Eat This Now: Radicchio

We think everyone’s cooking routine needs an occasional shock to the system.

Jeanine Donofrio’s new release, The Love & Lemons Cookbook: An Apple-to-Zucchini Celebration of Impromptu Cooking ($35) has enough punchy graphics, fresh food photos and creative recipes to give your familiar routine a major spark of inspiration.

The eye-poppingly stylish book befits Donofrio, a former graphic designer turned food world star of the blog, Love & Lemons. The book was a family affair: She created the more than 100 all-new vegetarian recipes; her husband, Jack Mathews, helped taste-test; and together they photographed the recipes in their sunny Austin, Texas, kitchen.

Organized by ingredient, the cookbook is easy to use with whatever is on hand or can be scavenged at the farmer’s market in any season.

Donofrio confesses to loving kale, but encourages readers to reach for less common super vegetables like dandelion greens, sweet potato greens and chicories such as radicchio.

High in antioxidants and an excellent source of Vitamin K, Donofrio likes to wrap radicchio around a quinoa filling or tame it in a bright and vibrant Balsamic Grilled Radicchio Salad. The bitter kick and spicy edge of radicchio will mellow out with the grilling. To make it gluten-free, just skip the croutons.

We think there is no better time for off-the-cuff cooking than summer, and with the first official day of the season bearing down fast upon us, this is just the kind of recipe we need more of.