"We had gone out to Pelican Produce, which is a family farm that’s renting plots all up around the Ninth Ward. They convert the land, take out the dirt and replace it with organic soil and we’re getting some amazing vegetables from them.

One of the first things we got was a case of giant beets. I used to grow vegetables on a farm, but we got nothing like these—these were massive!

Beet is earthy and adds a nice savory-ness at the beginning of a meal. Plus the color is striking, brilliant...