Summer is theoretically winding down, but the fall is still eons away, as far as we’re concerned. As this late-in-the-season heat continues through our days and into the evening, we’ve been feeling like keeping our fiction and our food as light as can be. If you’ve got the same inclination, pick up any of these fun, easy-reading novels or vegetarian-focused cookbooks to set the stage for a perfectly breezy pairing.
Black Rican Vegan
by Lyana Blount
The Best Latin & Soul Food Made Entirely Vegan
Growing up in a Puerto Rican and Black household, Lyana Blount knew from a young age that food was a love language, and it was one she intended to master. After going vegan, she set out to capture the flavor, vibrancy and love in her family's recipes with lighter plant-based ingredients. And with that, her NYC pop-up Black Rican Vegan was born! In this personal collection of recipes, Lyana shares the secrets behind the vegan, Latin soul food she's famous for, so you can make her incredible meals right in your own kitchen and enjoy healthier versions of beloved classics.
These 60 dishes combine crowd-pleasing favorites from the Black Rican Vegan menu, OG meals from the five boroughs and passed down family recipes. Make Puerto Rican fare like Holiday Vernil, Chicharron sin Carne, Mofonguitos con Vegan Camarones and Sopa de Salchicon. Celebrate the diverse NYC food scene with recipes like Moxtails, NYC Bacun Eggin Cheeze, Succulent Birria Tacos, Titi's Lasagna for Dad and Bronx Fried Oyster Mushrooms. Lyana's ingenious plant-based swaps will have you wowing your friends and family with ridiculously good meals no one will believe are vegan. Because after all, food is love, and nothing helps you share that more than the incredible plant-based recipes in Black Rican Vegan.
Plant-Based Delicious
by Ashley Madden
Comforting Vegan Dishes for Every Craving
Bestselling author Ashley Madden makes it easy to prepare--and fall in love with--comforting dishes packed with fresh flavors and good-for-you ingredients with this incredible vegan cookbook. Every recipe features delicious flavor combinations that will intrigue and impress your tastebuds while also nourishing your body. What's more is that every recipe is gluten and oil free, so you can enjoy the comforting dishes you crave while accommodating dietary preferences. Recipes include:
- Spicy Sheet Pan Cauliflower Tacos
- Brown Rice Poutine with Miso Gravy
- Tofu Benedict Bowls with Corn Hollandaise and Spinach
- Mixed Mushroom Lasagna with Kale and White Bean Ricotta
- Moroccan Potpies with Almond Pastry
- Maple Bakon Cauliflower Steaks with Lentils and Ranch Dressing
- Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Cheesecake
- Double Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies
Whether you're a seasoned vegan looking to add new meals to your rotation or a newbie looking to incorporate more vegetables into your diet, each whole-food recipe is sure to be a favorite that you'll remake over and over. With these modern versions of beloved comfort food dishes, you'll never again have to compromise your health for great flavor.
Voilà Vegan
by Amanda Bankert
Plant-based sweets adored by even the most discerning pastry lovers, from an American pâtissière in Paris
Since 2016, Amanda Bankert has been the surreptitious purveyor of vegan treats in the world's most butter-obsessed city: Paris. It started with donuts; Bankert, an American expat, brought the first artisanal versions of the stateside delicacy to France with her bakery, Boneshaker, in the 2nd arrondissement. Boneshaker then expanded from donuts, to brownies, to French desserts like macarons and profiteroles--all made without dairy or eggs--and the Parisians who devoured her wares didn't even notice.
Now, with over eighty-five entirely plant-based but still decadent recipes, Bankert shares the cakes, cookies, candies, and drinks that have fooled and enthralled her patrons, as well as delightful stories from her kitchen and travels. Using both American and French techniques, dig into secretly vegan breakfasts like Banana Tarte Tatin French Toast and Pumpkin Cake Donuts; gâteaux de voyage (travel-friendly cakes) such as Signature Salted Caramel & Roasted Peanut Brownies; and classically French treats, including Crêpes Suzette and Raspberry-Chocolate Macarons. Voilà! Vegan dessert is served.
Tenderheart
by Hetty Lui McKinnon
ONE OF BON APPETIT'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - The acclaimed author of To Asia, With Love explores how food connects us to our loved ones and gives us the tools to make vegetarian recipes that are healthful, economical, and bursting with flavor.
"A love letter to vegetables and almost a memoir through recipes, this truly special book speaks to the soul as much as to the stomach." --Nigella Lawson, author of Cook, Eat, Repeat
"Gorgeous, down to earth, vegetable-driven dishes that strike the most delicious balance between fresh and exciting, and cozy and approachable." --Molly Yeh, Food Network host and NYT Bestselling author of Home Is Where the Eggs Are and Molly on the Range
Heritage and food have always been linked for Hetty Lui McKinnon. Tenderheart is a loving homage to her father, a Chinese immigrant in Australia, told in flavorful, vegetarian recipes. Growing up as part of a Chinese family in Australia, McKinnon formed a deep appreciation for her bicultural identity, and for her father, who moved to Sydney as a teenager and learned English while selling bananas at a local market. As he brought home crates full of produce after work, McKinnon learned about the beauty and versatility of fruits and vegetables.
