We all know that in the south, macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes are vegetables. That’s because they appear on most all “meat and three’s.” But, starch aside, in the summer, when corn, squash, tomatoes, okra and cucumbers are abundant, who really needs the “meat?” Not us.
From our humble meat-and-three joints to our chef-driven farm-to-table restaurants, here’s a sampling of summer vegetable plates.
Chef Clay Greenberg and Paul Cercone opened SILO in 2012, and their contemporary farm-to-table eatery became quickly embraced by the Germantown neighborhood—and beyond. In designing the menu, seasonality is ever at the forefront for the SILO team. And for their vegetarian plate, they push it further. It’s also vegan and gluten free.
Lately, that special plate has had nutrient-dense sorghum seed at its base. “When boiled, they’re kind of nutty and eat like wheat berries,” explains Greenberg. “And when you sauté the seeds, they pop, like mini-popcorn.”
Summer vegetables—heirloom tomatoes, okra, squash— get a beautiful char before being placed on the sorghum seed “couscous.” Greenberg likes to garnish the plate with dandelion flowers, pickled red onions and that beguiling popped sorghum seed.
1121 5th Avenue North, Nashville TN 37208 | 615-750-2912
Whether you are vegetarian or simply a lover of vegetables, you can always count on Chef Roderick Bailey of The Silly Goose to offer something extraordinary: Global tastes with local ingredients. One of his small plates, called Rapp, is a gorgeous assembly that picks up on tastes of a Spanish tapas bar: Crisp Yukon gold potatoes and haricots verts (french green beans) are dressed in hazelnut romesco, paprika oil and shavings of manchego cheese. Under his S.V.S. heading—that’s Summer Vegetable Selection—you might find ribbons of cucumber laced with fresh corn, blueberries, cashews and minted Greek yogurt. Or, arugula, layered with roasted patty pan squash, corn, and smoked red pepper goat cheese and sherry vinaigrette.
1888 Eastland Avenue, Nashville TN 37206 | 615-915-0757
Wendell Smith’s Corner is a part of Nashville history, the Charlotte Pike restaurant plus liquor store, opened its doors in 1952. To this day, it retains its mid-century funk and charm. Wendell’s first became known for its diner-style breakfast and lunch. When son-in-law Jakie Cook took over managing the restaurant in 1969, it came into its own as a Southern Meat-and-Three. The handwritten menu has a lengthy roster of veggies with sliced tomatoes topping the list. Ask where those ripe red beauties came from and they’ll tell you. They seek out the best around. Sell you some by the pound to take home, if you like. For honest down-home cooking, you can’t go wrong with a Four Vegetable Plate of baked squash, smoky turnip greens, fresh fried corn, and sliced tomatoes, of course.
5300 Charlotte Pike, Nashville TN 37209 | 615-383-7114
Jack and Rose Arnold’s place has long drawn crowds for their soul-satisfying meat-and-three meals, so much so that their country kitchen earned them a James Beard Award in 2009. When son Kahlil took over as chef, he continued cooking in the family’s tradition. But he kicked things up a notch. Witness: Boiled sweet cabbage with fresh dill. Wasabi powder in the turnip greens and collards. Throughout the summer, you’ll find delicious surprises among the line-up of classic comforts. Your vegetable plate could be filled with Georgia peach and cucumber salad with mint; corn and speckled butter bean succotash with basil and red bell pepper; and roasted cherry tomato-jalapeno grits casserole. But, you’ll be just as content with corn pudding, string beans, fried green tomatoes, and those woo-hoo kicked-up collards.
605 8TH Avenue South, Nashville TN 37203 | 615-256-4455
At The Wild Cow, one of the few dedicated vegetarian-vegan restaurants in Nashville, you could say that every plate celebrates the vegetable. Look for specials, which could be a plate of stewed okra and tomatoes, embellished with kale, batons of grilled squash, and toasted sunflower seeds. But one celebratory favorite is a menu mainstay: the bowl of organic quinoa topped with roasted seasonal vegetables and garlicky aioli. The protein-rich grain provides the constant, the season’s harvest provides the variety. And in summer, it might its most vibrant. Consider this: Rainbow chard, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, green and yellow wax beans, new potatoes….ah, summer in a bowl.
1896 Eastland Avenue, Nashville TN 37206 | 615-262-2717
At HUSK Nashville, the menu changes twice daily; you can never predict what Chef Sean Brock and his team will be cooking up for the Plate of Southern Vegetables. But you can trust that the selections will be so fresh, so of-the-moment—they’ll have been picked that morning by a local farmer, or from the Rutledge Street restaurant’s own garden. Steamed, Sauteed, Raw, Pureed: Brock likes to assemble a variety of textures on the same plate. A tangle of marinated raw zucchini, pole beans simmered in vegetable stock, crowned with slow-roasted tomatoes and benne seeds, field pea and corn succotash, squash seed risotto, whipped eggplant and sweet red bell pepper, grits puddled in tomato broth. The possibilities are as long as summer.
37 Rutledge Street, Nashville TN 37210 | 615-256-6565