When Cornbread Is Better Than a Crusty Loaf
It’s an easy and delicious way to round out a meal
It was a familiar scene: I stared into my crisper, and a bunch of random vegetables blinked back at me.
Two fennel bulbs. One bag of baby carrots. A head of broccoli. Three whole white carrots. Half a bag of arugula. A few sprigs of parsley.
I pulled my recently obtained copy of Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian” from the shelf and turned to the index. My favorite part about acquiring a ton of cookbooks has been using the indices. It’s like googling, but more meditative, and you can be sure the results are reputable.
I scanned the entries under “fennel” and nothing appealed to me. Next: broccoli. I ran my finger down the list till it settled on “cream of, soup,” and turned to page 116.
“This could be called ‘cream of anything soup’ but since spinach is so ubiquitous — and is especially good with cream — consider this a master recipe,” Bittman wrote as an introduction to cream of spinach soup, which lists variations encouraging the use of other greens (watercress, arugula, kale), celery, broccoli, or cauliflower.
Sold. I pulled the broccoli, carrots, and fennel out of the fridge and tossed them into a 400-degree oven. Once roasted, they’d be…