Tenderheart is the happy outcome of McKinnon's love of vegetables, featuring 22 essential fruits and vegetables that become the basis for over 180 recipes.
- Miso Mushroom Ragu with Baked Polenta
- Carrot and Vermicelli Buns
- Crispy Potato Tacos
- Kale, Ginger and Green Onion Noodles
- Broccoli Wontons with Umami Crisp
- Soy-Butter Bok Choy Pasta
- Sweet Potato and Black Sesame Marble Bundt
You Can Cook This!
by Max La Manna
135 super-simple plant-based recipes that celebrate your favorite vegetables and save time, money, and waste, from social media star chef Max La Manna
Discover brilliantly simple and flavor-packed recipes that embrace the power of plants--and help you fight food waste. For one year, Max La Manna asked his social media audience which foods they threw away the most, and using the tens of thousands of responses, he narrowed down a list of thirty of the most commonly wasted ingredients, which serve as the foundation of this cookbook. Using his innovative approach to transforming these components into delicious dishes with big flavor, You Can Cook This! offers 135 no-fuss, plant-based recipes that anyone can get on the table with joy and ease, including:
- Crispy Smashed Potatoes with Spicy Lemon Mayo
- Cauliflower Ragu
- Tofu Butter "Chicken"
- Stems and Herbs Pesto Pasta
- Coffee Ground Pancakes
- Triple Chocolate Birthday Cake
Covering everything from weeknight dinners and comforting one-pot meals to sweet treats and instant crowd-pleasers, this book is also a solutions-based guide, with practical ideas for using up the whole vegetable, transforming leftovers, and storing food to maximize freshness. And with the recipes organized by ingredient, you can quickly and easily find a meal that uses what you already have on hand, whether it's the bag of salad in the back of your fridge, the bread sitting on your counter, or the broccoli stems you're not sure how to use.
Max's few-ingredient, low-waste recipes will inspire, excite, and transform the way you cook, eat, and save food.
Some of the recipes in this book include dairy products, but please know that you can use your favorite plant-based substitution for an equally delicious dish.
Ever-Green Vietnamese
by Andrea Nguyen
Plant-based cooking meets the dynamic flavors of Vietnamese cuisine in these 125+ recipes and variations--from the James Beard Award-winning author of Vietnamese Food Every Day
Although many people think of Vietnamese cooking as beefy pho and meat-filled sandwiches, traditional Vietnamese cooking has always involved a lot of plants and seafood, and a little meat. In Ever-Green Vietnamese, Andrea Nguyen details how cooks in her home country draw on their natural resourcefulness and Buddhist traditions to showcase a wide array of herbs and vegetables in flavorful, comforting recipes.
Filled with the brilliant advice and exceptional teaching Nguyen is known for, the book offers recipes for flavor-boosting condiments and sauces (her incredible DIY vegan fish sauce), exciting ways to enjoy tofu, and dozens of vegetable-driven sides and mains, including a few that incorporate a bit of meat (many with vegetarian or vegan options). Home cooks will revel in Nguyen's ingenious recipes for:
Favorite snacks, like Smoky Tofu-Nori Wontons and Steamed Veggie Bao
Vietnamese classics, like Fast Vegetarian Pho and Banh Mi with Vegan Mayonnaise and Bologna
Simple sides, like Nuoc Cham Cabbage Stir-Fry and Green Mango, Beet, and Herb Salad
Wholesome hacks, like Sweet Potato and Shrimp Fritters and Oven-Fried Crispy Shiitake Imperial Rolls
Full of cultural context, loads of instruction, and practical cooking tips, Ever-Green Vietnamese is perfect for anyone looking to incorporate plant-based Vietnamese cooking into their busy lives.
Sister Friends Forever
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
This emotional novel from a New York Times bestselling author follows four lifelong friends as each faces a crisis in family, love, and forgiveness.
Serena, Michelle, Kenya, and Lynette have been best friends since they were small children. And as sister-friends forever, they have always been there for one another, through good times and bad, no matter what.
This year is a crucial turning point for each woman. Serena, still single, is questioning why love hasn't found her yet. Michelle is engaged and ready to walk down the aisle--until an old flame strolls back into her life. Kenya is happily married, but at the same time, her husband's ex-wife won't allow them or their family to live in peace. And Lynette's divorce from her cheating husband has her nervously dating for the first time in well over a decade.
During this difficult period, their friendship will be tested like never before. Yet it is that sisterly love that they will need…more than ever.
Someone Just Like You
by Meredith Schorr
Two childhood rivals are forced to work together to plan their parents' anniversary party in "this pitch-perfect enemies-to-lovers rom-com." (BookPage)
New Yorker Molly Blum knows everything about her lifelong nemesis, Jude Stark. With their families so close, they should have been best friends. Instead, she thinks he's a too-charming slacker, and he thinks she's allergic to fun. After years of one-upping each other's pranks (chocolate-dipped cat treats are not as delicious as they appear), one high school joke went too far, and they stopped speaking completely. But now that they're supposed to help plan a massive party for their parents--together--there's no better time to resume their war.
