I love vegetables, so I was excited to be approved to view an advance copy of Ruffage for #Netgalley. I love vegetable cookbooks! Unfortunately, I had issues using the viewer for PDF formatted Netgalley books, and wasn't able to complete reading it until after it had been released for publication and I was able to access a copy at my local library.
Once I got a physical copy in my hands, I was almost glad that I wasn't able to read this via the viewer. This book is HUGE. According to the cover, there are more than 100 recipes, with more than 230 variations thereof! While that makes it a good value for the purchaser, it would have been really tedious to scroll the entire way (almost 500 pages!) through this book as a PDF.
Ruffage ended up being a nice vegetable cookbook. NOT, however, a vegetarian or vegan cookbook, or gluten free. With all my dietary restrictions, I found less recipes that would work for me than I would have liked. Most recipes feature some sort of animal product, and many feature gluten. Don't get me wrong; they sound delicious. They just probably wouldn't work well for me. But all the basic kitchen information and advice prior to the actual recipes was quite helpful and informative. I read that section thoroughly.
I can't decide how I feel about the formatting. On one hand, it seems really smart. Arranged alphabetically by vegetables, with recipes from various categories of preparation (such as raw, oven-roasted, pureed, grilled, etc) for each vegetable, with a little section at the beginning talking about the vegetable in question. Many recipes include variations: Cucumber with cumin, yogurt, and parsley could also be with peaches, mint, and chili oil, or with buttermilk, tomato, and herb salad, or even with red onion, vinegar, and dill. Not only are these variations great ways to give you options, depending what's in your pantry, but through use, they can teach you, the cook, various methods of preparation and combinations of food that you might not have known or thought of before. There ARE pictures, which sometimes correspond to specific recipes, and other times are just pictures of the vegetable being discussed. There are also black and white illustrations for some of the concepts.
On the other hand, I just didn't find this cookbook format intuitive or easy to use. or especially attractive. Maybe I'm just used to more illustrations, for all the recipes, or glossier pages, or bigger font, or a different layout. Sometimes I found all the variations listed to be sort of overwhelming.
I wouldn't let the formatting discourage you from checking this cookbook out, though, if you are an omnivore who wants to eat more vegetables or prepare vegetables better. The author, Abra Berens, clearly knows her topic, not only as a cook, but also as a gardener, and briefly farmer, herself, and shares lots of tasty sounding vegetable recipes utilizing meat, eggs, fish, and dairy, as well as bread, pasta, etc. I'm sure those with a more conventional diet than I will find many options to try.

Thanks, #NetGalley, for letting me read #Ruffagecookbook in exchange for an honest review.

A lot of useful tips which help you, regardless if you are vegan, vegetarian or just interested in a healthier lifestyle. It makes you rethink what you knew about vegetables, or at least it did so in my case.

In Ruffage, Abra Berens leads us through a meticulous guide to vegetables and how to use them. This book goes through various types of veggies one by one, instructing one on how and when to best enjoy it, as well as how not to waste a single piece.

Ruffage is not a cookbook, it is a book that teaches you how to cook. I love this difference, as it means that there are innumerable applications to each section of this book, rather than just a few recipes. We all fall into monotonous eating sometimes – losing our imagination, and forgetting that any given vegetable can be prepared in more than one or two ways or paired with more than one or two things. This is the ultimate un-slump cookery book; it gives new life to old ingredients, and reignites the passion which we have all felt on tasting something simple but exquisite.

Some of the ideas in this book are helpful reminders of forgotten preparation methods, but even more are simple ideas that I have just never even heard of before. For instance, who out there is braising lettuce? I've never even considered the concept, but Berens makes it sound delicious, and you know what? I might just give it a try. I have already, in fact, made a few recipes from this book and each one had been mind blowing and revolutionary in my kitchen. Everyone should try the smoky puréed eggplant (aubergine) with walnut relish on pasta (found on page 191), its completely insane.

