The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook
Delicious recipes that celebrate the seasonal harvests of the Sunshine State
With year-round harvests and incredible seasonal variety of crops, Florida offers a wealth of homegrown foods that make it easy to cook local and fresh. Food journalist Dalia Colón is your guide to discovering flavorful dishes that showcase Florida’s bounty of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and grains.
The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook includes more than 100 recipes using local ingredients as distinctive as oranges, tomatoes, and watermelon and as interesting as sugarcane, peanuts, cabbage, squash, and cantaloupe. Colón inspires readers to try new twists on classic recipes such as her Spanakopita, a satisfying entrée that pays homage to the Greek restaurants of Tarpon Springs; her sweet-and-spicy Game Day Buffalo Cauliflower that will win over any potluck party; and her Chocolate-Dipped Avocado Paletas that combine creamy avocado, zesty lime, and sweet dark chocolate for a refreshing treat in the summer heat.
Colón’s recipes are accompanied by 12 essays that offer the stories behind some of Florida’s most cherished food traditions. Topics include the origins of the Florida Strawberry Festival, the rise and decline of Florida’s citrus industry, the importance of corn for Florida’s First Peoples, and more. Crafted for home cooks seeking to lean into a plant-based lifestyle, this cookbook includes tips on how to plan meals around seasonal fruits and vegetables, using local farmers markets for fresh produce, and exploring the cuisines of different cultures.
Colorfully illustrated with simple step-by-step instructions, this book will take you on a delectable journey through the many ways that vegetarian and vegan foods are woven into Florida’s history and culture.
“The FloridaVegetarian Cookbook is a great addition to the Sunshine State bookshelf. It’s not just about the seasonal advantages of living in the Southeast. Colón goes a step beyond by helping vegetarians and vegans navigate their options for a well-rounded and flavorful lifestyle. Her understanding of and her passion for the bounty of Florida’s harvests is clearly authentic.”—Chef Art Smith, two-time James Beard Foundation Award winner
“Colón makes her recipes seamlessly easy to follow, fun, and delightfully sunny. She’s captured our tastes and flavors and I personally can’t wait to dig in.”—Chef Michelle Bernstein, James Beard Foundation Award winner
“This fresh, fun, healthy, and delicious cookbook is a roadmap for the modern Florida home cook!”—Chef Justin Timineri, executive chef and culinary ambassador for Fresh From Florida, Florida Department of Agriculture
“Colón’s recipes show how a meatless diet can be full of healthy alternative proteins. Her flavor profiles are global and add depth for the home cook looking to expand their culinary repertoire.”—Heather McPherson, coauthor of Field to Feast: Recipes Celebrating Florida Farmers, Chefs, and Artisans
“This collection is an outstanding representation of the range of options cooks have when choosing the best of what the Sunshine State produces, especially during the winter months when the rest of the nation is snowy and bundled.”—Jeff Houck, coauthor of The Cuban Sandwich: A History in Layers
Dalia Colón is an Emmy Award–winning multimedia journalist. She is executive producer and host of The Zest podcast from WUSF Public Media and the NPR Network, and associate producer and cohost of WEDU Arts Plus on Tampa Bay’s PBS station. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and Gravy, the journal of the Southern Foodways Alliance.
