Marcia Bellanco from Wyoming recently bought her first rutabaga and added the plump root vegetable to a split pea and zucchini soup.

Leslie Solomon from Hudson couldn’t find arugula, so she used a spring mix as a base for her salad featuring watermelon and feta.

And Lisa Sweeney from Jenkins Township decided her “Buffalo Cauliflower” would have been crispier if she’d used an air fryer instead of baking it.

As they gathered around a table in the West Pittston Library for a meeting of the Cookbook Book Club on a recent Tuesday evening, seven women shared food they’d brought from home and talked about the adventures of following new recipes, all from the same cookbook.

“I would definitely make this again,” said Lynn Rachkowski of Harding, who was so pleased with the soup she had made from kale, tomato and cannellini beans that she’d already made more than one batch. “And if you really hate kale, spinach works.”

“I would make this again in a heartbeat,” Sweeney said of a second dish she had made — a tomato soup with “a strong garlicky flavor … it would go really well with a grilled cheese sandwich.”

The recipes of the evening all came from “Mostly Plants: 101 Delicious Flexitarian Recipes from the Pollan Family,” written by Tracy, Dana, Lori and Corky Pollan with a foreword by Michael Pollan.

Kendra O’Brien, adult program coordinator at the library, had chosen that cookbook as source material “because it’s January,” and many people likely would have resolved to follow a healthy (in this case, plant-based) diet in the new year.

The Cookbook Book Club is new to the library, O’Brien said, and it will feature a different cookbook each month.

Patrons may visit the library, peruse the cookbook of the month and choose a recipe. They are invited to make the dish at home and bring it to share at the next potluck. Library staff will make a note of the recipes that are already chosen to avoid duplicates.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be three or four different kinds of soups or several salads. Anybody who’s ever been to a potluck knows that often happens, and it always works out.

O’Brien’s intentions for the camaraderie-building Cookbook Book Club are that participants will “taste, compare notes, swap kitchen tips and celebrate both successes and the occasional ‘learning experience.’ “

All cooking levels are welcome, she said. “Bring your appetite and your curiosity.”

As they chatted about the food Tuesday evening, Stephanie Lyman from Wilkes-Barre described the recipe for the vegetable turkey chili she had made as “easy to follow, but there was a lot of chopping.” It was her first chili, she said, because her husband usually makes his own version of that dish.

O’Brien joked that the Pollan family of cookbook authors “must really like zucchini” because that versatile vegetable showed up in several recipes, including the zucchini cake she had baked.

Bellanco said she had put the rutabaga in hot water to more easily remove the protective wax coating.

Rachkowski said she had already shared a batch of her kale and bean soup with her co-workers, who enjoyed it.

And Sweeney said if she were going to use harissa — a chili pepper paste the Buffalo Cauliflower recipe called for — she would have had to order it online, so she substituted a more readily available Frank’s hot sauce. A busy cook, Sweeney said she’d made two dishes, so that she could contribute the cauliflower while her mom, Darlene Yeager, could contribute the tomato soup.

Some cooks mentioned they thought white wine — or “any kind of wine” — would complement the dishes they had brought. Of course, there was no alcohol at the library. But next month’s Cookbook Book Club potluck, set for 6 p.m. Feb. 3, promises to offer a little more self-indulgence than the January meeting.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, O’Brien said, there will be a cookbook filled with chocolate recipes.

Future potluck dates are March 3, April 7, May 5 and June 9. Participants may register in person at the library or call 570-654-9847.