Contributor

Deborah Madison

The founding chef of San Francisco's Greens Restaurant and the author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (and 10 other cookbooks), Deborah Madison lives, writes, and gardens in Galisteo, New Mexico. She loves her co-op, La Montañita, especially the beautiful, distinctive produce she finds there vegetables that really feel someone grew them with care on a small farm.

Eggplant varieties in wooden tray
Meaty eggplant is a sponge for flavor and there are hundreds of ways to enjoy it.
Salsa verde is a tasty and beautiful way to dress beets and pairs well with cooked vegetables, meats, poultry and fish.
Don’t hold back is my advice. Go ahead and pair your beets with strong flavors.
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Feta and Parsley
The sweet potato is one of my favorite vegetables and often my (very simple) dinner. I’m relieved to know that sweet potatoes are considered nutritional powerhouses because I’d be hard-pressed to give them up.
Several years ago, Deborah Madison had never heard of a shishito. But after stumbling upon them, she fell in love with this frying pepper and she has yet to meet a person who doesn't do the same.
Cucumbers are one of those vegetables I used to buy without thinking about it and I ate them that way too. They were just there. Cucumbers. I put them in salads. But that changed when I was the chef at Greens.
Giving Our Fruits and Vegetables Their Names
As a chef, shopper, gardener and pursuer of produce more than three decades, I’ve been thinking about what it would be like if we started to get more precise about what we’re eating by knowing our foods' varietal names.