Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables

by Cheryl Sternman Rule, Paulette Phlipot (Photographer)

Eat fruits and vegetables not because you’re told you should, but because you want them in every sense of the word. Because they are beautiful. And satisfying. And you desire their freshness, flavor, and simplicity. That’s why Ripe is arranged by color, not season. Author and food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule, who is also the voice behind the popular blog 5 Second Rule, and award-winning food photographer Paulette Phlipot, have teamed up to bring inspiration to hungry home cooks. Their goal is not to deliver another lecture on eating for the sake of nutrition or environmental stewardship (though they affirm that both are important), but to tempt others to “embrace the vegetable, behold the fruit” because these foods are versatile, gorgeous, and taste terrific. Starting with red and progressing towards a calmer white, Ripe is arranged by color to showcase the lush, natural beauty of the following fruits and vegetables:
RED: beets, blood oranges, cherries, cranberries, grapefruit, pomegranate, radicchio, radish, raspberries, red apples, red bell peppers, rhubarb, strawberries, tomatoes, and watermelon ORANGE: apricot, butternut squash, carrots, clementines, kumquats, mangoes, nectarines, papaya, peaches, persimmon, pumpkin, and yams YELLOW: banana, corn, lemon, pineapple, pomelo, squash blossoms, and yellow onions GREEN: green apples, artichokes, asparagus, avocado, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, celery, cucumber, edamame, fava beans, fennel, green beans, honeydew, kale, kiwi, leeks, lime, peas, spinach, swiss chard, watercress, and zucchini PURPLE and Blue: blackberries, blueberries, eggplant, figs, plums, purple cabbage, purple grapes, red leaf lettuce, and red onion WHITE: bosc pears, cauliflower, coconut, endive, garlic, jicama, mushrooms, parsnips, potatoes, and turnip Each fruit and vegetable is accompanied by a lighthearted essay, breathtaking photography, and one showcase recipe, along with three “quick-hit” recipe ideas. With 150 photos and 75 recipes, this unique cookbook will quicken your pulse and leave you very, very hungry. For more information, visit RipeCookbook.com

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction

312 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2012

About the author

Cheryl Sternman Rule has been writing professionally for newspapers, magazines, and websites since 2004. She is the voice behind the award-winning food blog 5 Second Rule (http://5secondrule.typepad.com), which has been online since 2008 and enjoys an enthusiastic following.

Cheryl has written two cookbooks. Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables was published by Running Press in 2012. Yogurt Culture will be published by Rux Martin / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2015. She also founded the website Team Yogurt (http://www.teamyogurt.com/).

Cheryl’s work has appeared in Women's Health, Cooking Light, Sunset, Body + Soul, Health, Vegetarian Times, Restaurants & Institutions, the San Jose Mercury News, Edible Silicon Valley,The Kitchn, and Serious Eats; and in several books published by the American Heart Association and the EatingWell Media Group. Cheryl also served as a contributing editor at EatingWell Magazine, a daily food news blogger at iVillage, and a columnist at Recipe.com.

In 2014, Cheryl won Saveur's Best Food Blog Award in the Writing / Readers' Choice category. In 2012, she won the IACP New Media & Broadcast Award for outstanding Culinary Blog. In 2008, she won the Greenbrier Award given by the Symposium for Professional Food Writers.

A graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, Cheryl has worked in a commercial bakery and served as both a professional recipe tester and developer.

Cheryl holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Haverford College and a Master’s degree in education from Harvard University. Prior to joining the culinary field, she worked as a researcher at Harvard, where she co-authored a three-part book series on higher education. She also spent two years working for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC and two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eritrea, East Africa.

