When the new Brassicas cookbook landed on our desks, we flipped. This cookbook represents everything that we love about being a part of the wellness movement: nutrient-dense greens, beautiful photography, drool-worthy recipes, and insights into diet modifications. Each chapter of the cookbook is devoted to a single vegetable or class of brassicas (leafy, Asian or root). Beginning with key information on selection, preparation and nutrition, author Laura B. Russell walks you through the basics of preparing these amazing superfoods.

Find recipes utilizing the full range of brassicas including kale, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage, and the more unique mizuna, tatsoi and kohlrabi. If you’ve ever wondered how to cook those odd farmers’s market finds, this is the book for you! Start with this smoky kale salad topped with toasted almonds and eggs. Here is Laura with a few more insights…

Over the past few years, raw kale salads have become one of my favorite foods, making it difficult to narrow down which recipes to share. One reason I like them so much is because they take well to all kinds of tasty additions, such as fruits (grapes, dates, figs, pomegranate seeds), nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans), diced avocado, roasted bell pepper and aged or salty cheese (goat, feta, Parmesan, pecorino). This salad is particularly straightforward: thinly sliced kale is combined with a Spanish-inspired dressing made from smoked paprika and sherry vinegar and then garnished with chopped egg and toasted almonds. Serve it alone as a simple lunch, or offer it as a side dish to skewers of garlicky grilled shrimp for supper. For an added, albeit expensive, Spanish touch, use Marcona almonds.