is related to celery. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had it – I’ll have to try it in soup! And while cooked celery is delicious in this dish, I think I need a little more time to get used to raw celery 🙂
So nice to hear from you, Sandi – I hope you’re doing well!
My favorite fruit is strawberries!
My favorite fruits are bananas and apples. And favorite vegetables are carrots and sweet potatoes
I love Brussels sprouts. I used to hats them but they’ve grown on me as an adult
Wait. Waitwaitwaitwait. YOU ate celery?!?!? I am amazed!
My favorite fruit is raspberry. Violet’s favorite food, in about 2 weeks, will hopefully be sweet potato!
Haha, I know, right? I SUPPOSE I could have guessed your favorite fruit 😉 Maybe it will be Violet’s, too!!
I’m impressed about your celery dish! I don’t like it all either, and now I feel like I should try it… but I still don’t want to!
I was thinking of you this afternoon when the animal rights club was meeting in the room I share with the club adviser. They were watching a documentary that was extremely judgmental about the consumption of animal products. I know that eating too much meat isn’t good for you, but they were being so extreme about it that when I got home I wanted to eat lots of bacon. I didn’t, but I really think that eating a moderate quantity of cheese, milk, meat, etc, isn’t going to destroy my health.
My favorite fruit is raspberries, and I think my favorite vegetable is corn on the cob, or perhaps sweet potatoes.
Hi Marie! You definitely don’t have to try this dish 🙂 We’ll have to make something similarly delicious next time we get together. Thanks for sharing your story! I lol’d at the bacon comment 😛
I love Granny Smith Apples.
I can’t think of any veggies I don’t like. My favorite is probably cauliflower.
kabocha squash!
I guess I would say avocado!
Hi! I love mangos and spinach. They make great smoothie ingredients.
My favorites are avocado, spaghetti squash and lima beans!
I think I’m one of the few who loves eggplant!
currently im digging all things brussel sprouts…and i have no idea about this book until now. i would absolutely appreciate it.
Mmm strawberries are my favorite!
I can never resist a good handful of blueberries!!
Gosh, it’s so hard to pick just one favorite fruit or vegetable. So I’ll tell you what my recently discovered, NEW favorite fruit is…red currants! They’re gorgeous and taste great on muesli or to just eat by themselves!
I remember you mentioning The Flavor Bible in your Top 5 post, and I have been intrigued ever since. The Vegetarian Flavor Bible sounds awesome!