VN’s Top 7 Favorite Summertime Recipes

Want to serve your guests delicious dishes that will make your next beach bash or backyard BBQ unforgettable? We dug into the VegNews vault and scoured some of our favorite food blogs to compile a list of must-have summertime recipes. Here are seven desserts, appetizers, and entrées your party patrons won’t be able to resist digging into.

1. Stone Fruit Bruchetta Orange Cream Crostinis 
Nothing screams summer like stone fruits—what are stone fruits you ask? They’re sweet fleshy fruits that have a hard pit center: summer gems such as peaches, nectarines, mangoes, and plums. Juicy bits of peaches and cherries top a luscious bed of cashew-based cream on toasted bread in this must-make summer recipe from Vegan Yack Attack.

2. Summer Reboot Salad
If there’s anyone who knows their way around a delicious salad, it’s vegan blogger Kathy Patalsky, and she’s whipped up a colorful bowl of greens that will give you a radiant glow. A merry blend of kale, corn, white miso tahini dressing, and an optional dollop of hummus for extra zest, is why this is the salad summer was made for.

3. Southern Belle-ini Cocktail
Have a little summertime fun with a Southern-inspired cocktail from Spabettie. It’s infused with the fruity flavors of peach and pina colada and topped with fresh raspberries and green sprigs. Just a few quick whirls in the blender will give way to a lovely gradient from ruby red to pretty pink, accompanied by a sparkle that only rum could give.

4. Coffee Cream Brownie Bites
Everyone knows ice coffee is a summer staple—and around the VNHQ, coffee itself, in every form, is a must. So imagine our surprise when vegan food blog extraordinaire Chocolate Covered Katie made us realize that there was one way we hadn’t yet tried coffee: raw! These no-bake bites are cool on the palate and just sweet enough to make you sing: “Summertime and the livin’s easy…”

5. Cauliflower Jerky
You may have heard a certain someone (psst … it was us) declare cauliflower as the next kale, but this perfect pool-side snack may just elevate cauliflower above its leafy green counterpart, because we’ve never heard of jerky kale. Smoky, salty, and sriracha-y, nothing beats the flavorful crunch of these jerky cauliflower bites.

6. Smoked Chickpea Burger
Fire up the grill because summer parties just aren’t complete without a hearty burger and side of piping hot fries. Say goodbye to frozen soy patties from your grocery store’s freezer section because these Smoked Chickpea Burgers are here to stay. Want more grill-worthy inspiration? Pick up a copy of our July+August ‘13 burger issue!

7. Vanilla Breve Latte Ice Cream
What is a summer favorites list without ice cream? Not to mention Spabettie’s vegan sweet treat has a special ingredient of the cocoa bean variety we’ve already professed our unwavering love for. Combine these three delicious ingredients—raw cashews, French vanilla creamer, and instant coffee granules—in three simple steps and you’ll be able to beat the heat, waffle cone in hand.