Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe

Cabbage and beets, potatoes and pickles: vegetable cooking is integral to Eastern European cuisine and this appealing book showcases recipes from throughout the region, many of them vegetarian or easily adapted to be that way.

From varza a la cluj, a Romanian sauerkraut, meat, and grain bake, to tabani udmurt, sourdough pancakes with mushrooms, Kapusta stays true to regional cooking and ingredients. There is no avocado here, nor tamarind.

The happy surprises come in dishes which offer simple combinations, such as

• A salad of beets, gherkins, and horseradish

• Chiboreki, Crimean Tatar flatbreads with lentils and carrots

• Potato babka, which in this cases seems a cousin to the kugel

• Kalduny, a Belorussian beef and cabbage dumpling

• Sauerkraut fermented with cranberries

Practical, seasonal, and endearingly humble.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout/