The Compassionate Kitchen, Gemma Davis and Tracy Noelle, Simon & Schuster, RRP $39.99

FOOD has a way of drawing people together. It is more than just nutrition and sustenance.

AH, SPRING.

That time of year when the sun returns. Flowers blooming. Fruit in bountiful supply. Increasingly long, sunny afternoons that simply beg for a picnic basket or a table laden with food out on the patio.

Food has a way of drawing people together. It is more than just nutrition and sustenance. Food is the glue that binds. It is what fuels us, physically and emotionally.

So if you wish to throw a feast in celebration of spring, you want to plan a menu that reflects this ethos.

The Compassionate Kitchen by Gemma Davis and Tracy Noelle - a naturopath and chef respectively - is a plant based cookbook celebrating the connection between soul and stomach.

Recipes are divided up not by the traditional confines of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but rather into three categories depending on how you’re feeling: Start the Day, Nourish Yourself, and Sweet Somethings.

Each photograph bursts with colour, and as the book is a vegetarian affair, the vibrancy and vitality of fruit and vegetables featured simply leap off the page.

It’s the perfect book to flick through as you shed your winter coat, swapping out those hearty casserole recipes for lighter, refreshing salads, pickled vegetables, and poached fruits.

The vibrant yellow of the water chestnut yellow curry with coconut topping and turmeric quinoa is like a plateful of sunshine, sure to defrost your bones after a long wintry spell.

Many of the dishes have a distinct Asian influence, the lack of meat bolstered by punchy, perfumed spices in dishes such as the roasted cauliflower with miso dressing.

And then there’s desserts.

Lychee and peppermint granita perfect for a sunny afternoon treat, chocolate chunk ‘brookies’; an experimental, vegan recipe that crosses a brownie with a cookie.

And there’s the chocolate coconut slice, which has become an instant favourite in our house. I thought about how the recipe is so simple (coconut condensed milk, melted chocolate, and shredded coconut) it would make a perfect lunch box filler for kids. Except I don’t have children. Only one, hungry, fiancee who ate half a tray of this slice within 24 hours.

As written in the book, “when we cook from a place of loving and caring for ourselves we choose foods that reflect this, foods that nourish us. Healthy, real wholefoods.”

So go on. Nourish yourself this spring.