Best Vegan Cookbooks, according to my readers

My readers on this blog and elsewhere online love to share their recommendations. Their suggested vegan cookbooks is worth sharing here as a separate list, I think. 

So, if you’re into vegan cooking – that is cooking without meat, fish, milk, cheese and even eggs, here goes. At the bottom of this post I give a more extensive explanation.

If you’re not into vegan cooking, you still may like to mix it up a bit. Many of these cookbooks manage to make vegan cooking quite tasty, even for those who like their meat. 

These come with raving reviews on Amazon as well.

Do share your own favorites below!

 

The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook: Delicious Dairy-Free Cheeses and Classic “Uncheese” Dishes

This is the perfect cookbook for those who need or want to eliminate dairy products but still enjoy their favorite dishes. This tenth anniversary edition offers completely new versions of the acclaimed, original recipes plus many new ones. You’ll discover a whole new world of flavorful, cheesy-tasting dishes without the cholesterol and dairy allergies that can be harmful to your health. Whether for family dining or elegant entertaining, you’ll find recipes that will suit the occasion. Renown nutritionist and dietitian,Vesanto Melina, brings you up-to-date on the latest research about dairy and your health.

Tables and charts show calcium, protein, and other nutrients in a variety of plant foods to help you safely replace dairy in your diet. And this new edition contains designations for each recipe to indicate whether it is gluten, soy, nut, yeast, and/or corn free for people who are sensitive to a wide range of food allergens.  

 

 Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine

The mere mention of soul food brings thoughts of greasy fare and clogged arteries. Bryant Terry offers recipes that leave out heavy salt and refined sugar, “bad” fats, and unhealthy cooking techniques, and leave in the down-home flavor. Vegan Soul Kitchen recipes use fresh, whole, high-quality, healthy ingredients and cooking methods with a focus on local, seasonal, sustainably raised food.

Terry’s new recipes have been conceived through the prism of the African Diaspora—cutting, pasting, reworking, and remixing African, Caribbean, African-American, Native American, and European staples, cooking techniques, and distinctive dishes to create something familiar, comforting, and deliciously unique. Reinterpreting popular dishes from African and Caribbean countries as well as his favorite childhood dishes, Terry reinvents African-American and Southern cuisine—capitalizing on the complex flavors of the tradition, without the animal products.

Includes recipes for: Double Mustard Greens & Roasted Yam Soup; Cajun-Creole-Spiced Tempeh Pieces with Creamy Grits; Caramelized Grapefruit, Avocado, and Watercress Salad with Grapefruit Vinaigrette; and Sweet Cornmeal-Coconut Butter Drop Biscuits.

vegan-vengeance-cookbook  

 Vegan with a Vengeance : Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock

In Vegan with a Vengeance, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, host of the community access vegan cooking show The Post Punk Kitchen, brings the do-it-yourself, community-driven ethos of punk rock into the kitchen. Her cooking philosophy embraces being kind to animals (all recipes are completely animal-product free) and your wallet—while being creative and having fun in the process.

She emphasizes staying clear of corporate brand-name foods, and says that cooking should be an innovative, experimental, and completely real experience. This one-of-a-kind cookbook offers 125 recipes for all meals of the day, from stuffed mushrooms to tofu pizza, gingerbread cupcakes to pasta with “alfreda sauce,” and is full of tips and tricks on how to keep your diet vegan, inexpensive, and liberated.

 

Vegan Fire & Spice: 200 Sultry and Savory Global Recipes

This book is your culinary passport to the world’s spicy cuisines. It lets you take a trip around the world with delicious, mouth-watering, meatless, dairy-free, and egg-free recipes, ranging from mildly spiced to nearly incendiary.

Explore the spicy cuisines of the U.S., South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia with: Red-Hot White Bean Chili, Tunisian Couscous, Vindaloo Vegetables, Vegetable Tagine wth Seitan, Szechuan Noodle Salad, Turkish Bulgur Pilaf, Jambalaya, Thai Coconut Soup, Penne Arrabbiata, Satays with Ginger Peanut Sauce, and many more.

Organized by global regions, this book gives you 200 inventive and delicious 100% vegan recipes for traditional international dishes, using readily available ingredients. Best of all, you can adjust the heat yourself and enjoy these recipes hot – or not. (Note: This is a 100% vegan, revised and updated version of Robin’s 1998, out-of-print vegetarian book, Some Like It Hot, and contains new recipes and important new content.)  

