Eat your vegetables Bold recipes for the single cook

As more and more people embrace vegetable-heavy diets, the need for a primer on these wildly varying foods is great. Yonan, the Washington Post's Cooking for One columnist and author of Serve Yourself, comes at the subject from the solitary perspective, showing how to cook flavorful and healthy nonmeat meals that serve one. Yonan starts off with an excellent chapter that both novices and experienced cooks will find useful: how to store and use up extra ingredients, including herbs, avocado, citrus, celery, and beans. He offers fresh options on salads, such as cold spicy ramen noodles with tofu and kimchi; kale and mango nicoise; and Asian bean and barley salad. Sandwiches and soups also get a makeover: recipes include curried mushroom bean burgers; vegan sloppy joes; and green gumbo. Spinach enchiladas; sweet potato galette with mushrooms and kale; and chicken-fried cauliflower with miso-onion gravy offer appetizing alternatives to standard vegetarian meals. Desserts seem to be an afterthought in most vegetable cookbooks, but Yonan doesn't disappoint with his faux tart with instant lemon-ginger pudding and one-peach crisp with cardamom and honey. Recipes are designed to feed one but are easily doubled or can serve nicely as a side dish if desired. The greatly appealing dishes in this collection open up a whole new culinary world for veggie lovers. Agent: Lisa Ekus, the Lisa Ekus Group. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Minty Pea Soup with Pea and Feta Toast On a hot day, I want a cold pureed soup. This one goes down almost like a green smoothie, but I turn it into a meal by holding out some of the peas, mashing them with feta, and spreading it on thin toast as if it were the world's largest crouton. (There's a fine line between a smoothie and a cold soup; it's mostly a matter of the serving vessel and the garnish, isn't it?) By the way, I don't recommend low-fat or nonfat yogurt here, because the result can be slightly chalky rather than silky. 11/2 cups freshly shelled English peas (may substitute thawed frozen peas) 2 tablespoons crumbled feta 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 slices baguette or 1 large slice bread, toasted 8 large mint leaves, chopped 1/4 cup chopped chives 1 cup plain whole-milk Greek-style yogurt 1 ice cube Sea salt Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil, then blanch the peas until bright green and tender but not mushy, no more than a few minutes. Drain and let cool. Remove 1/4 cup of the peas and combine them in a small bowl with the feta. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, mash with a fork, and spread on the toast. Reserve a pinch each of the mint and chives for garnish. Combine the rest with the remaining 11/4 cup of peas, the yogurt, and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a blender, add the ice cube, and blend until very smooth and frothy. Add a little water if needed to thin the soup. Taste and add salt as needed. Pour into a bowl, sprinkle with the reserved chopped mint and chives, and eat with the pea and feta toast. Excerpted from Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook by Joe Yonan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.