Other Vegetable Stews

Most of us prepare a single vegetable at a time, usually as an accompaniment to a main course of meat or seafood. In French classic cooking, there are long lists of “garnitures” made with combinations of vegetables, cooked in various ways, and then served, either combined or arranged in separate mounds, on a platter with roast meat or fish. Some vegetable “stews” aren’t really stews at all, but elaborate affairs in which the vegetables, each cooked separately, are combined just before serving. Other versions, more rough-hewn but equally satisfying, are made by adding vegetables to a pot containing a little water or broth and gently stewing the vegetables so their juices intermingle into a light natural sauce. When using this method, I usually swirl a small amount of butter or cream into the sauce at the end of cooking to pull the flavors together and get the sauce to coat the vegetables lightly. I often add herbs, maybe just a little parsley chopped at the last minute, or tomato coulis, or sometimes a flavorful purée of watercress or roast garlic to give the sauce its own identity and color.