Your Vegetable ABCs

A study a few years back revealed that most of us fix the same 10 to 12 meals day in day out, year after year. And you know that although spaghetti has to be high on that list, something such as broccoli rabe or cauliflower isn’t.

In fact, cookbook author Jack Bishop says most cooks he knows prepare the same half dozen vegetables over and over. So with his new cookbook, “Vegetables Every Day” (HarperCollins, $30), Bishop wants to share what he calls the “heart” of all his meals at home. Vegetables, he writes, connect him and his family to the seasons. He knows it’s May when the local asparagus proliferates at markets, and that it’s October when cauliflower dots nearby fields. And come summer, as backyards overflow with tomatoes and zucchini, neighbors get downright neighborly with their bounty.

Even supermarkets have gone beyond just six, with the average American grocery store now carrying at least 50 vegetables in the produce aisle, Bishop says.

So what’s holding us back?

Maybe we just haven’t known what to do besides slathering asparagus with hollandaise sauce or boiling an artichoke. Bishop, author of “The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook” and “Pasta e Verdura”--both highly cookable books--takes each vegetable alphabetically and makes it approachable. How could you not feel like you’re on the same team with a guy who says that for basic preparation of an artichoke, there are two modes of “attack.”

The book also skips the obvious “eat your vegetables” tone; Bishop says we know we should eat them, so let’s. And here’s how. Each vegetable gets an introduction, perhaps an explanation of why Bishop likes it or tips on the best place to buy it, then has the important details: availability, selection, storage, basic preparation, best cooking methods. Next come the recipes.

Like those in his other books, they’re straightforward and sensibly written. And though you have to wonder whether a cookbook needs a recipe for a baked potato, this book probably would be remiss if it didn’t have one. That’s an everyday vegetable. And someone eager to embrace cooking or add a few more veggies to his or her repertoire can benefit from Bishop’s tip of not wrapping a potato in foil to bake (that steams the potato and the skin becomes mushy and inedible). There’s something for everyone among the more than 300 recipes, from basics such as the potato to those that are more, but not overly, involved, such as Chinese Egg Noodles With Spicy Asparagus Sauce, Corn Pudding With Buttered Crumbs and Spiced Tomato Chutney.

So there you have it--a vegetable for almost every day. No more excuses. Now, cook your vegetables.