These 5 new cookbooks will help you master late-summer eating

With these summer releases on your shelf, you’ll be able to make best use of the season’s peppers and cucumbers, berries and cherries, sweet corn, fragrant melon, tomatoes and eggplant and fat pots of okra and luscious peaches and squash blossoms and…well, what more can we say? It’s summer. Eat your heart out. 

Fruitful: Sweet and Savory Fruit Recipes Inspired by Farms, Orchards and Gardens

By Sarah Johnson

“Experts in the field of wine discuss aroma, body, temperature, texture, acidity, and how they interact,” Sarah Johnson writes in the introduction to “Fruitful,” her first cookbook. “I believe the same can also be applied to cooking with fruit.” The chef recalls coming to appreciate fruit through the passionate family farmers she met through the restaurant world — she trained at Chez Panisse before relocating to England to work with Skye Gyngell — many of whom, like Jane Scotter of Herefordshire’s Fern Verrow, and Central Valley fruit specialist David “Mas” Masumoto, contribute musings of their own. Recipes are organized by fruit type and offer options for every course, from peach-prosciutto pizza and plummy spiced lamb to a jiggly blackcurrant jelly. Johnson also covers useful techniques for cooking with fruit (roasting, poaching) and other tips from her years working in pastry.

Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips, and Techniques

By Joe Yonan

The latest from Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan, publishing in September, has more than 300 plant-based recipes and plenty of ways to enjoy late-summer favorites: eggplant (smoked, baked, steamed), potatoes (with chili glaze or herby pepper sauce), tomatoes (paired with peach, watermelon, fig, corn or Scotch bonnets) more. We’ll also be cooking up the zucchini-and-corn pakoras and warm, earthy tacos filled with zucchini blossom and huitlacoche; an extensive selection of sauces and dressings will help you bring any fresh produce to a new level. Look out for cameos from other cooks and cookbook authors throughout “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” — including FoodPrint contributors Julia Skinner, who shared a few fermentation-focused recipes, and Alicia Kennedy with an essayistic ode to vegan baking.

Persian Feasts: Recipes & Stories From a Family Table

By Leila Heller

Summer is a time of gorgeous herbs and heat-tolerant greens, and in Persian cooking, both abound: in sabzi khordan, the fresh herb platter you’ll find on nearly every table; salads bright with dill, mint and tarragon; kookoo sabzi, the frittata that’s often more herbs than egg. Make use of the late-summer greenery with Leila Heller’s “Persian Feasts,” out in September, with many recipes that call for herbs by the cupful (or quartful). The gallerist dedicates her first cookbook to her mother, Nahid Taghinia-Milani, who left Iran with her children in 1979 and never returned; Heller worked with family friends Lila Charif, Laya Khadjavi and Bahar Tavakolian to collect her mother’s signature recipes and the stories behind them. You’ll also find a handy appendix at the back that breaks down the essential herbs of this rich cuisine.

No-Cook Cookbook: Fresh and Healthy Meals to Assemble, Eat, and Enjoy

By Susie Theodorou

The idea of turning on the oven can become entirely unappealing once the weather starts getting hot and sticky. For those times you just can’t bring yourself to cook, food stylist and cookbook author Susie Theodorou comes to the rescue. September’s “No-Cook Cookbook” is packed with ideas and strategies for assembling salads, crudites and herby, leafy bowls, plus condiments like simple pickles and tangy dressings. Often, the secret ingredient is one of Theodorou’s “flavor game changers,” ingredients like chickpeas, chili paste, preserved lemon or fish roe that add pop or complexity to produce and pantry items. You’ll find that much of the best of summer — tomatoes, peaches, purslane, melon, corn — can shine with little adornment and zero heat.

101 Tips for a Zero-Waste Kitchen

By Kathryn Kellogg

When the farmers’ market is at its most bountiful, it can be all too easy to go overboard. But if your eyes end up bigger than your stomach, try to keep your excess produce out of the landfill: Decomposing food accounts for around 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In “101 Tips for a Zero-Waste Kitchen,” out this month, waste-reduction advocate Kathryn Kellogg sketches loss and waste along the supply chain, but focuses on the home — the source of more than half of U.S. food waste. You’ll find plant-based recipes for using or preserving every part of your produce, plus tips for efficient shopping, a breakdown of dates on food labels and other strategies for reducing waste from the moment food goes into the cart.