The Perennial Kitchen

Simple Recipes for a Healthy Future

2021
•
Author:

Beth Dooley
Photography by Mette Nielsen

TRAILER, CREATED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE MINNESOTA INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

Recipes and resources connect thoughtfully grown, gathered, and prepared ingredients to a healthy future—for food, farming, and humankind

In The Perennial Kitchen, James Beard Award–winning author Beth Dooley provides the context of food’s origins, along with delicious recipes, nutrition information, and tips for smart sourcing. More than a farm-to-table cookbook, this book expands the definition of “local food” to embrace regenerative agriculture, the method of growing small and large crops with ecological services.

"Beth's natural ability for warm and descriptive food prose is such a joy to read and experience, and it shines in The Perennial Kitchen."—Sean Sherman, author of James Beard Award–winning The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen

Knowing how and where food is grown can add depth and richness to a dish, whether a meal of slow-roasted short ribs on creamy polenta, a steaming bowl of spicy Hmong soup, or a triple ginger rye cake, kissed with maple sugar, honey, and sorghum. Here James Beard Award–winning author Beth Dooley provides the context of food’s origins, along with delicious recipes, nutrition information, and tips for smart sourcing.

More than a farm-to-table cookbook, The Perennial Kitchen expands the definition of “local food” to embrace regenerative agriculture, the method of growing small and large crops with ecological services. These farming methods, grounded in a land ethic, remediate the environmental damage caused by the monocropping of corn and soybeans. In this thoughtful collection the home cook will find both recipes and insights into artisan grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables that are delicious and healthy—and also help retain topsoil, sequester carbon, and return nutrients to the soil. Here are crops that enhance our soil, nurture pollinators and song birds, rebuild rural economies, protect our water, and grow plentifully without toxic chemicals. These ingredients are as good for the planet as they are on our plates.

Dooley explains how to stock the pantry with artisan grains, heritage dry beans, fresh flour, healthy oils, and natural sweeteners. She offers pointers on working with grass-fed beef and pastured pork and describes how to turn leftovers into tempting soups and stews. She makes the most of each season’s bounty, from fresh garlic scape pesto to roasted root vegetable hummus. Here we learn how best to use nature’s “fast foods,” the quick-cooking egg and ever-reliable chicken; how to work with alternative flours, as in gingerbread with rye or focaccia with Kernza®; and how to make plant-forward, nutritious vegan and vegetarian fare. Among other sweet pleasures, Dooley shares the closely held secret recipe from the University of Minnesota’s student association for the best apple pie. Woven throughout the recipes is the most recent research on nutrition, along with a guide to sources and information that cuts through the noise and confusion of today’s food labels and trends.

Beth Dooley looks back into ingredients’ healthy beginnings and forward to the healthy future they promise. At the center of it all is the cook, linking into the regenerative and resilient food chain with every carefully sourced, thoughtfully prepared, and delectable dish.

Awards

International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award - Food Issues & Matters - finalist

Beth Dooley is author or coauthor of several cookbooks, including Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland, The Northern Heartland Kitchen, Minnesota’s Bounty, The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook, Savory Sweet: Simple Preserves from a Northern Kitchen, Sweet Nature: A Cook’s Guide to Using Honey and Maple Syrup, and The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen (Best American Cookbook, James Beard Award, 2018), all from Minnesota. In Winter’s Kitchen is her memoir about finding her place in the Midwestern food scene. She lives in Minneapolis.

Mette Nielsen’s photographs have illustrated numerous books, newspapers, and magazines. A talented master gardener, she created the edible garden for the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, collaborated on The Birchwood Cafe Cookbook and Minnesota’s Bounty, and was a coauthor of Savory Sweet and Sweet Nature.

Beth's natural ability for warm and descriptive food prose is such a joy to read and experience, and it shines in The Perennial Kitchen.

—

Sean Sherman, author of James Beard Award–winning The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen

Beth Dooley’s The Perennial Kitchen is not only a cookbook but also a guide for how to transform our food and agriculture systems. The regenerative agriculture practices described here are good for the planet—and delicious!