Cheryl lives with her husband and two sons in Silicon Valley.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son the vegetarian arrived unexpectedly earlier this week. Thankfully, this book had caught my eye at the Library & was sitting on my coffee table. My trusty team mate & I set to work at once. We have made the following:
1. Radicchio Salad with Tahini Lemon Drizzle: deliciously different!
2. Wine-Braised Artichokes with Feta and Orecchiette: verdict ranges from very good to delicious! We cheated & bought artichoke hearts in a jar to save on prep. time.
3. Fried Sage and Chestnut Brussels Sprouts: after searching several local grocery stores we got lucky & found a jar of chestnuts on clearance at 'World Market'. Verdict: OK. Wouldn't make again. The sage leaves never did get "crisp & glossy".
4. Ginger Cashew Cauliflower: very good. Would make again.
5. Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Croutons: very tasty. Looked a lot greener than the picture! Everyone loved it!

Will borrow this book again some time. I would like to try the 'Red Pepper Chili' & serve it with the 'Turnip & Yukon Gold Puree with Buttermilk & Chives'.

[Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

The flavor text is annoying, but the photographs are beautiful, and the recipes I've tried so far (about eight, more or less randomly) are excellent - really tasty. The book is arranged by color of fruits and vegetables, with one recipe per item. The instructions are clear, the combinations of ingredients clever, and the preparation times short. Just ignore the breezy and occasionally incoherent introductions.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully colorful look at the real food superstars. Swoon worthy read. I'll be adding a copy to my forever shelves.

[Bria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought I'd love this but really didn't. Glad I got it from the library and didn't buy it.

Don't get me wrong - it is beautiful - photography is fantastic and it's colo(u)rfully appropriate for the week before Pride weekend :), but, the recipes were uninspiring so - I'm not sure what one is really supposed to do with this book. Coffee table gazing on well photographed fruit and veggies then made into dishes?

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Embarrassingly, I found myself chuckling aloud as I read this cookbook. While I didn't find its recipes particularly engaging (too many out-of-season, not-available-in-the-Midwest kind of moments), Rule's prose as she introduced each ingredient is fantastic and funny. I also appreciated the tips on cutting, storing and preparing ingredients when there was a tip to be had.

[l. Matthew Littleboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this four stars because I couldn’t give it 3.5 stars and 3 felt like too little.

Anyway.

This was a beautiful book. A combination of education on fruit and vegetables, and a cookbook. However, I was kind of hoping I’d get more from this book. I did learn new things, but I was really hoping that I would learn more about how to tell if a fruit/veg is ripe or maybe even learn a new type but everything in there is pretty basic or known in my are.

I just wanted more from this. It felt like the diet version of what I wanted. All of that being said, I really do have to put emphasis on the beauty of this book and I would buy it because it’d be nice to have around.

[Morgan Golias · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. And I actually read it cover to cover. The layout of the book is so satisfying, I love the way it is organized by color. As an artist seeing things displayed visually rather than by category is so pleasing. The photography is fantastic and beautiful. It made my mouth water as I flipped through the pages.

Many of the recipes looked delicious. I have not attempted any at the time of this writing, but I will update when I have.

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most lovely book I have ever handled. Recipes are listed by colour - all red veg and fruit in one chapter for example. Light on actual recipes though. Intro page for each fruit/veg has a description of harvest techniques and uses followed by "Simple Uses" which I found unhelpful as all it does is list ingredients with no quantity amounts given.

[Abigail Sweetman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked this approach to a cookbook, thought it was visually really fun but wish it were categorized by season instead of color. None of the recipes seemed to really break the mold or anything but this would be a great cookbook for beginners who are intimidated by produce they haven’t really used or tasted

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved how this book was organized—by food color! The photos are gorgeous, too. I marked several recipes for future use. The focus is on whole foods and vegetarian recipes.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been quite a while since I've seen such a beautiful cookbook.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rare thing: a cookbook worth reading cover to cover in one sitting. I laughed out loud at several points, especially at the suggestion that Swiss chard can trigger nightmares.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight! It’s not often a cookbook makes you giggle but this one did!

