Do I start out knowing all the cooking recipes in Skyrim?

I'm finding a lot of vegetables on my travels through Skyrim. Two in particular, the Carrot and the Potato, don't show up in any of the cooking recipes I started out with.

• Is there some method to learn new cooking recipes in-game, or are you stuck with what you know at the start?
• If not, is there any use for Carrots and Gourds(and other equally useless veggies) other than selling them en masse for 0 gold? (Even the NPCs think they're worthless!)

Solution 1:

You get all the possible cooking recipes from the start: it just depends on what ingredients you have on hand. When you visit a cooking pot, you'll see all the available recipes, and when you have the right ingredients, the recipes will enable.

The stews and soup that you can make with cooking sell for a few gold and have some basic perks, but are not nearly as good as potions. In terms of what you can make with carrots and potatoes, there's:

Beef stew

carrots, garlic, raw beef, and salt pile
Increases max stamina by 25, stamina regeneration for 12 minutes

Cabbage potato stew

cabbage, leeks, potatoes, and salt pile
Restores 10 health and stamina

Vegetable soup

cabbage, leeks, potatoes, and tomatoes
Health and stamina regeneration for 12 minutes

Venison stew

leeks, potatoes, salt pile, and venison Restores 15 stamina, health and stamina regeneration for 12 minutes

If you scroll over the other recipes while using a cooking pot, the items you need to make them are listed under the item detail box.

Solution 2:

Sell them to the farmer near whiterun for 2 gold a piece