—

Danielle Nierenberg, president, Food Tank, and 2020 recipient of the Julia Child Award

Dooley’s goal, really, is to connect readers with the farmers, ranchers, processors, and artisans—many of them Black, Indigenous, and POC—who are boldly growing grains, beans, meats, fruits, and vegetables in ways that build up, rather than degenerate, our soil and water.

—

Midwest Home

Through Beth’s experience on the board of The Good Acre, a St. Paul-based food hub and teaching center, she’s developed an expertise in writing recipes for institutional audiences, and we’re grateful she’s bringing those skills to this project.

—

Crumb

The Perennial Kitchen provides recipes that bring out the best in a wide range of ingredients coming out of a new generation of Minnesota farms.

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Star Tribune

The Perennial Kitchen is a cookbook that manages to be both universal and forward-looking.

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If you’re looking for a cookbook that is more than a farm-to-table guide, pick up a copy of The Perennial Kitchen.

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Hutchinson Leader

Whether you are a foodie looking for new recipes to try or someone committed to nature, the environment and good food, The Perennial Kitchen has a lot to offer.

—

Northern Gardener

The sum of our daily choices will ultimately impact our collective future. If you are hungry for hope and comfort, cooking is a great place to start.

—

Minnesota Women’s Press

A great addition to any kitchen.

—

Northern Wilds

Contents

Introduction: View from the Kitchen

How This Book Works

1. Perennial Pantry

Grains

General Cooking Instructions

Barley

Buckwheat

Dried Field Corn

Kernza®

Oat Groats

Millet

Rye Berries

Wheat Berries

Wild Rice

Beans

Black Beans

Black Eyed Peas

Cannellini

Chickpeas

Cranberry

Fava

Great Northern

Hidatsa Shield

Jacob’s Cattle

Split Peas

Tiger’s Eye

Good Mother Stallard

Ireland Creek Annie

Kidney

Lentils

Lima

Navy

Pinto

Soy

Flour

Barley Flour

Buckwheat Flour

Cornmeal and Flour

Hazelnut Flour

Millet Flour

Oat Flour

Rye Flour

Wheat Flour

Kernza® Flour

Wild Rice Flour

Cooking Oils

American Hazelnut Oil

Flax Seed Oil

Hemp Seed Oil

Sunflower Oil

Pumpkin Seed Oil

Camelina Oil

Pennycress Oil

Vinegars

Fruit Vinegar

Maple Vinegar

Nuts

American Hazelnuts

Black Walnuts

Chestnuts

Hickory Nuts

Sunflower Seeds

Sweets

Honey

Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar

Sorghum

Apple Syrup

2. Milling and Baking

Flour Power

Grain of Change

Multi-grain Crackers

Oats

Oat Crackers

Hazelnut Parmesan Crisps

Buckwheat Crepes

Birchwood Café Sunday Pancakes & Waffles

Cornmeal and Corn Flour

Maple Wild Rice Cornbread

Dark and Tangy Beer Bread

Fresh Herb Focaccia

Barley Bread

Real Rye Bread

Bead is Gold (Loafing Around)

Drunken Cheesy Garlic Bread

Mushroom Bread Pudding

Breakfast Bread Pudding

Fresh Herbed Butter

Sunny Butter

Hazelnut Butter

Hazelnut Chocolate Spread

3.Gardens and Forests

Plant Forward Plates

Garden Perennials

Herbed Dipping Oil

The Basic Vinaigrette

Heartland Gold! Camelina and Sunflower Oil

Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Maple-Mustard Vinaigrette

Pesto!

The All American Hazelnut

Hazelnut Pesto

Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic Scape Herb Butter & Radish Toasts

A Cook’s Garlic Glossary

Black Garlic

Asparagus

Asparagus Pesto

Asparagus and Radish Salad in Bacon Vinaigrette

Radishes

PDQ Radish Salsa

Many Bean and Tomato Salad

Fennel and White Bean Salad

Scarlet and Gold Beet Salad

Sunchokes, Morels, and Asparagus with Toasted Hazelnuts

Roasted Root Vegetables (with Bonus Hummus!)

