Cornersmith Salads & Pickles: Vegetables with More Taste & Less Waste

The latest from Elliott-Howery and Spindler (Cornersmith: Recipes from the Café and Picklery) showcases the popular Australian restaurant’s approach to fresh, seasonal ingredients with little waste. The authors, husband-and-wife owners of the Cornersmith, demonstrate how to get the most out of one’s produce, mostly via salads and pickling. For pickling they suggest adding red wine vinegar, honey, ginger, and allspice to classic pickled eggs; turmeric to pickled mango; and ginger to carrots; and creating a relish with oven-dried tomatoes and onions and Worcestershire sauce. Leftovers are put to work in a “Kitchen Scrap Kimchi” (made with cabbage and whatever fruit and vegetables are on hand); leftover citrus rinds and herbs are used to infuse vinegars for salad dressings. As for the salads, there are plenty of surprises: the authors’ signature bibimbap salad; a warm silverbeet (aka Swiss chard) and borlotti bean salad with pecorino and toasted almonds; and a wild rice salad with fennel, pecans, prunes, and herbs. Although all dishes are vegetarian-based, many salads (and the aforementioned relish) could accompany proteins for those looking for a heartier, meatier upgrade. This is a useful collection of dishes for readers interested in getting the most out of produce. (Feb.)