It isn’t as if vegetables are in short supply. Yes, local or organic produce is expensive (and so inconveniently seasonal!), but if you are going to eat it, now is your chance. It isn’t a coincidence that this column is appearing in September; to me, the period between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is the best time of year to cook — warm enough to grill and cool enough to braise, with the farmers’ market still an absolute paradigm of abundance. Take advantage: in a few months, there may be little more than root vegetables, apple cider and hand-dyed yarn.

When fruits and vegetables are at their best, they give you insight into how the vegan thing can work for you, if only for a day. And given a moderate degree of freshness, most conventional vegetables from ordinary supermarkets can be made to taste good when gardens go dormant.

Plant-based meals contain more than vegetables, of course: Stock the pantry with good grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, oils, vinegars and other classic condiments, and you’re set to make an infinite number of dishes that don’t ruffle a single animal’s feathers, hide or fin.

Here then are some recipes for what you might call A Vegan Day. I don’t pretend that you’re likely to eat all five in the same day, or even that they have much relationship to one another, but they’re each a representation of the kind of thing you might be eating at a given moment. Some are simple, traditional peasant food: hoecakes made from little but corn and water may seem ascetic until you recognize that this is polenta in a fast, crunchy form, filled with flavor and perfect to bury under a pile of fruit. (You can jazz them up if you like: a little sugar, a little baking powder, a little nondairy milk, maybe some maple syrup, and they start to resemble something far richer and more common. I happen to like the ultraminimalist version.)

Some are elaborate, and designed to satisfy an open-minded if devoted meat-eater at the biggest meal of the day. This ratatouille with chickpeas and fennel is among the best I’ve ever made, and bow ties with bulgur and what amounts to a salad is as good at room temperature as any pasta I know. The others are creatively simple: carrot candy is as much fun to eat as it is to look at; broiled melon is a lovely and unusual dessert.