Many cookbooks are primarily kitchen manuals filled with no-nonsense instructions.

Not “Ripe.”  Author Cheryl Sternman Rule and photographer Paulette Phlipot break the cookbook mold.  Their  gorgeous tribute to fresh produce in all its glory is more inspiration than instruction, although filled with creative recipes.

“Ripe” (Running Press, 2012) will send you straight into the kitchen – right after you get home from the farmer’s market.  You may find yourself keeping it out on the coffee table, though, to thumb through in idle moments.  The photographs are downright luscious and the text is whimsical, amusing and informative.

Rule and Phlipot wanted to get away from the “eat your vegetables” cookbooks.  Their goal is to make you want to eat vegetables and fruit just because they’re so irresistible.

They definitely succeed.  Even the photograph of a red apple is tempting, and I don’t care much for red apples.  Raspberries glow, peas gleam, bok choy beckons.  The Bosc pear belongs on the wall of an art gallery.

The beautiful photographs are the appetizers of this cookbook. They draw you in and prime your palate with vivid colors and textures. Sections are arranged not by seasons, as is common in produce cookbooks, but by color.

The main course, though, is the encyclopedic introduction to a wide range of fruits and vegetables, from pomegranates to jicama. Even familiar vegetables show a fresh side of their personality here.

Rule is an engaging writer and gifted cook who offers a little background on each fruit or vegetable along with a few simple uses and an unexpected recipe.   The pomegranate, for instance, is represented by a pomegranate clove thumbprint cookie, tomatoes by an open-faced grilled sandwich with smoked mozzarella.  I loved the kumquat and arugula salad, which explodes with bold but complementary flavors.  The Israeli couscous with fava beans, shallots, and olives was stunning.

I zeroed in on the broccoli soup with cheddar croutons, however, because  it felt particularly appropriate given the cookbook’s mission to entice diners into eating fresh produce.  When Supreme Court justices go out of their way to badmouth broccoli, you know its reputation could use a little help.

The creamy green soup is especially healthful because it doesn’t include a drop of cream.  But it’s packed with so much flavor from cumin, coriander and fennel balanced with lemon and Greek yogurt that you’ll never notice.  Just go slow on the crunchy cheddar croutons, which are infinitely munchable on their own.

The soup was even better the second day, when the flavors had time to meld.  Although Rule recommends pureeing with an immersion blender, I got a far smoother texture with a more powerful standing blender.

I should note that Rule is a San Jose resident and I got to know her when I was a food writer at the Mercury News.  I’ve followed her freelance career ever since and am a fan of her blog, 5 Second Rule.  This cookbook with Phlipot is her first.

We’ve been battling off a persistent virus for weeks at our house.  Just as we start to feel better, it creeps back with scratchy throats and dull headaches.

What we need now is soup, hot and soothing with chicken broth, lots of vegetables and  a good dose of ginger.  When I spotted this take on won ton soup in Nina Simonds new cookbook, “Simple Asian Food” (Rodale, 2012), I knew I had to make it.

Simonds long has been one of my favorites.  She translates Asian flavors into lively dishes that don’t require a pilgrimage to a distant Asian market to pull off.  She’s also an advocate of healthy eating who sits on the Nutrition Roundtable at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

The new cookbook is filled with tempting dishes, but the soups are most appealing to me at the moment.  I also have my eye on the cinnamon beef noodles and Saigon-style chicken noodle soup, Simond’s simplified variation on pho.

This gingery faux-wonton soup was everything she promises.   Cloud-like pork meatballs, studded with chopped ginger, float in a light chicken broth. Bow-tie noodles stand in for wonton wrappers and a generous portion of chard delivers calcium, iron and vitamin C.  It all comes together much more quickly than you would imagine.  And there’s none of the fuss of filling wontons when you’re not feeling that great anyway.

The only changes I made to her recipe were to increase the amount of pasta a little and use only half of the meatballs.  I froze the rest for a future soup.  A pound of meatballs just felt like too much meat for only six cups of broth.  Alternatively you could increase the broth to 8 cups or more.

Next time, I’d probably make the meatballs a little smaller, too.  But that does take a little more time and effort.

If this soup doesn’t cure what ails you, at least it will ease the suffering.

After the excesses of the holidays, all I want to eat right now is simple, nutritious food.  I loved all those cookies, extravagant meals and festive cocktails — far too much, I’m afraid.  My body needs a break.

If you feel the same way, I’ve got a soup for you.  This split pea soup takes just minutes to put together and only a little more time to cook, thanks to the pressure cooker.  You could cook it in a regular pot, too, although it will take a little longer to cook the peas until tender and require careful watching to avoid scorching.

