Chop head of cauliflower
Cook medium heat in a pot with chicken stock to cover plus a bit for evaporation through the cooking. Add garlic, thyme, basil, salt and pepper.
Cook till soft.
Use electric hand mixer to cream the cauliflower…use butter and cream to flavor if desired or as is for low fat vegan. (Use veggie stock for vegan obviously )
Sauteed spinach at L’Arpege. It was so good, it made me cry. I don’t think I’ll ever have a vegetable dish as good as that spinach. Though a celery root puree at Chez Panisse still haunts my dreams
I’m also a big fan of ramps because they’re a harbinger of awesomeness to come. For two weeks of the year, there’s nothing better than asparagus. And then spring turnips and green peas. And then if I’m really lucky, tomatoes (but we haven’t had any good ones here for a few years). Now, it’s brussels sprouts, parsnips, and celery root. And turnips again- primarily because of their affinity with duck.
But if I’m at Whole Foods at a random time of the year, I’m often buying swiss chard, spinach, or beets.
I put leafy greens, but specifically Chinese “empty heart vegetable” (ong choy in canto, kong xin cai in mandarin), also called “water spinach” I believe.
and a close second would be big pea sprouts/greens (da dou miao).
They are making their way into hipster/foodie non-chinese restaurants.
Those items, when simply cooked with garlic and few other items, make it easy to go veg.
After too long deliberating eventually realized it’s not the vegetable, but the farmer and the chef. Any of them can be the best on any given day if they’re a great example of themselves.
Vegetables at a place like Manresa are such a different ballgame as to make the memory the best ear of buttered salted yellow corn at the peak of season vanishingly irrelevant.
I voted onion. I actually changed from my original vote for broccoli. Although I never eat onions straight, I do go through approx. 3 - 4 per week in my cooking. I think the onion would be the last vegetable I’d be willing to part with, if presented with that evil scenario.