This dietitian and chef duo have produced a wonderful vegan cookbook with extensive nutrition information. You’ll find a lot of helpful tips in this book including 12 menus, a chart of foods grouped according to six tastes, a shopping list, and kitchen equipment list. Nutritional analyses are also provided.

There are many creative recipes including Good Morning Granola, Sunflower-Sesame Spread, Carrot, Lemongrass and Basil Soup, Vietnamese Salad, Avocado, Grapefruit and Chipotle Dressing, Sushi Rolls, African chickpea Stew, Sweet and Sour Tofu, Cashew Cheese Lasagne, Tamarind-Date Sauce, Rosemary Gravy, Lemon Roasted Potatose, Chocolate-Orange Cake, and Lime Pie.

During the summer, you want to make the following recipe from this cookbook. It is a quick and easy vegan dish to prepare that involves little cooking. For a complete meal, you can serve this dish with rice and salsa.

Black Beans with Coconut and Mango
Makes about two 1-cup servings

• 1 3/4 cups cooked or canned black beans, rinsed
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups fresh or frozen mango pieces

Put the black beans, coconut milk, lime juice, chili powder, and salt in a medium saucepan and stir until combined. Cook over medium-high heat until the coconut milk comes to a boil. Decrease heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Stir in the mango, cover, and cook stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes, or until heated through.

Variations: Omit the mango. Slice or cube 1 avocado. Garnish each portion with half of the avocado before serving. Also, you can replace the mango with one small papaya, peeled, seeded, and cubed.

Cooking Vegan (ISBN 978-1-57067-267-5) is 264-pages. It is published by Book Publishing Company and can be purchased from The Vegetarian Resource Group from our online bookstore.