Leave out the ham hock and you have a terrific vegetarian version.  Just be sure to look for bright green split peas for the best flavor.

I’ve been using my Fagor pressure cooker a lot more in recent weeks because I wanted to show a visiting relative how easy and safe it is.  Modern pressure cookers are designed to avoid the hazards of pea soup on the ceiling associated with the old style cookers, which would blow their weights and the contents of the cooker if something wasn’t quite right.

The only real risk now is burning yourself with hot steam if you’re not cautious when removing the lid.  This soup doesn’t even require that precaution since you let the pressure fall naturally with the lid still locked in place.

I like to puree the finished soup to achieve the velvety texture that always drew us to Andersen’s Pea Soup restaurant in Buellton when we used to travel up and down Highway 101 a couple of times a year to visit my mother-in-law in Southern California.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can set out little bowls of croutons, crumbled bacon, shredded cheddar and chopped green onions as garnishes.  I’m happy with a little of the smoky, salty ham hock.

Savory and quick are all I want this week.  Oh yes, and a minimum of dishes to wash.

We’ve had a harsh introduction to winter in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I live.

Ferocious winds buffeted the redwoods surrounding my house for three days and nights last week, uprooting a huge tree just up the road, knocking down a utility pole and sending a long limb crashing through a skylight in the living room.  The power was out for four days and the DSL just returned.

We’ve lived here a long time and we’re used to the electricity going out in the middle of big storms.  We have a generator to keep the refrigerator, freezer and a couple of lamps running.  But cooking becomes a challenge when the oven doesn’t work and you have to wear a backpacker’s headlamp to see clearly what you’re chopping.

I was grateful to have a beautiful red kabocha squash sitting on the kitchen counter when the lights went out.  With a little curry paste, chicken stock and some coconut milk from the pantry, it made a spicy but soothing soup to improve our mood during a difficult week.

Of course it helps if you happen to have a squash on your counter and some Asian ingredients in your pantry.  But this soup is so simple and flavorful, it’s worth stocking up for future emergencies. The Asian ingredients are commonplace in supermarkets now and hard-skinned winter squashes keep for quite a while in a cool, dry place.

The inspiration for this dish comes from the gardening/cooking journal, “Tender,” by Nigel Slater (Ten Speed Press, 2009).  Slater is a gifted British cook who writes about the down-to-earth food that real people eat.  His book is my go-to reference for interesting recipes using fresh produce.

Since the red kabocha, often called Japanese pumpkin, is an especially sweet and meaty winter squash, I was pretty sure it would work in the “pumpkin laksa for a cold night,” based on a traditional Malaysian soup.  Butternut squash would work, too, although the flavor is not as rich.

To save time and energy, I steamed the flesh unpeeled.  It was much easier to cut away after it had softened in the steam.  I also added baby spinach leaves to give the soup enough substance for a one-dish meal.

Slater probably would be appalled that I’ve substituted jarred curry paste for the homemade version in his recipe.  I’m sure his would be far better, too, but I didn’t have those ingredients on hand.

The first time I made this soup, I wildly overestimated the appropriate amount of commercial curry paste and produced an almost inedible concoction.  Even my husband, who loves fiery food, found it hard to finish a bowl.

I may have erred on the side of caution with this recipe, so feel free to add more if it’s too mild for you.  The spices add a warming tingle to the creamy soup accented with lime.

When temperatures drop and winds blow, this is just the soup to have in your repertoire.

Tomato season got a slow start this year but my favorite vegetable finally has hit its stride.  Ripe and juicy heirloom tomatoes overflow the tables at local farmers markets and their bright, intense flavors are just the ticket for a terrific gazpacho.

This dish was inspired by the VitaMix blender I finally broke down and bought this summer.  (What can I say?  The demonstrators at Costco were incredibly persuasive.)

You don’t need a super powerful blender to make this spicy cold soup, however.  Any food processor or blender will suffice, but you may want to pass it through a food mill as well to achieve the smoothest texture.  The VitaMix eliminates that step.

This gazpacho, a specialty of Andalusia in the south of Spain, makes the most of  the season’s best produce.  It’s an uncomplicated dish that depends on the ripest tomatoes and good quality olive oil for its impressive flavors.  A little bread thickens the texture and makes a substantial soup for a summer evening — no heat required.

You can’t ask for much more at this time of year.

Whether you’ve been hiking in the woods or just sprawled on the couch watching the big game, a hot bowl of chili is always welcome on a crisp winter day.  If it’s spent all day bubbling away in a slow cooker while you were playing, all the better.

