Harper Collins

A marinade of lime and tequila takes this Mexican-inspired salad to the next level.

To avoid the dreaded soggy pastry bottom, blind baking is a great technique to master. Baking the pastry case before any filling has been added allows it to crisp up, stopping any wet fillings seeping through.

Feel free to vary the vegetables in this salad according to what you have in your garden or find at the farmers' market.

This Hawaiian poke-style tuna rice bowl is packed with delicious, umami-rich protein.

The most refreshing treat of summer is just a few ingredients away.

Top a baked pizza crust with garlicky spinach pesto and raw sliced heirloom tomatoes for a wonderfully fresh summer dinner.

These little cakes remind me of a more sophisticated, stripped-back cupcake. Full of flavor with a dense but chewy crumb, it's like frangipane meets fairy cake. Beautifully simple to make, the biggest pitfall is not greasing your tins properly. If you don't have non-stick muffin tins or friand tins, make sure you butter them to death or you'll have eight fabulous cakes that you can’t get out of the tins.

This British recipe calls for “digestive biscuits,” but graham crackers will work just as well to infuse chocolate-filled vanilla cupcakes and toasted ‘mallow topping with that classic campfire flavor.

Pomegranate seeds look stunning sprinkled simply over the top of this pavlova. Their vibrant color really lifts the dessert, and the way they burst in your mouth complements the chewy meringue beautifully. I use sliced canned peaches when peaches are out of season; they work just as well.

No pie plate or tart pan? Fold fresh peaches into a flaky pastry dough and bake on a sheet pan for an easy, no-fuss summer dessert.

Plant-based Earth Balance baking sticks make a wonderful substitute for butter.

Plant-based Earth Balance baking sticks make a wonderful substitute for butter.

Toss this simple dressing through an easy summer salad.

Cool romaine lettuce and barbecue-flavored chickpeas combine to create great flavor and texture in this hearty pita sandwich. This pairs well with many simple companions—potatoes or sweet potatoes, fresh corn, a simple quinoa salad or pilaf, or a light soup. And steamed green veggies are always welcome, too.

Though I’m all for high-quality prepared sauces and such to use as shortcuts, I’ve never found a bottled vegan barbecue sauce I really like. But this nearly instant sauce is so easy that I’ve ended the search. It’s especially good with tofu, tempeh, and seitan.

I’ve already admitted that I’m usually too lazy to make pizza dough from scratch, what with good, natural brands of prepared crust so widely available. Once in a blue moon, though, I like to indulge; it’s really not that difficult. This is a recipe I’ve relied on for years when those blue moons come along.

To make these cakes, I use the reverse creaming method, as opposed to the more common creaming method. Instead of beating air into the sugar and butter, adding the eggs then stirring in the dry ingredients, the reverse creaming method requires the butter to be rubbed into the dry ingredients, followed by milk and eggs. As well as being simpler, with fewer stages, I think this method produces a better textured, more even sponge. When you rub the butter into the flour and sugar, the flour particles get coated in fat, which minimizes gluten formation in the cake. Gluten is the essential component in bread, but in cakes too much can produce a tough and chewy sponge.

The ingredients for a meringue are very simple; you need double the weight of sugar to egg whites. It is easy to make any quantity of meringue if you follow this 2:1 ratio.

Make this salad ahead of time to allow the flavors to become bolder. This is delicious in a bowl as a refreshing summer meal. Or serve this on top of a plate of assorted greens or bowl of cooked grains, rolled up in a tortilla, or as a topping for baked potatoes.