In the Kitchen: 3 Cookbooks That Celebrate Summer

The sun blazes, the birds chirp, and the zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes thrive. Summer is the perfect time to dive into vegetarian and vegan cooking. With a little help from a few new notable titles, the garden can be your oyster.

Farmacy Kitchen Cookbook
by Camilla Fayed

Let nature envelope you in food, body, and lifestyle in Camilla Fayed's (fashion insider, English style royalty) cookbook based on the dishes from her veggie-centric London restaurants of the same name in "Farmacy Kitchen Cookbook."

Whether you start your day with vegan fluffy pancakes (gluten and dairy free and topped with homemade applesauce and chia jam) or finish your evening with a raw chocolate tart, Fayed has all your meals covered with simple healthy ideas for the kitchen and tips on home and beauty to boot.

Fluffy Pancakes
Everyone loves pancakes and this recipe offers a healthy, gluten-free version of the family favorite. The buckwheat is a nourishing and energizing alternative to the flour traditionally used to make pancakes. Buckwheat is non-allergenic and contains high levels of rutin, which helps combat high blood pressure, and there are plenty of easily digestible proteins here, too. This is delicious as a breakfast dish or a dessert.

Serves 5
Preparation time: 25 minutes

� cup gluten-free oat flour (or whizz rolled oats in a blender to make flour)
� cup buckwheat flour
1 cup unsweetened Homemade Apple Sauce (see page 95)
� cup dairy-free milk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To serve
sliced bananas
fresh berries
coconut yogurt
maple syrup

Place all the ingredients in a blender and pur�e until smooth.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and, when hot, pour 2/3 cup of pancake batter into the center of the pan. Spread it into a circle with the back of a spoon, keeping it reasonably thick. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Slide a spatula underneath the pancake, flip it over, and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes before removing it from the pan. Put the pancake on a warm plate and cover with a dishcloth. Repeat until you have used up all the batter.

Serve with banana slices, berries, jam, coconut yogurt, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Cook Share Eat Vegan
by Aine Carlin

Vegan made simple and accessible, "Cook Share Eat Vegan" encourages and demystifies plant-based eating but doesn't skimp on the comfort. The UK's best selling vegan author, Aine Carlin (with two other vegan's how to's to her name) takes vegan cooking to heart but doesn't take it too seriously.

Recipes tug at the flavor heartstrings and zing with flavor like chocolate orange pots and "Chip-Shop" vegetable curry while she still challenging readers to try something new like glass noodle salad, perfect for summer packed with crunchy cucumbers and sugar snap peas.

Glass Noodle Salad
Rice noodles are a godsend. If ever I'm pushed for time or haven't the energy to cook properly, these are what I wheel out -- I call it a "shortcut with style." While these are perfectly wonderful eaten alone, I also often serve them as part of a larger meal or buffet so people can wrangle with the noodles themselves and enjoy their clean-tasting, Asian-inspired vibe. They also happen to look rather pretty, especially adorned with a sprinkling of black sesame seeds to set off the glorious, pale green hue. Grab your chopsticks and let's go.

Serves 2 to 4

2 rice noodle nests
3/4 cup frozen shelled edamame
� cucumber, cut into ribbons
3 1/2 oz. sugar snap peas, sliced diagonally

Zesty Asian dressing
1 small red chile, finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons tamari
� tablespoon sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
� tablespoon rice mirin

To serve
2 scallions, sliced
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

Place the rice noodles and edamame in a large bowl and cover with freshly boiled water. Let soak for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally with chopsticks to break up the nests of noodles. When the noodles are soft, drain and set aside.

To make the dressing, mix the chile and ginger together in a small bowl to form a paste, then add the remaining ingredients and whisk together vigorously.

Pour the dressing over the noodles and combine, using your hands. Add the cucumber and sugar snap peas to the bowl and mix to combine. Refrigerate until needed.

When ready to serve, garnish with the scallion and sesame seeds.

Rosa's Thai Caf�: The Vegetarian Cookbook
by Saiphin Moore

Sometimes when the temperature climbs we need a little spice to sweat it all out. What started as a food cart in London's Brick Lane eventually expanded to Rosa's Thai Cafe and now its namesake cookbook offers traditional Thai recipes with a trendy and completely vegetarian vibe.

Hailing originally from a mountain farm in Khao Kho in northern Thailand, author Saiphin Moore plays with the classics like pad thai, tofu satay and gives the home cook easy-to-follow instructions for the journey into Thai cuisine, including ingredient glossaries and cookware tutorials.

Tum Khao Pod (Thai Sweetcorn Salad)

The balance of this dish is just fantastic - little pockets of sweetness in a salty base. I used to pick corn cobs with my dad, driving to the fields in his makeshift tractor. This dish was my father's and this is his recipe.

Serves 2

2 red bird's eye chilies
2 garlic cloves
20g (�oz) yard-long beans, cut into 2.5cm ?(1 inch) pieces
1 tablespoon palm sugar
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
� teaspoon sea salt flakes
1 tomato, cut into wedges
100g (3�oz) shredded carrot
150g (5�oz) canned sweetcorn (drained weight)
100g (3�oz) toasted cashew nuts

Using a large pestle and mortar, crush together the chilies and garlic to form a rough paste. Add the yard-long beans and pound briefly to crush them a little. Stir in the palm sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and salt.

Add the tomato and pound briefly. Then stir in the carrot and sweetcorn and pound gently.

Transfer to a serving bowl, top with the cashews and serve immediately.