21 Mar Vegetable cuisine, a true return to origins on the table
For many, vegetable cuisine is the fashion of the moment. But to consider it only as such is partial and reductive. Behind it there is in fact a precise philosophy, characterized by various founding principles and applied by both professional chefs and those who cook regularly at home. The common result? A return to the origins of the flavors that characterized the Italian diet until the 1970s and which are the basis of the Mediterranean diet, famous throughout the world.
Vegetable cuisine: origins, curiosities and diffusion in Italy
A common denominator of vegetable cuisine (in some cases also called “botanical cuisine”) is the intention to use the products of the earth – mostly vegetables, but also fruit – as the absolute protagonists of the dishes and no longer as mere supporting actors. By extension, in the vegetable cuisine menus, the “green” ingredients are present in every dish, undermining meat and fish and coming out of being relegated to the side dish. A choice made not only to serve the “veggy” fringe, but also to respect some principles, linked to tradition or social aspects, of good food.
The different philosophies behind the vegetable cuisine
Not all operators in the sector who embrace vegetable cuisine do so for the same reasons. Some, for example, want to rediscover the peasant tradition (which belongs to everyone, more or less, tracing their family tree) of their family, perhaps remembering the dishes that their grandmother prepared for them when they were little. Others, however, moved by a more environmentalist purpose, eliminating meat from their diet to protect animal species (from 1960 to 2017, the consumption of meat in the world went from 70 to 330 tons). Others still driven by the curiosity to challenge the canons of current cuisine and experiment, working “green” raw materials to enhance the flavors and mixing them together, also using scientific advice in the field of botany. Each, therefore, follows a particular philosophy. But everyone agrees on one point: vegetable cuisine is in fashion, but it is not a fashion. It is the future.
A simple cuisine, but rich in ethics
As mentioned, vegetable cuisine – especially in Italy – has its roots in the peasant tradition, while revisiting it to make it tasty and current. Even in doing this operation, however, the values remain those of the past, linked to an era in which vegetables were always present on the table and in large quantities because they were abundant, while animal proteins were something reserved for the wealthy classes or large occasions when you went to the restaurant. An era in which nothing was thrown away from vegetables, not even the peel. And still today the so-called “waste” of green raw materials in vegetable cuisine find new life, taking on the most disparate forms, always respecting their flavor and their nutritional properties. This gives it the title of “circular” cuisine. Not only that, even the cooking techniques used are chosen with respect for the ingredient: to each vegetable, its treatment.
The spread of vegetable cuisine, between tradition and modernity
The fact that it has become “fashionable” does not necessarily have to be read in a negative way. Indeed, vegetable cuisine has thus been able to experience a phase of great momentum in recent years, which has led it today to be extremely widespread – and sought after – throughout the Italian territory.
Many cooks have been interested in this trend, studying closely and analyzing the various points in common that link the world of cooking to that of botany. Most of them have converted their menus or opened new places devoting themselves entirely to vegetable cuisine.
Thus were born gourmet restaurants, trattorias, pizzerias and fast food specialized with all green dishes and which, at every Italian latitude, follow the seasonality of the chosen vegetables, without disdaining also veggy contaminations from other European countries, especially Nordic.
In addition to new premises, new approaches to vegetable processing have also been born: there are those who use what they produce themselves, tending their own vegetable garden to apply a zero km method; who distinguishes in the processes everything that grows underground such as tubers and roots from what grows above, cooking the former longer and the latter more quickly. And so on.
The result of this evolution also in the preparations is a concrete increase in the quality and taste of the dishes of vegetable cuisine, with increasingly elaborate and inviting courses.
Vegetable cooking: three tasty and easy to prepare recipes
Red bean balls with pumpkin sauce
Blend the red beans by immersion together with some vegetables that can further flavor the meatball (eg onion, dried tomatoes). Add paprika, herbs and chickpea flour to the mixture, and mix until you get a single mixture. Create meatballs and brush them with a little oil. Bake at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. Put the pumpkin into pieces, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns and a teaspoon of salt in a saucepan and cover everything with water until the pumpkin is tender. Blend the pumpkin with a little cooking broth until you get a smooth sauce. Serve the meatballs with the sauce.
Spiced peas with red rice
Soak the peas for about 12 hours. Stew onion and carrot into small pieces in a pan with ginger, cumin, coriander and a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Pour in the peas and stir for a few minutes to make them flavor. Then pour a liter of water and proceed with cooking until everything is tender. Rinse the rice under running water and pour it into a pot together with 800 ml of vegetable broth. Cook the covered rice over low heat until the rice is cooked and the broth is dry. Serve the peas hot with the rice, adding pink pepper and cashews to taste.
White bean dessert with carob and orange
Blend the beans with maple syrup, carob and orange juice until a smooth and fluid cream is obtained. Season to taste with grated orange zest. Portion into bowls with a pastry bag and decorate with chopped pistachios and sliced orange peel. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