Abra Berens shares a lot of her personal journey through this book, and we get to hear what food is like from a farmer's perspective as well as from a chefs. She values fresh, local and organic equally, and passes on a lot of very helpful advice and personal principles. It is refreshing to hear from someone who cares about the planet and about flavour, and isn't willing to compromise on either front. The illustrations and photographs in Ruffage are also exceptionally beautiful, and show both finished recipes and raw vegetables.

More than anything, I found this book to be incredibly freeing. There are so many gorgeous vegetable out there that I never know what to do with, and so just pass up. Ruffage has enabled me to shop without fear, knowing I will be able to find something beautiful to do with difficult or uncommon vegetables, as well as empowering me to shop locally and by whole veggies, not the supermarket ones which are often missing some of the best parts.

I would highly recommend this book to any home cook or aspiring chef, as well as anyone interested in growing their own food. The sections are easy to understand, the text is clear and the photographs are beautiful. 5/5!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This book was the perfect combination of beautiful food photography and fantastic, clear directions. As a long-time vegetarian and a lover of just about every vegetable under the sun, I've either owned or perused dozens of vegetarian cookbooks over the years. Very few have offered instruction on just what can be done to vegetables beyond popping them into the soup pot or roasting them with a drizzle of olive oil. Between the appetizing visuals and the inspiring ideas, I'm ready to head to the farmers market!

I loved this cookbook. The beginning of the book includes information for cooking techniques, suggestions for stocking your pantry, utensils to use and recipes for sauces that can be served with vegetables. The author organizes the book alphabetically by vegetable. Included are common and uncommon veggies. At the beginning of each chapter the author provides some basic information about the vegetable and then follows with recipes and variations. There are a lot of wonderful recipes that range from simple and easy to more complicated ones. Illustrations of the recipes and vegetables are also included. This is a cookbook to pick up and use again and again. Enjoy your vegetables.

Don’t be fooled, this cookbook includes several meat dishes, from grilled pork chops to cabbage with sausage. Just a quick note worth sharing since I tend to share mostly vegetarian recipes. :)

This book has a wonderful layout. With sections starting with a strong pantry, following by recipes by vegetable. i appreciate that each vegetable begins with a story and instructions on how to buy and how to store. What’s next is a sampling of recipes for preparation styles, from raw to braised, and oven roasted to sautéed.

Recipes I made and enjoyed over the last few weeks:

Charred Whole Romaine with Garlic Bread Crumbs: This recipe calls for a hard boiled egg and Anchovy vinaigrette. I do not eat eggs or anchovies so chose to serve this with a fig vinaigrette. Charred lettuce might be unexpected but it was delicious.

Sweet Pea Toast: a re-imagining of avocado toast and a welcome surprise! Served with sourdough, you can dip a piece of bread or spread smashed peas with spices and enjoy. I can’t believe I have never seen a recipe for something so simple and delish.

Are you familiar with sunchokes? This is a new vegetable for me. I can’t wait to find one and make sunchoke puree with cream and white wine.

This is a stunning book, both visually and with the recipes that fill the pages. I enjoy a cookbook that inspires me to bring it with me to the market.

This is a different kind of cookbook. Most cookbooks are filled to the brim with recipes but Ruffage spends equal amount of time talking about each time of vegetable including tips on how to buy and store the veggies. The recipes in this book are broken up into the different ways you can cook each type of vegetable. If you are looking for a cookbook that is a little more than a cookbook give this one a try.

This was a book that I really enjoyed reading but couldn't finish because of the ridiculously heavy watermarking on every page of the digital ARC I was given for the purpose of review. That's a shame, as I found Berens' writing amazingly well done -- I actually updated my progress in the book to note that it was the first time in my life that reading about broccoli brought me to tears (the author shares a personal family story about her father cooking broccoli shortly after her mother's death).

