Like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, like salt and pepper, like peanut butter and jelly… some things seem to go hand in hand. Just as certain wines pair up better with certain meats, the same is true for vegetables.
Putting the right vegetable with the right meat can help create a delicious well-coordinated meal with flavours and textures that complement each other, much to the savory delight of your family or guests. This is not to suggest that there are any wrong combinations or that you couldn’t match any vegetable with any meat but some meat-veggie unions are tastily more pleasing than others.
Here, to lend a little guidance to uncertain cooks, is a list suggesting some of the more compatible meats and vegetables.
Beef:
broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, green beans, tomatoes, beets, mushrooms, eggplant, white turnips, parsnips, kohlrabi.
Lamb:
artichokes (French), carrots, peas, winter squash, creamed cauliflower, yellow turnips.
Chicken:
corn, Lima beans, peas, sweet potatoes, broccoli.
Pork:
cabbage, cauliflower, celery, spinach and other greens, tomatoes, summer squash, sweet potatoes.
Fish:
tomatoes, peas, green beans, asparagus, cucumbers, celery.
Turkey:
creamed onions, mashed rutabagas, Hubbard squash, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts.
Ham:
asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, celery, green beans, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and other greens, zucchini.
Veal:
artichokes (French), beets, creamed asparagus, fried eggplant, succotash, winter squash, creamed mushrooms.
