Cooking Through ‘Tenderheart’: Recipes to Make on Repeat

Was one of your resolutions for 2024 to “try something new”? Still looking for that new thing even as we enter the middle of spring?

The Food52 Cookbook Club has you covered! We cook through a new book each month, and our member-selected title for April is The Global Pantry Cookbook: Transform Your Everyday Cooking with Tahini, Gochujang, Miso, and Other Irresistible Ingredients by Scott Mowbray and Ann Taylor Pittman. No matter when you join or pick up a book, all are fair game for posting about on Throwback Thursdays (scroll to the end for a quick guide to joining).

Also in the mix currently is our 2024 bonus book, Tenderheart, by Hetty Lui McKinnon, which came out last spring. While we focus on one book a month, our bonus book gives members an extra title to cook through all year long.

To date, Food52ers have been thoroughly enjoying Hetty’s book, a 525-page collection of recipes sorted by the author’s 10 favorite veggies. Scroll down for some inspiration from club members on where to start cooking.

Lotsanivanh Lvovsky got our year of Tenderheart kicked off with her “long post alert” sharing almost 20 recipes, which she began cooking the moment Tenderheart was selected as a club title. “’I’ve been happily cooking through ever since I received my copy. 19 recipes in and it’s safe to say that I’m very happy to have this book as part of the collection.” Her favorites: the Broccoli Forest Cake (more on that below), the Pickled Fennel Niçoise (“because I love pickles and [what a] fun twist on a classic”), and the Celery Leaf Soup (“because I love love love soup”).

The most cooked (and subsequently loved) Tenderheart recipe to date is the Carrot Peanut Satay Ramen. Cookbook Club member Amalia Egri Freedman echoed the sentiments of many, writing, “This is my second time making this and I still can’t believe how good it is, especially for something so quick.” Amalia chose to add some chicken satay to the top of her bowl, opting for a chicken satay recipe from one of our club’s previously covered titles, Coconut & Sambal by Lara Lee. (The club has covered 95 books to date since it began in 2017.)

While debate in the comments circled around the author’s choice to classify the dish as ramen, all agreed it merits cooking on repeat.

As Joy Huang noted in her review, “You’d be surprised how flavorful the broth can be from something that comes together in less than 30 minutes with mostly pantry ingredients. It was so good I’ve already made it twice!”

Group members are unanimously singing the praise of Hetty’s Broccoli Forest Loaf recipe as well. Said Catherine Cozzarelli, “I thought this loaf was delicious. It’s essentially a gigantic cheese and sour cream bread, masquerading as something healthy by having a few pieces of broccoli thrown in.”

Speaking of getting us to eat our vegetables, Shyla Strathman, in her review of the Cauliflower and Kale Pesto Pasta Salad with Burrata jokes “It’s nice that Hetty lists Cauliflower and Kale before Burrata in the recipe name. Look at me eating all my veggies! We loved this fresh pesto made from roasted veggies, toasted nuts, and lemon. It pairs so nicely with the pasta and the Burrata.”

One of the most inspiring things about belonging to a group with membership spanning the globe is hearing how recipes are adapted based on dining preferences and availability of ingredients.

As Sheila Scully says in reference to her riff on the Soy-Butter Bok Choy Pasta recipe, “This is a very adaptable noodle recipe which I demonstrate here by using tatsoi (one of the recommended bok choy alternates), garlic chives instead of green onions and mussels instead of sesame seeds. My initial plan was to top it with slices of seared ahi tuna, but I got a surprise bag of mussels in my fish share and had to address them first, so in they went.”

Meanwhile, Teresa Improta, who lives in Italy, shared that while she has some difficulty finding all the ingredients to cook exactly as written from Tenderheart, she simply gets creative, “I use balsamic vinegar as a substitute for black vinegar. So far I’ve liked that sub in all the dishes I’ve made.”

Interested in joining in on all the delicious fun?

Head to Facebook and request to join the Cookbook Club. Then:

• Get the book(s) either by purchasing, borrowing from the library (or by sneaking a copy off your friend’s bookshelf).

• Read and cook through the book.

• Share your opinions by posting a photo of what you make from the book and include your review. You can (and should!) also share on Instagram or TikTok as well by tagging your photo with #f52cookbookclub

• Check out our Baking Club, too, if baking is your thing!

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Are you a “Tenderheart” fan? What’s your favorite recipe? Tell us below.