In preparation for Super Bowl Sunday, I’ve been working on a slow cooker chili recipe for the last couple of  weeks.  We’ve eaten more chili than I would recommend, but the end result is a deeply flavorful stew of home-cooked beans, lively spice and savory turkey.  It’s hearty enough to satisfy the most devoted chili head, yet still low in fat if you don’t pile on the condiments.

I realize there are plenty of chili recipes in circulation already that can be thrown together and left to simmer for hours in a slow cooker.  Most are pretty basic, though, and I wanted a chili that tasted like I had tended it all day.  To pump up the flavor, I use pure ground chile, cumin, coriander, Mexican oregano and a pinch of cinnamon along with a touch of cocoa at the end.  Inexpensive turkey legs and thighs take the place of the usual ground meat.

Beans add nutrition, fiber and lovely background for the vibrant spices.  Although you could use canned beans instead, I don’t like their spongy texture or salty flavor. I cook my own the day before and freeze the leftovers for a later meal.

Since the chili must cook for 8-10 hours, you may want to assemble the ingredients in the crock insert the night before and chill the whole thing in the fridge.  The next morning, pop it in the cooker and turn it on.  The chili will only take about half an hour longer to cook and you’ll be free for the day.

Although I find the slow cooker useful, I don’t use it all the time.  So I had a couple of things to learn during the course of developing this recipe.

Number one:  Don’t expect a 4-quart cooker to brew up a big batch of chili.  By the time I had added all the ingredients I thought I needed for this recipe, my old cooker was almost overflowing and the turkey took far longer than expected to cook through.  If I had read the instruction book, I would have known you shouldn’t fill the crock more than 3/4 full.

I went shopping for a new cooker.  The one I bought, the 6 1/2-quart Crock Pot Touch Screen model, received top marks from Cook’s Illustrated and I was impressed with how much better it performed.  The temperature stayed steady at about 200 degrees once the cooker brought the chili up to “low.”  Although it’s significantly more expensive than many cookers on the market, I liked the fact that you can program it to cook for up to 20 hours on high.  When the cooking time is up, it automatically shifts to the warm setting for up to six hours.

Number two: Watch your liquids.  Because a slow cooker is a closed environment, liquid does not evaporate during the course of cooking.  In fact, more liquid is drawn out of the vegetables and meats.  That makes a tasty broth, but not if you’ve added too much liquid in the first place.  My second batch was watery and dull because I didn’t drain the beans or tomatoes at the beginning.

The third try was the charm.  This chili was thick and meaty, sweet with tomatoes and ripe peppers and spiced with enough ground chile to tickle the tongue without searing the palate.  Add more chile if you crave heat.

After all the excess of the holidays, nothing appeals to me more than a simple soup to warm the body and soothe the soul.

I crave comforting texture, wholesome ingredients, and straightforward flavors.  This white bean and kale soup has it all.

The recipe is based on all my favorite elements of rustic Italian soups, beginning with fat white cannelini beans for their mild taste and creamy texture.  Navy or Great Northern beans will work, too, but I’m especially fond of cannelini, which are easy to find now at many supermarkets.  They cook up beautifully, hold their shape and serve as a satisfying backdrop for the assertive kale.

Don’t be tempted to substitute canned beans here.  The dried beans create the creamy broth as they cook with a flavor base of aromatic vegetables, rosemary.  I also throw in a chunk of Parmesan rind from the supply I save in the freezer for just this purpose, but it’s not essential.

Cooking the beans from scratch isn’t difficult.  It just takes a little more planning and time.

This is slow food suited to a cozy winter weekend.  It’s the perfect antidote to the hectic holiday season.

It’s not a celebration in Mexico without pozole. The spicy, porky soup, laden with tender hominy corn and a fiery chile paste, is perfect for a crowd and just the ticket for a Cinco de Mayo party.

The trouble is it’s hard to find a really good recipe that you can make with readily available ingredients. I mean, who can find pork trotters without an exhaustive search?  Even the Mexican markets in my town don’t carry them.

Then there are the secrets that you’re not likely to know unless you grew up in the culture, cooking at your mother’s elbow. I struggled with the dried corn for which the dish is named through a couple of batches of soup before I understood that even the bags of corn in the Mexican market had to be boiled with slaked lime before washing and cooking.  The pozole tasted good but it was so rubbery and tough it was almost inedible. Cans of white hominy — many cooks’ standby — just didn’t appeal.

Luckily, I found the already treated — nixtamalized — corn at Steve Sando’s great online store, Rancho Gordo. Sando uses small Southwestern corn kernels for his posole (it can be spelled with and “s” or a “z”).  The treated kernels cook up tender and fluffy,  providing the perfect canvas for rich pork, lively chiles and the panoply of toppings that give pozole it’s festive character.

