Norberto (Negro) Piattoni, from Brooklyn’s live-fire joint Metta, comes from the Argentine school of grilling (for years, he worked with whole-animal maestro Francis Mallmann) and is known in large part for his facility with giant cuts of meat. Which is why it surprised us when, after a whirl through the MUNCHIES garden in late summer, he announced he was going to make us a vegan grain bowl.
It started in the garden, where a bunch of tiny strawberries caught his eye.
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Not just the berries, though. One of the berries had a squiggly passenger along for the ride. “He’s coming with us,” Piattoni laughed, and set off in search of herbs.
Next came kohlrabi, carrots, snap peas, nasturtium, and a massive pile of edible flowers.
Once back in the kitchen, Piattoni grabbed a bag of freekeh from his tote and set it on to boil while he prepped his market haul. The kohlrabi was chopped and dropped into a pot with a splash of water to simmer. The strawberries—along with their hanger-on—were covered with vinegar and set aside to pickle. The carrots got trimmed and washed, their greens saved for an eventual gremolata. Meanwhile, the carrots themselves went into a skillet with water, honey, and a combo of five spice and paprika.
Once they were tender and glazed, they got halved and set aside. The kohlrabi, tender at this point, went into a blender with a big glug of olive oil to be pureed into cream. On to the gremolata, which, in addition to the carrot tops, got a healthy dose of nasturtium leaves, honey, grapeseed oil, and lemon zest. (“Oh hey, I’ve never made a gremolata with nasturtium before—it’s actually pretty good.”)
Once the freekeh—”I use it in place of quinoa. Quinoa’s good for you, but it’s not sustainable.”— finished simmering, he folded the pureed kohlrabi into it and got ready to plate. He halved a couple sunny-sweet snap peas and mowed through his edible flower haul.
And then it was basically time to plate.
MAKE THIS: Freekeh Grain Bowl
And all that was left was to dig in and wonder, at every bite of strawberry, whether worms count as nose-to-tail eating.