 

 The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat

THE CONSCIOUS COOK is a breakthrough in vegan cuisine. By teaching readers how to make truly satisfying and delicious meals without the meat and dairy‚ it makes the shift to a vegan lifestyle easy. A former steak lover himself‚ Chef Tal struggled for years on a vegan diet that left him hungry and filled with cravings for butter and meat.

About ten years ago‚ he decided that the best way to satisfy his dietary desires was to make food that was good enough for “foodies” and could gratify his cravings for rich flavor and fat. The solution? Create vegan meals with substantial proteins that could literally change the way people eat. He studied all aspects of non−meat proteins and today is widely regarded as the expert in the field‚ developing new concepts for meals and sauces and helping to improve textures for food companies such as Gardein (the provider of vegetable proteins used by Morningstar Farms‚ It′s All Good‚ Trader Joe′s brands‚ and the prepared food department of Whole Foods‚ to name a few).

THE CONSCIOUS COOK features a center−of−the−plate protein in all of its entrees−a first for vegan cookbooks. Seventy−five original recipes are organized by categories that include starters and small plates‚ soups and salads‚ entrees‚ and desserts. Each recipe is accompanied by stunning full−color photographs.

 

 The Sexy Vegan Cookbook: Extraordinary Food from an Ordinary Dude

Are you craving a way to eat killer food without killing yourself, animals, or the planet? Is your brain bloated from watching cooking shows that present recipes you’re never, ever going to make? Have you been searching for a way to prove to your friends that vegan food can be just as delicious, hearty, and satisfying as the meaty meals they’re accustomed to? Then this is the book for you.

Of his journey from watching food porn on his parents’ couch to cooking in Hollywood kitchens to becoming vegan, author Brian Patton writes:

My roommate said he didn’t know what made me a bigger loser: that I was painstakingly preserving episodes of 30 Minute Meals or that I was trying to conceal their existence by labeling them Star Trek….Once I discovered that I could not only survive but thrive without taking the life of another being, I was sold. I was a vegan. For good.

And that’s how an “ordinary dude” became the Sexy Vegan and started creating “extraordinary food” with a decidedly real-meal appeal. On every page, Brian proves that seriously good food needn’t be too serious.

 

Vegan Is Love: Having Heart and Taking Action

Age Range: 7 – 10 years

In Vegan Is Love, author-illustrator Ruby Roth introduces kids to veganism as a lifestyle of compassion and action.

Broadening the scope of her popular first book That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals, Roth illustrates how our daily choices ripple out locally and globally, conveying what we can do to protect animals, the environment, and people across the world. Roth explores the many opportunities we have to make ethical decisions: refusing products tested on or made from animals; avoiding sea parks, circuses, animal races, and zoos; choosing to buy organic food; and more. Roth’s message is direct but sensitive, bringing into sharp focus what it means to “put our love into action.”

Featuring empowering back-of-the-book resources on action children can take themselves, this is the next step for adults and kids alike to create a more sustainable and compassionate world.  

 

The 4-Ingredient Vegan

Even when you’re pressed for time, you’ll be able to enjoy a home-cooked meal with this collection of easy-to-prepare recipes. Create scrumptious entrees, salads, soups, side dishes, beverages, and even desserts that are centered around unique sets of just four ingredients.

These recipes are attractive in their visual simplicity, remarkable in flavor, and will also appeal to mainstream tastes. With creative combinations of beans, grains, veggies, and fruit, you’ll discover simple touches that make a meal more memorable. And you’ll get tips on how to use vegan convenience foods to save time, provide lots of flavor, and make nutritious, satisfying fare.

Zippy Potatoes O’Brien, South-of-the-Border Quesadilla, Roasted Raspberry Beet Salad, Baked Artichoke Dip, Ginger-Kissed Butternut Squash Soup, Aegean Chickpea Salad, Chocolate Mousse and Vegan Fudge are just a few of the recipes to try. Whether you’re just learning about plant-based cuisine or too busy to prepare anything elaborate, these recipes will make meal time easy and enjoyable.  

Quick freshner upper: what’s a vegan again?

A vegan is someone who does not eat meat, or any animal by products. That means they don’t eat meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese etc. They’ll often avoid eating anything in which milk or eggs have been used, which is the hardest part of serving them. Vegans will avoid leather shoes and stick to artificial materials for them if they can find them.

Many vegetarians go vegan for a meal or two occasionally. This does not make them vegan any more than a meat eater who eats vegetarian a few times a week is a vegetarian.

The one thing us humans, vegan, vegetarian or meat eating, have in common – is we’re omnivores: we eat all kinds of things. [Compare to a cow: they eat one thing only, grass.]

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