[Diana Bogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book browsing through the library stacks. It was the brilliant color photographs that drew me in. I'm not a fan of cooking and I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to knowing how to shop for produce, prep that produce and figure out what to do with those fruits and vegetables. So for me, this book was pretty wonderful. That said, some aspects of the book I loved more than others.

I appreciate the author's willingness to share some personal thoughts and her sense of humor when talking about the produce, but sometimes I found myself wishing that she had instead shared information about the benefits of eating a certain fruit or vegetable. I know that in the introduction of the book that she said she omitted this type of information because it is already out there in so many other books. I get that. I get that she really did differentiate her book from others, however, by the time I finished reading it I wished I didn't need a second book to remind me of the benefits. I'd gladly replace some of her humor with some nutritional facts. Also I liked it better when she spent her time describing the texture and flavor notes of a fruit or vegetable (opposed to telling some story). She does this (describing foods not story telling) really well.

I found many of the tips useful & I even though I sometimes got frustrated by her "three simple uses" I liked those as well. Someone with more cooking knowledge wouldn't be frustrated at all by the content in the three simple uses. It assumes you are someone who can look at a counter of ingredients and know just how to blend them. I need specifics - how much of what to use and let's not assume creating a simple syrup is anywhere near simple for me.

Overall, I really do like this book and I found so many recipes that I want to try. The recipes don't sound complicated making them very attractive to me. I was going to just copy the recipes I was interested in, but because there were so many I was interested in I decided to buy a copy of the book to add to my kitchen. Besides I'll probably need it to refer to some of those shopping, cooking, & prep tips.

I say it's worth a look - especially if you can find it in your library.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The recipes weren't very exciting to me. A lot of the vegetables and fruits featured are not ones that exist in my garden in Wisconsin.

But, I loved her witty writing style. She definitely gets my award for the most entertaining cookbook I've read. The best parts of the book are the little intros she writes for each vegetable. I laughed out loud while reading many of them. She summed up my relationship with green peppers perfectly:

"If a green bell pepper rang my doorbell, I might look through the peep hole and then pretend I'm not home, easing back from the door so it doesn't see my shadow. But a red bell pepper? That's a different situation.

If a red pepper came to the door? I'd let it in, pull out a chair, and invite it to stay. Then I'd tackle it from behind and eat it.

You ring my bell, you take your chances."

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in love with this book! I will probably buy my own copy, I love it so much (which is saying something, coming from a librarian). Fruits and vegetables, organized by color, with some quick fixes and full recipes. But it's really more about the fruit/veggies than the cooking. The photos are gorgeous, the commentary is funny, and I learned lots (you just eat the WHOLE kumquat? Really?)

If you like food, you should read this book. If you appreciate photography, you should read this book. If you've ever squealed with joy over something in your CSA box/at the farmers market, you should read this book. If you have a sense of humor, you should read this book. Seriously, just go read the book, would you?!

p.s. Page 39 is my favorite, and page 43 does not need to exist IMHO.

[christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This I believe should've been five stars. The writing is brilliant and witty. For a cook book and homage to produce its extremely engaging and pulls you in. The color scheme, layout and pictures are breath taking. I want to pull the food from the pages and feast. I will definitely be trying some new produce soon and prep work. Where I believe the author did an injustice to herself was the availability of ingredients in a lot of these recipes. Garam masala, mascapone, dried currants... etc. Stuff like this is extremely hard to find if you don't live near a big city or on the west coast. The recipes are a little overly decadent at times and then drops down to the basic of all a chocolate cover strawberry. That's honestly my only gripe. I loved everything else.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photographs were enough to entice me to bring this book home from the library to look at. They were also enough to get my teenage daughter to go through the book and make a list of 26 recipes that she thinks we should try. This is pretty good for a girl who is allergic to mangos and papayas and won't eat anything with nuts in it.

Her list contains a selection of recipes that use ingredients that are taking over my garden like the Tarragon Lime Green Tea or were in this week's CSA share like the green noodle soup with kale, beans and parmesan crisps so I think that we will try them out.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a gorgeous and mouth-watering photographed cookbook, which featured a different and color-coordinated approach to fruits and vegetables. I found it helpful because it not only gave tips on how to cook the fruits and veg in simple directions at the beginning of each section, as well as tips on how to prepare them, and also gave a full recipe for each. Some of my favorite recipes included Kumquat Arugula Salad with Currant-Walnut Vinaigrette, Apricot Frangipane Galette, Cardamon Baked Plums with Coconut Ice Cream, and Gruyere-Crusted Leeks and Apples. I can't wait to give these recipes a try as I am trying to wean myself off red meat and eat more vegetarian food. 5 stars.

[Kathleen Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a yummy treat! The photography is beautiful, the narrative is witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, and the recipes tempting. What I loved the most about it was that, while there are plenty of complex recipes that would delight a serious cook's heart, there are also a few serving suggestions for each fruit or vegetable, that are very simple. I loved this because there are some fruits that are, in my opinion, too delicious to over-prepare. Suggestions for serving with a splash of cream and an interesting spice make me very happy. I know this is one of those books I'll keep handy for when I need a treat--to read or to eat.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Better if you have access to a good farmer's market or at least fancy produce department and plenty of money. Yes, there's broccoli and yellow onions, but it's the kind of recipe book that starts with Kosher salt and capers and gets more exotic from there. Not a bad book, but get it from your library, and don't have unrealistic hopes. I just wasn't able to get much out of it.

Personally, whenever I manage to find a peach or an avocado that's actually Ripe, I don't want to detract from it with any additional ingredients or process but just slice & eat.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is visually appealing. It's beautiful and I love that it divided food by their colors and covered many lesser known/used fruits and vegetables. It's draw back is that it offers only one recipe for each item (a good recipe, but sadly only one). While I enjoyed looking through it and reading about each fruit/veggie, it's (lack of)usefullness as far as what to do with each one will mean I won't be buying this one.

[Heather Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only just received this book a few days ago and already I have tried 4 recipes...all were VERY good and delicious! I love how the book is divided into colors to correspond with the fruits and vegetables. I highly recommend and the recipes are easy to follow and make.

Cheers,
Heather Chase
www.theculinarychase.com

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is SO beautifully done. Poignant pictures. Witty writing. And all about my favorite topic - food. A friend suggested this book when she heard about my own color-themed cooking project. It's ironic that I started this project long before the book was published. If you liked RIPE, check out my blog for "color-cooking" in live action: foodrainbowyear.blogspot.com/

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this cookbook. If you want to fall - or refall - in love with fruits and vegetables, please read this! The pictures are sumptuous and the recipes and tips are simple but deeply delicious. The author's writing is adorable and funny, too, which adds to the book's charm. So highly recommended!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually got this by accident from the library when trying to get Nigel Slater's book of the same name but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. It's a nice gift book although I don't think I'd own it. I did, however, copy a few recipes out of it including Eggplant Romanesco which is amazing. The photos are lovely and the memoir-sih produce write-ups are nice. Worth a look.

[N.L. Riviezzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd setup with 4 suggestions then a recipe for each item. Most recipes are classically French or inspired by such. Would have been a better book if there had been recipes for each suggestions as some sounded tastier than the recipes provided.

[Delphine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yum, yum, yum!!! Beautiful photos, awesome recipes! If you don't know what to do with your fruits and vegetables, check out this wonderful book! Watermelon slushie is so good, perfect for our hot summer days here in the south :)

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for the gorgeous visual love letter to food. Minus 1 star for taking all these great fruits and veggies and showing me a bunch of unhealthy ways to eat them. Butter, sugar, cheese, cream; those would make anything taste good!

[Kipahni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pictures are awesome! She is very witty and has great tips for slicing and dicing the various produce. The only 'meh' part is for each fruit/veggie she gives 3 ideas for cooking and 1 full recipe. I wish the ideas had more instructions or a reference in the back with the recipe.