Vegan cooking has evolved far beyond bland salads and bland tofu, offering a rich and varied cuisine that’s exciting and nourishing.
Whether you’re a seasoned plant-based chef or just dipping your toes into the vegan waters, having a varied collection of stellar cookbooks is essential for exploring the vast possibilities of vegan cuisine.
In this blog post, we’ll tantalise your taste buds with a sneak peek into a curated list of the best vegan cookbooks that promise to inspire, educate, and satisfy every palate.
Some we have had for years, some are new additions. There will be a cookbook in this list for everyone. If you have any recommendations for us to try. Please let us know in the comments section. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for updated lists!
Gaz Oakley – Avant Garde Vegan:
Gaz Oakley, known as the Avant-Garde Vegan, is a professionally trained vegan chef and cookbook author from Cardiff, Wales. We wouldn’t recommend his books/recipes for complete beginners. As they do tend to be more “full on” and comple. Which could put off or confuse someone who has just switched to a Plant based diet.
He has a Youtube channel full of free recipes. All his videos are beautifully curated and the bloopers at the end of the videos are hilarious.
Gaz’s Vegan cookbooks include the following:
- Vegan 100 – his recipe for meltable mozzarella is insane!
- Vegan Christmas – the roast potatoes and herb crusted cauliflower-leek bake.
- Plants-Only Kitchen – the crispy lemon tofu and mushroom “prawn” toasts…..
| Best for? |
| Intermediate to advanced cooks |
How not to die – The Cookbook – Dr Michael Greger
Dr Michael Greger, is the founder of the wildly popular website NutritionFacts.org. He has taken his scientific knowledge to the kitchen and created over 100 whole-food recipes, to help prevent disease and live the healthiest life you can.
After reading and listening on audible to his bestseller How Not to Die. Totally changed our view on a lot of foods, and now we find ourselves asking “how can we incorporate one or more of the “daily dozen” into this dish?”
| Best for? |
| Beginners |
Forks over knives – The Cookbook
No vegan cookbook list would be complete without this New York Times Bestseller. A follow-up to their super influential documentary, the Forks Over Knives cookbook contains more than 300 whole-foods, plant-based recipes.
We would say this is one of the best vegan cookbooks for someone who is fairly new to a plant based lifestyle/cooking. It covers the basics, like sauces, dips, broths, breakfasts, snacks, lunches, dinners and desserts.
They have a multitude of free recipes on their website, and they also have a paid app if you wish to download that.
| Best for? |
| Beginners |
Vegan Cooking for Everyone – The Happy Pear
Where do we start? We just friggin LOVE these two! Their energy, zest for life and their love for sharing amazing plant powered recipes.
Dave and Stephen have built such a positive community on their instagram, as well as via their YouTube channel where they also share lots of free recipes.
They have a few cookbooks, but this is the most recent addition to our bookshelf, and we must say we love the way its laid out.
This book is laid out a bit differently to most… Firstly it gives you a basic recipe Eg: Pancakes, however on the next page they then give you all the variations you can choose with different ingredients and swaps to your liking, like different flours, plant milks, sweeteners etc.
I think it is a really innovative way to lay out a cookbook.
| Best for? |
| Beginners to intermediate cooks |
Mildreds Vegan Cookbook
“Fresh, colourful food that’s vibrant and full of flavours.”
Mildreds have been serving up internationally inspired plant based food since the 1980s, they now have 4 restaurant locations in London.
Often surprising and seducing hardened carnivores and with all of our dishes vegan and many gluten free, Mildreds offers a warm welcome to all. (excerpt from their website)
| Best for? |
| Intermediate cooks |
The Wicked Healthy Cookbook – Chad and Derek Sarno
We are such a huge fan of these two. Especially Derek, he is such a lovely human, who also has an obsession with feeding squirrels in the garden like Meg, and Yes Meg did fangirl when she got to meet him at Plant powered expo in London.
This was AFTER being too scared and not going up to say hi at Vevolution a couple of month prior. (photo below of a very happy Meg and a super chill Derek)
What Derek is doing / has done for us UK vegans, is truly amazing. He has completely changed the UK supermarket situation, with more vegan options than ever before. It won’t be too long until there is a Vegan alternative for every animal based product.
This book, as well as Derek’s YouTube channel, has taught us how to make some really amazing meals out of mushrooms. We love the pressed cast iron pan method Derek uses.
Some of our favourite recipes we have made from this book are: the King Oyster Satay Skewers, King Oyster Scallops, Lions mane steaks to name a few.
| Best for? |
| Intermediate to advanced cooks |
The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook – Nisha Vora
What if we told you we have not stood over a hot stove constantly stirring risotto or polenta for well over a year now? This book is the reason why. This book is FULL of amazing recipes which are made even simpler by using an instant pot which in turn cuts down cooking time so much.
Some of our favourite recipes from this book are: the mushroom risotto, fluffy mashed potatoes, classic creamy polenta to name a few.
| Best for? |
| Beginners |
The Wholefoods cookbook
14 Chapters jammed packed with 120 recipes, and information on how to best set up your plant based kitchen for success and stress free cooking.
All the recipes where written by both Sarno Brothers, so expect lots of tasty things.
| Best for? |
| Beginners |
Asian Green – Ching-He Huang
A beautiful book full of a variety of different recipes. From satisfying breakfasts and morning drinks to my favourite chapters; fresh and exotic salads and sharing plates.
| Best for? |
| Beginners |
More recipe books to try:
- The China Study Quick & Easy Cookbook
- Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats
- The China Study Cookbook
- More Plants Less Waste – Max La Manna
Cookbooks I am looking forward to trying:
Korean Vegan Cookbook, The: Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen – by Joanne Lee Molinaro
Unbelievably Vegan: 100+ Life-Changing, Plant-Based Recipes – by Chef Charity Morgan
The Vegan Meat Cookbook: Meatless Favorites. Made With Plants – by Miyoko Schinner
What are some of your favourite Vegan cookbooks? Let us know in the comments section which one you think is the best vegan cookbook out there.
We are always looking for new ones to try! Or if you’d prefer, send me an email, I’d love to hear from you.
