Maris' Kitchen Wisdom for Sustainable Cooking:

Mari Maris: I’ve barely changed since childhood. I love taking care of my plants and cooking.

Mari Maris, originally a chef from Amsterdam, now does what she loved as a child: digging in the dirt. In her home in France, everything comes together: cooking and gardening. As a "vegetable farmer," she wrote six cookbooks. How does one become a vegetable farmer?

Mari recounts: "I worked as a chef in the Netherlands and had a vacation home in France with a vegetable garden that I loved to visit. With each visit, it became harder to leave. I still clearly remember the moment I tasted a spinach leaf from the vegetable garden. How wonderful it would be if the chefs in the area could share in that enjoyment, I thought." This sparked the idea to stay for half a year and put this idea into practice. Mari asked restaurants in the area if they wanted to buy her vegetables. This plan led nowhere. The restaurants found frozen vegetables less complicated. "Next, I sold vegetable boxes. People could pick them up once a week, and that worked well."

In 2013, she published the Vegetable Bible. Her latest cookbook, "VEGETABLES," features everyday potatoes, elegant peas, Sunday sauerkraut, and much more. Mari Maris follows the seasonal harvest and provides practical recipes for every type of vegetable.

When Maris was writing the cookbook last year, we sent her an EcoStoof®. Mari says: "I didn't know what to expect from the EcoStoof®. My grandmother already wrapped food in cloths, so I found the EcoStoof® clever from the start. Also ideal when writing, when you sometimes lose track of time. The food cannot burn in the pot. I mainly cook vegetable stews and couscous dishes in it. Here you can find the recipe for the Mediterranean gratin cauliflower stew from the EcoStoof®.

Mari’s kitchen wisdom for sustainable cooking:

Skins in the broth. Don't throw away green waste. I always have a small pot on my counter where I put the skins when I cook. I make broth from it. Even if I only use it to cook potatoes and pasta.

Not too much water. A ten-liter pot to cook pasta for two people is really not necessary.

Use seasonal harvest. What you harvest in season tastes best and doesn't have to be flown in from distant countries. Even in March, when the vegetable garden yields almost nothing, you can pick wild plants. For example, I harvest ground elder, wild garlic, sorrel, and small flowers.

Would you like to know more about Mari Maris?

Go to marimaris.nl or follow her on Instagram

VEGETABLES

Author: Mari Maris

Dutch Hardcover 9789038810744 Print: January 1, 2022 512 pages