This book is part cookbook, part vegetable textbook, part pleasure read. Berens clearly knows her stuff and writes delightfully about the many veggies she covers. The recipes tend towards fancy but simple. Each vegetable has a little essay introducing it, several recipes and several adaptations for each recipe. Berens also tells you how to choose, store and cook each one.

There is liberal use of dairy and a fair amount of meat. Vegans may not get as much out of the book but vegetarians should be able to adapt. Gluten free and paleo folks should find plenty to make and eat.

The recipes include measurements in standard and metric units, which leads to more cluttered looking ingredient lists but will be helpful for more people. They are in a font that I found a little annoying but that's just a style thing.

There is a photo for each main recipe, but none for the variations.

This would be a great book to curl up with if you were snowed in somewhere and dreaming of garden season (maybe that's just me), or to finally learn how to do things like cook broccoli properly. It would also make a great guide for what to look for at the farmers' market or to plant in your garden. It is wordy, which I like, but makes for a very long read.

A side note to publishers: Please note that if you provide reviewers with temporary digital ARCs to review your books, you owe it to us to make them legible. I highly doubt there's a huge market for pirated vegetable books. These books disappear off of our ADE shelves in 60 days, so we don't even get a free book out of the deal these days (other than the few publishers who also provide ARCs in Kindle versions, but those tend to be formatted so that they're really difficult to read). We get very little out of this arrangement and provide you with a valuable service for free. You could at least not plaster every page of your ARCs with giant Xs and warnings about copyright. It's unfair to the reviewers and also to the authors whose books can't be given a thorough reading.

Unfortunately I could not see the images but I bet they were gorgeous (judging from what I heard on the internet). That being said, this book was everything one needs to know about any vegetables - how to cut it, how to cook it, how to eat it!

This book discusses how to select, store, and prepare common veggies.
The book is beautifully illustrated and sure to please your eyes.

Each veggie has its own chapter. Every chapter covers a handful of techniques and provides recipes for each. These techniques tend to be repetitive and fairly well known though there are sometimes good tips in each technique's explanatory paragraph. I'm not entirely sure what I expected from this book but I was a bit let down. I guess I was expecting more veggie specific nuance like different cutting techniques or suggested pairings.

Vegetables, especially those that we could consider as "ruffage" are so often overlooked and used as garnishes or colors for the background of a dish. What I love is that this book took those bland and overlooked elements of food and completely gave them a facelift. This book has 300 recipes on how to make vegetables the center of a dish and really pop by using so many different cooking styles and techniques (many of which I had never thought about). Along with the text are those photographs! They are so vibrant and bright and just really help to place the overlooked vegetable it the center of a dish.

"Ruffage" is an in-depth ode to vegetables with hundreds of recipes to prepare them in all manners. Before even getting to the vegetables and recipes, the author walks you through common vegetable cut styles and pantry staples to support the recipes. For each vegetable in the cookbook, there are several variations for preparing them and also a bit of a primer on the vegetable. This cookbook could be a great foundational book for new cooks building their cooking skills and library. Once again, this publisher chose to include a large watermark across all pages of the e-ARC that made it very difficult to clearly read most pages and even consider making any of the recipes.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great Cookbook with lots of delicious receipts. Can't wait to try all of them. They are pretty easy to make and the images are yummy looking.

Disclaimer: NetGallery provided me with a digital edition of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I will absolutely be buying a print copy of this uniquely gorgeous cookbook. To call is simply a cookbook is probably not an accurate description. Berens brings heart to the writing by giving us stories about Jim Harrison, the writer, and his attitude about food. Berens also shares a beautiful story about adopting her mother's cast iron cookware, after her mother's death.

The recipes offer many unique ways to use seasonal veggies and escape the bland. Be warned...they are not all low fat, nor are they low taste. This is also not a primer for vegans. Many of the recipes include animal products.

The photography is rich and inviting.

I must buy a copy of this because some of the recipes had copyright markings over vital elements, which is certainly understandable. I am now dreaming of vegetables that really shine.

