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The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook
What to do with a basketful of luscious tomatoes? How to prepare an armload of summer squash? Where to turn for new sweet corn preparations? These are the questions vegetable-lovers grapple with as they pick fresh-from-the-garden produce in their own backyards or from the ever-expanding farmers’ markets. Garden-fresh vegetables are so beautiful, yet their freshness so fleeting.
Andrea Chesman is a cook and gardener who knows what it’s like to be staring down pounds of vegetables and panicking about how to use them all before it’s too late. Simple. Delicious. Planned to fit the season. That’s the approach Chesman brings to the 175 recipes she’s developed for The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook .
The vegetables are organized seasonally by crop-readiness, with attention paid to combining vegetables that ripen together. All the favorites — spring salad greens, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, peas, potatoes, and more — are included, along with the more unusual — artichokes, endive, rutabagas, and edamame, to name a few. Popular techniques such as roasting and grilling accentuate the flavor in recipes such as Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Salad, Soy- Sesame Grilled Eggplant, and Maple Roasted Carrots. There are many vegetarian options, but even when combined with meat, vegetables get top billing. From Egg Rolls to Borscht, Caponata to Sweet Potato Pie, The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook has dishes destined to please every palate.
To address those nights when the mounds of vegetables are just too overwhelming to try a whole new recipe, Chesman includes fourteen master recipes for simple preparation techniques that can accommodate whatever is in the vegetable basket. Readers need only to learn the basics of preparing a creamy quiche, a bubbly gratin, a basic stir-fry, or a zesty lo mein, and then it’s easy to create new meals every month around the freshest assortments of seasonal vegetables.
The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook is sure to become a favorite for everyone who wants to enjoy their vegetables fresh, local, seasonal, and simple.
Andrea Chesman is a cook and gardener who knows what it’s like to be staring down pounds of vegetables and panicking about how to use them all before it’s too late. Simple. Delicious. Planned to fit the season. That’s the approach Chesman brings to the 175 recipes she’s developed for The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook .
The vegetables are organized seasonally by crop-readiness, with attention paid to combining vegetables that ripen together. All the favorites — spring salad greens, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, peas, potatoes, and more — are included, along with the more unusual — artichokes, endive, rutabagas, and edamame, to name a few. Popular techniques such as roasting and grilling accentuate the flavor in recipes such as Grilled Chicken and Asparagus Salad, Soy- Sesame Grilled Eggplant, and Maple Roasted Carrots. There are many vegetarian options, but even when combined with meat, vegetables get top billing. From Egg Rolls to Borscht, Caponata to Sweet Potato Pie, The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook has dishes destined to please every palate.
To address those nights when the mounds of vegetables are just too overwhelming to try a whole new recipe, Chesman includes fourteen master recipes for simple preparation techniques that can accommodate whatever is in the vegetable basket. Readers need only to learn the basics of preparing a creamy quiche, a bubbly gratin, a basic stir-fry, or a zesty lo mein, and then it’s easy to create new meals every month around the freshest assortments of seasonal vegetables.
The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook is sure to become a favorite for everyone who wants to enjoy their vegetables fresh, local, seasonal, and simple.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2005
2 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Chesman
43 books34 followersI write cookbooks. I also edit them. I am grateful that I have found work that I enjoy.
Pickled Pantry is my newest book. I am very excited about it, and it is already generating favorable reviews.
Mostly I have written about vegetables, but I took a break from them to write 250 Treasured Country Dessertswith my co-author Fran Raboff on, which came out in 2009. The book is an update and expanded version of Mom’s Best Desserts, which was an update and expanded version of The Great American Dessert Cookbook. The collection contains everyone’s favorite home desserts—lots of cookies, brownies, layer cakes, pies, old-fashioned fruit desserts, ice cream, and more.
The New Vegetarian Grill is an updated and expanded version of an earlier book about vegetarian grilling. I’ve also written about cooking with the seasons (Recipes from the Root Cellar, Serving Up the Harvest, The Classic Zucchini Cookbook), roasting vegetables (The Roasted Vegetable), and healthy eating (366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains). Then there is also Mom’s Best Desserts, Mom’s Best One-Dish Suppers, and Mom’s Best Crowd-Pleasers, and a few more that are now out-of-print.