Roast Root Veggie Hummus

Sauteed Hukurei Turnips, Greens, and Cranberries

Garlicky Greens

Roasted Garlic Bulbs

4. Fields Forever

The Artisan Grain Chain

Grain by Artisan Grain: General Cooking Instructions

Barley

Buckwheat

Field Corn

Oats

Rye

Wheat

Kernza®

Sorghum

Wild Rice

Sprouting Artisan Grains

Oatmeal Plus

Breakfast Crème Brule

Forever Green Granola

Polenta with Fried Eggs

Cool Beans

Many Bean Hummus

Mini Bean Cakes

Spicy-Sweet Roast Chickpeas

Wild Rice, Mushroom, and Hazelnut Pilaf

Cranberry, Chestnut, and Barley Pilaf

Rye Berry and Roast Sweet Potato Pilaf

Hazelnut No-Meatballs with Hazelnut Tzatziki

Forever Green Grain Salad

Heartland Bean and Grain Pot

Heartland Pozole

Whole Oat Risotto with Squash and Sage

Ricotta Gnocchi

5. The Chicken and the Egg

The Pecking Order

Picnic Deviled Eggs

A Simple Persian Scramble

Crustless Quiche

Say Cheese?

Herbed Chevre

Country Style Cheddar Spoon Bread

Perfect Roast Chicken – The Spatchcock Method

Chicken with Mushrooms, Squash, and Sage Butter

Chicken Liver Pate

Thanksgiving Turkey with Bacon Whiskey Glaze

Cornbread Chestnut Stuffing

Turkey Sausage and Apple Sauté

Duck Breasts with Spiced Currant Sauce

6. Barnyard and Smokehouse

Grazing for Change

Cooking Grass Fed Beef

Cowboy Steak

Beef Short Ribs with Lemon and Thyme

Skirt Steak

Behind the Grass Fed Label

Best Burgers

Back Home on the Range

Bison Pot Roast

Pork

Hmong Stir-Fried Pork with Baby Bok Choy

Roast Pork with Apple Hazelnut Salsa

Pork Chops with Black Currant Sauce

Meatless No More

Sticky Lamb Ribs

Lamb and Potato Suugo (Spiced Lamb Stew)

Goat Chili

Rabbit with Mustard

7. The Communal Pot

Hale and Hardy Soups, Stews, and One Dish Fare

Stocking Up

Chicken Stock

Old Fashioned Stock

Brown Stock

Bone Broth

Robust Roast Vegetable Stock

Springtime Asparagus Soup

Ginger-Maple Squash Soup

Market Soup with Asian Spices

Chicken Soup for the Winter Weary

Sausage and White Bean Soup

Farmhouse Beef and Barley Stew

Creamy Cauliflower, Onion, and Cheddar Bake

Shepherd’s Pie

Wild Rice Hot Dish

8. Sweetland

Nature’s Treats

Double Oatmeal Cookies

Baking Day

European Currant Cookies

Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream Filled Chocolate Wafers

Shortbread

Ginger Rye Hermits

Hazelnut Fruit Bars

Double Nutty Biscotti

Puffy Treats

Forever Green Granola Bars

Toffee Bars

Triple Ginger Rye Cake

Maple Pumpkin Spice Cake

Holiday Fruitcake

Blue Fruit Cheesecake

Cherry Clafoutis

A is for Apples

Best Apple Pie! Oh My!

Double Pie Crust

Gingered Berry Crumble

Pavlova with Kiwi Berries and Currants

Hazelnut Gelato with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Wild Rice Pudding

Hazelnut Brittle

9. Preserving the Seasons

Yes You Can (Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, and More)

Pickled Garlic

Pickled Asparagus

Apple Butter, Savory and Sweet

Oat Milk and Grain-Based Dishes

Rosemary Currant Sauce

Tart and Tangy Gooseberry Sauce

Old Fashioned Ginger Rhubarb Conserve

Honeyed Honeyberry Jam

Splendid Strawberry Jam

Current Jam

Radical Hospitality: The Sister Sisters of Madison, Minnesota

Elderberry-Ginger-Honey Syrup

Elderflower Syrup

Apple Honey

Resources

Foods for Our Future

Acknowledgments

Index