I love the organization of this book. It would be especially useful for those who get CSA boxes throughout the year. The pictures are gorgeous, Chronicle Books always makes beautiful cook books, and the recipes are accessible for home cooks.

This is a very substantial book with over 400 pages of vegetable recipes, information and a lot more. But it is not just a recipe book, this book present a full vegetable experience on how to buy, store, tips and prepare this food.
The book starts off with a glossary of terms, and believe you me, there are a few that were unfamiliar to me, then we proceed to a chapter on pantry items, which includes lots of information and variation on products such as oil, dairy, nuts and seeds, acidity and grit just to name a few.
The second chapter is all about vegetables, and with each introduction there is a information on "How to buy", "Store" and "Tips" - followed by lovely photos, recipes and variations on the recipe.
The vegetables are either grilled, roasted, pureed, blistered sautéed, marinated or raw to name a few techniques, there is even a confit. All the recipes look delicious, are simple to make and easy to follow.
This book is fabulous, one to just pick up and lose yourself in the information or to cook from the recipes and methods provided. Whichever way you choose this book will not disappoint.

The focus of this book is how to select, store and prepare vegetables using a variety of cooking techniques. The book begins with a glossary and then a discussion of suggested pantry items. (Unfortunately the glossary did not explain to me why the author chose to title the book “Ruffage” rather than “Roughage”. The only place I could find the word ruffage was in an urban dictionary.) The recipes are not specifically vegan or vegetarian, but many of them are for side dishes that do not include any meat or fish. Each chapter of the book covers a different vegetable (or group of related vegetables), arranged alphabetically and ranging from asparagus to turnips. The chapter begins with an essay about the vegetable, followed by some purchase/storage guidance. Next there is one recipe representing each cooking technique (raw, roasted, braised, etc.). Several variations are described after each recipe. There are only one or two photographs of the dishes in most of the chapters. The recipes seemed pretty easy to follow and didn’t have uncommon or hard to find ingredients.

This might be a good cookbook for people who like to read cookbooks, rather than just cook from them, because of the essays in each chapter. I’ve been a vegetarian for about 30 years, so I don’t think I need to own this book. But for someone who wants to add variety to their vegetable preparation this would be a good choice.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

It's wonderful having access to mouth-watering illustrations of creative food recipes, especially, that of the roughage category. I've heard on more than one occasion: "We eat with our eyes." Truer words have never been spoken.
When it comes to the culinary art of preparing vegetables, I've always searched for creative ways to further enhance their flavor to my awaiting taste buds. It's great having that access right in the palm of my hands. To your health.

Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables is not your typical cookbook—it is a how-to-cook book of a variety of vegetables. Author Abra Berens—chef, farmer, Midwesterner—shares a collection of techniques that result in new flavors, textures, and ways to enjoy all the vegetables you want to eat.

From confit to caramelized and everything in between—braised, blistered, roasted and raw—the cooking methods covered here make this cookbook a go-to reference. 140 photographs show off not only the finished dishes, but also the vegetables and farms behind them.

As someone who grew up in the Midwest area, in Minnesota on a farm, it was interesting to see how another Midwestern farmer prepared vegetables. This was a helpful guide that offers excellent vegetable food choices. One of the recipes is "Poached Radishes with White Wine, Chicken Stock and Butter." I never would have thought to poach radishes! I can't wait to try all of these new ideas from this cookbook.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the ARC of #Ruffage
Pub Date: 23 Apr 2019

This is a cookbook I will be purchasing because it has everything I want in a cookbook. The first part is all about what the author consistently uses and why. There is information about what to keep on hand if you intend to make recipes in the book, such as there are a lot of dishes made with herbs. It also explains what foods work better for substitutes or in what type of meal. The recipes are organized by the type of vegetable instead of the type of course, which I think is perfect. Each one starts off with tips for that specific vegetable. The recipe instructions are clear and concise, which is a big deal for me. The recipes also include variations. The photos are beautiful and make me hungry! I am very interested in making many of the recipes in this book.