My work has appeared in Edible Green Mountains, Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, Organic Gardening, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Natural Health, and several other magazines and newspapers. I was a Rcontributing editor for Vermont Life for twelve years.
Over the years I have edited hundreds of cookbooks, gardening books and others too varied to classify. I also Americanize cookbooks published in England and index books as well.
I live in an old farmhouse in Ripton, Vermont, a very small town where early and late frosts make gardening challenging. The poet Robert Frost used to rent a cottage across the street and took his meals in our house, in what we now call “the Robert Frost Memorial Dining Room.” I am married to Richard Ruane, a marvelous musician and recipe taster. Our kids, Rory and Sam, are also excellent cooks and enthusiastic recipe tasters. They have served as great inspiration for me.
Pickled Pantry is my newest book. I am very excited about it, and it is already generating favorable reviews.
Mostly I have written about vegetables, but I took a break from them to write 250 Treasured Country Dessertswith my co-author Fran Raboff on, which came out in 2009. The book is an update and expanded version of Mom’s Best Desserts, which was an update and expanded version of The Great American Dessert Cookbook. The collection contains everyone’s favorite home desserts—lots of cookies, brownies, layer cakes, pies, old-fashioned fruit desserts, ice cream, and more.
The New Vegetarian Grill is an updated and expanded version of an earlier book about vegetarian grilling. I’ve also written about cooking with the seasons (Recipes from the Root Cellar, Serving Up the Harvest, The Classic Zucchini Cookbook), roasting vegetables (The Roasted Vegetable), and healthy eating (366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans, and Grains). Then there is also Mom’s Best Desserts, Mom’s Best One-Dish Suppers, and Mom’s Best Crowd-Pleasers, and a few more that are now out-of-print.
My work has appeared in Edible Green Mountains, Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, Organic Gardening, Fine Cooking, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Natural Health, and several other magazines and newspapers. I was a Rcontributing editor for Vermont Life for twelve years.
Over the years I have edited hundreds of cookbooks, gardening books and others too varied to classify. I also Americanize cookbooks published in England and index books as well.
I live in an old farmhouse in Ripton, Vermont, a very small town where early and late frosts make gardening challenging. The poet Robert Frost used to rent a cottage across the street and took his meals in our house, in what we now call “the Robert Frost Memorial Dining Room.” I am married to Richard Ruane, a marvelous musician and recipe taster. Our kids, Rory and Sam, are also excellent cooks and enthusiastic recipe tasters. They have served as great inspiration for me.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 28, 2017
I love this cookbook- I'm debating between buying a copy and just checking it out from the library every 3 weeks until it falls apart. It has been a lifesaver during this CSA season! The set-up is perfect, because it's divided seasonally and vegetable-y. Also, the recipes are simple- ingredients you are likely to have or could easily get (or adapt without!). I have made two of the recipes so far and they've both been delicious. Highly recommended to those needing to use up CSA ingredients and lacking wifi for late-night Pinterest/internet consultations!
August 14, 2025
This cookbook was great! It was sorted by when the vegetable was in season, and then recipes for each vegetable. There were no pictures though and I really like my cookbooks to have pictures. I was also looking for veggie recipes that were more keto friendly. But overall, I think this is a helpful book.
May 26, 2020
Really interesting vegetable-based recipes, sorted by vegetable and season.
March 5, 2008
I just got this book at a used bookstore, but it looks brand new and perfect. What a find! I've read the intro, and basic information in the first pages, and the essays written throughout. Really great resource. It's just lots of recipes. I know I'll be using this book lots this year once our garden gets to the harvesting point. I've already tried the pizza dough recipe and it's much better than the one I was previously using.
July 20, 2010
Definitely going to have to buy this one. It's the perfect companion to a vegetable garden- it tell you a little about growing each vegetable as well as a small collection of recipes for each to use them all up.
August 16, 2011
This is so perfect for those times when you're asking yourself, "What am I supposed to do with eighty radishes?" It really is meant for gardeners, and there's such a need for a book just like this. Lovely.
October 21, 2015
This is a great resource on all vegetables. It gives growing, harvesting and cooking instructions. It's arranged by season which I enjoy since it's hard to tell when things are supposed to be in season anymore.
September 17, 2011
This book solved all our CSA conundrums! Hooray!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews