When will Jose Andres win the Nobel Peace Prize? He certainly deserves one. Not only does he personally rush to the rescue at global disasters, feeding and giving comfort to thousands, but he advocates for healthy diets and food waste reduction, runs restaurants, and authors cookbooks. And, in his spare time, shops for his family at his local farmers market.
At his book-tour appearance at Politics and Prose, Chef Jose waxed passionate about fruits and vegetables. I paraphrase: “They provide a continuous orgasm of taste in your mouth, while meat is only good the first few seconds of the first bite, then it become tedious to chew and swallow!”
Chef Jose Greets the Crowd
And Then Takes a Selfie
He Signs After His Talk
I had more trouble reviewing this cookbook than with most. At some point, I had to stop cooking and start writing, or I could abandon all hope of getting this review written in a timely manner. There are so many recipes that tempt the cook! Many of them call out, “Cook me now!”
I was afraid this might be another “cheffy” book, which would be full of beautiful food and dishes no home cook could hope to replicate; and, to be honest, there are some recipes which sound rather complex or use exotic ingredients, but there are also many that are more accessible. There are also examples of several recipes that use the same main ingredient in a progression of ways, from simple to more involved (see: Brussels sprouts).
But the best thing about this book is Chef Jose himself. His personality shines from the pages, as he doesn’t take himself or the recipes too seriously (but he does care deeply about providing good food for all the world, livelihoods for farmers, and reducing food waste – all of which the book makes clear).
And about the recipes? Well-written, easy to follow, all avoid the DOF (Dreaded Overleaf Fallacy), although there are some nested ones (those that incorporate recipes from elsewhere in the book). There’s a mix of traditional Spanish dishes (some with veggie-centric twists) and quirky, Jose-specific variations and inventions.
I had to try the “Compost Potatoes,” which garnered a lot of publicity around the book’s publication, but turned out to be potatoes simply roasted in spent coffee grounds. It’s an example of a brain wave from Chef Jose. I added carrots because I had them. Arranging your vegetable trimmings (carrot tops, etc.) around the roasting pan may make you feel good about using scraps, but they don’t contribute much to the taste. Nestling the vegetables in coffee imparted to them a faint, not unpleasant, caffeine-reminiscent aroma and flavor.
Roasted Compost Veggies
Compost Veggies, Plated with Sauce
By contrast, the adaptation of a traditional Catalan dessert, “Cabello de Angel (Spaghetti Squash Waffles),” was a surprise and a delight. First, one makes preserves from spaghetti squash. This involves cooking the squash with sugar, and results in not so much a jam as a sweetened (but not cloying, thanks to the addition of lemon juice) mass of strands somewhat resembling golden “angel” hair. Then, one fills waffles fashioned from rolled-out frozen puff pastry with the preserves and (not without imagining a holy mess of possible leakage) cooks them in a waffle iron.
And they are delicious! I would never have envisioned using puff pastry in this manner, but it works a treat. Crispy on the outside, melting and sweetly confounding on the inside. They reheat well, too. (Go easy on the recommended confectioner’s sugar topping; I just sprinkled a little turbinado sugar on top and they were plenty sweet enough.) This would be a fabulous brunch dish.
Spaghetti Squash Waffles
There’s a recipe for hash browns cooked in a waffle iron as well; a result of much experimentation in Chef Jose’s developmental kitchen in downtown Washington, D.C.
Here’s another winner: “Little Gems with Warm Garlic Dressing.” The little gem lettuces are the base for this classic tapas dish, but many vegetables and salads could benefit from the excellent garlicky, anchovy-rich, pimenton-enhanced dressing. It’s one of the best I’ve tasted.
A Gem of a Salad Dressing
There are so many other recipes to try! Just open the book at random and one will present itself. Those hash brown waffles; a method to produce cryo-concentrated carrot juice accessible to the home cook (take that, modernists); “Dancing Eggplant” (!) calls for topping the eggplant with shaved bonito, recalling okonomiyaki garnish.
Many of the recipes in Vegetable Unleashed began as dishes in one or another of Chef Jose’s many restaurants, but have been tweaked for adventurous home cooks. I recommend using it to unleash some vegetables in your kitchen.
Vegetables Unleashed by Jose Andres and Matt Goulding, Harper Collins, New York, 2019.