And it is on. Only somewhere between all the sniping and harmless hijinks, a reluctant friendship develops, along with an unexpected spark of sexual tension. It might have to do with the fact that she's been dating Jude-lookalikes and he's been dating Molly doppelgangers. Or the fact that neither of them is nearly as horrible as they thought. All Molly and Jude know is that they've mastered the art of hating each other. Falling in love, on the other hand, is a whole new battlefield.
Smells Like Tween Spirit
by Laurie Gelman
Even with the cutthroat days of being Class Mom behind her, as a freshly minted mat mom of the Pioneer Middle School (PMS) wrestling team, Jen Dixon cannot catch a break.
This year, as her son joins the ranks of the PMS wrestlers, Jen faces mystifying new social dynamics with her trademark combination of reluctance and resigned acceptance. The sights and smells of her son's wrestling matches are more than enough for her to deal with, but Jen also finds herself fully immersed in sports-mom competitiveness. These parents all seem perfectly unassuming until their kids start to wrestle, and then some become raging momsters.
Jen steels herself for the indignities of middle school life, but she cannot quite fathom the extents to which some kids (and moms) will go for the sweet taste of victory. Add to this some truly bizarre encounters with students from her spin class and deeper challenges managing her parents, and Jen has more gum than she can chew...and even her riotously funny one-liners might not get her through it this time.
The Book of Silver Linings
by Nan Fischer
Within the margins of an antique book, a timeless love waits for a young woman on the precipice of a terrible mistake in this enthralling exploration of fate and independence from the acclaimed author of Some of It Was Real.
Constance Sparks always says yes...when her capricious best friend needs money; when her boss gives her more responsibility without a raise; and when her boyfriend, Hayden, who is very kind but also secretive, asks her to marry him.
While planning their wedding--and struggling with anxiety about the right course for her future--Constance researches the history of her antique engagement ring and unearths the name of a man who might be connected to it, plus his tragic love story. When she finds a book of letters in her library's old manuscript section written by the long-dead man, Constance is deeply touched by his words and leaves a note for him confessing her uncertainty and doubts. She's shocked days later to find a response tucked among the pages.
As the notes continue to arrive, Constance finds herself quickly falling in love with a ghost and putting her real-life relationship in jeopardy. Will a bond based on letters impossibly sent from the past derail her future? Or will Constance discover her voice and risk everything for the chance to somehow connect with her true soul mate?
Save What's Left
by Elizabeth Castellano
GMA BOOK CLUB PICK - ONE OF PEOPLE MAGAZINE'S BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER - An outrageously funny debut novel about a woman who moves to a small beach town looking for peace, only to find herself in an all-out war with her neighbors.
"Irreverent and unexpectedly tender, this story takes neighborhood feuding to new heights and finds beauty and reinvention in unlikely places." --Oprah Daily
"Brings a tongue-in-cheek tone to the beach read genre."--TIME
When Kathleen Deane's husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage, Kathleen is confused. They live in Kansas. They've been married thirty years. Who said anything about being happy? But with Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thoughts lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year.
It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie's letters. Kathleen's new neighbor, Rosemary, is cantankerous, and the town's supervisor won't return Kathleen's emails, but worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen's absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in the fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairytale, but it just might be exactly what she needed.
Save What's Left can best be described as the "un-beach read." It pulls back the curtain on life in a beach town, revealing the true cost of a pretty view. Told from the candid and irreverent perspective of a newcomer turned local, this is a story of forgiveness, fortitude, and second chances.
The Little Italian Hotel
by Phaedra Patrick
When a relationship expert's own marriage falls apart, she invites four strangers to Italy for a vacation of healing and second chances in this uplifting new novel from the author of The Messy Lives of Book People.
Ginny Splinter, acclaimed radio host and advice expert, prides herself on knowing what's best for others. So she's sure her husband, Adrian, will love the special trip to Italy she's planned for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. But when Ginny presents the gift to Adrian, he surprises her with his own very different plan--a divorce.
Beside herself with heartache, Ginny impulsively invites four heartbroken listeners to join her in Italy instead while live on air. From hiking the hills of Bologna to riding a gondola in Venice to sharing stories around the dining table of the little Italian hotel, Ginny and her newfound company embark on a vacation of healing.
However, when Adrian starts to rethink their relationship, Ginny must decide whether to commit to her marriage or start afresh, alone. And an unexpected stranger may hold the key to a very different future... Sunny, tender and brimming with charm, The Little Italian Hotel explores marriage, identity and reclaiming the present moment--even if it means leaving the past behind.
Look for Phaedra Patrick's previous charming bestsellers!
- The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
- Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone
- The Library of Lost and Found
- The Secrets of Love Story Bridge
- The Messy Lives of Book People