For my recipe, I started with Rick Bayless’ “Mexico One Plate at a Time.” No one does a better job translating Mexican food for American cooks than Bayless.  His recipes are authentic but approachable for anyone with a modicum of patience.

It can be difficult to find the appropriate ingredients, however.  Bayless calls for pork shanks, trotters and bone-in shoulder for his recipe.   I followed the advice of a sympathetic butcher and used country-style pork ribs instead.  The results were exceptionally good.

It takes more time than skill to make this dish and much of the time can be spent doing something else while the pozole bubbles away on the stove.  You can even make it ahead and rewarm it the next day.  The flavors will be richer after they’ve had some time to meld.

In the last hour, while the corn, pork and chile are simmering together, prepare the toppings that diners will add to the soup to their own taste.  Don’t skimp here. The mild, fresh flavors and varied textures of crisp radish, crunchy cabbage and silky avocado are a perfect counterpoint to the spicy soup.

I can’t think of a better party dish.  Viva Mexico!

Flu and cold season already has arrived at my house.  After being laid up on the couch all weekend with a scratchy throat, aching head and the sniffles, all I wanted was a hot bowl of chicken soup.

Nothing out of a can or a box would do, and I wasn’t interested in anything from the takeout counter.  I wanted homemade soup and it was up to me to make it.

Truth be told, it’s so easy I can’t imagine why anyone would buy chicken soup.  Even someone as unsteady and fuzzy-brained as I was can make her own as long as there are a few staples in the pantry, some basic veggies in the fridge and chicken parts in the freezer.

If you have a food processor, you don’t even have to chop anything.

Everyone knows chicken soup is good for you.  Scientists have studied it and doctors recommend it. Invalids crave it.  But it really needs to be homemade if you’re to get the anti-inflammatory effect found by University of Nebraska researchers in 2000.  And it needs plenty of vegetables.

I decided to pump up the nutrition by throwing in a handful of garlic and a bunch of dark leafy greens.  Garlic strengthens the body’s immune system and the greens are packed with anti-oxidants.   Not incidentally, they tasted great.

I wish I could say I had homemade stock waiting in the freezer.  Instead, I had a box of commercial stock in the pantry, which I used to boost flavor.  Chicken soup can be pretty pallid if you just use a few chicken parts—thighs in this case—and water.  The packaged stock gives you a head start and cuts the cooking time.  Just be sure to get a low sodium brand.

Everything gets thrown into the pot and is allowed to simmer until the flavors blossom and meld.  If you feel up to it, you can pull the chicken out, remove the skin and tear the meat into shreds.  Otherwise, give your fellow diners knives and forks to cut the poultry up themselves.

Emergency preparedness experts advise us all to maintain a stockpile of food and water in case of disaster.  To their list, I’d add the makings for chicken soup.

Some of my most dismal food memories are of hospital fare.  The few times I’ve  had to stay overnight in a hospital, the food invariably has been a disaster of soggy vegetables, mystery meat and Technicolor Jello.   Even my extraordinarily healthy appetite heads south in the face of such sad offerings.

The good people at Stanford Hospital & Clinics are on a mission to change all that.  Last week, they invited patients, staff and food writers to a tasting of their new Farm Fresh menu of wholesome food prepared with local, sustainable, organic and seasonal ingredients.

This carrot soup, sweet with apple juice and spicy with ginger and curry, won me over instantly.  It’s simple enough to be soothing while still complex enough to be intriguing — just the sort of dish to brighten up a hospital stay.

The menu revolves around freshly made soups, salads, whole grain breads and simple fruit desserts. It’s food you would be happy to eat at home.  So it’s especially nice that Stanford is sharing the soup recipes on its website.    They range from an earthy cauliflower spiked with rosemary to a bright roasted sweet pepper with goat cheese.

The recipes come from adviser Jesse Cool (right), one of my favorite chefs,  cookbook author, and owner of Flea Street Cafe in Menlo Park and Cool Cafe on the Stanford campus.  She’s long been an advocate of healthful, organic food.

Soup was a natural choice for the new menu, says hospital CEO Martha Marsh.  “When people are sick, they think about soup, salad, fruit and whole grain bread as things that will help them feel better.”

I can testify, though, that this flavorful carrot soup will make you feel better even if you aren’t ailing.  It’s an ideal centerpiece for a light summer meal, as good lukewarm as piping hot.

This soup is even easy enough to make on a camp stove the way I did because my kitchen is still torn up for a remodeling project.

I’ve edited the recipe slightly to make it easier for home cooks, who don’t usually weigh all their ingredients.  I’ve also added a dollop of yogurt for a tangy counterpoint to the carrots.

Who knew hospital food could taste this good?