MY FAVORITE PLANT-BASED & VEGAN COOKBOOKS
I have been a vegetarian for over 11 years now & officially vegan since June 4th, 2019 (prior to that I was transitioning vegan for a year & a half). If you keep up with me on Instagram then you know I love to prepare yummy food for myself & my family. Most people are surprised to know that growing up my family did not cook, so this was not something that was instilled in me from a young age or modeled for me in childhood. It’s something I blindly jumped into when I graduated college & began living on my own— which is also when I made the decision to cut out meat (so yes, that means I’ve literally never cooked with meat!). Since then I have increasingly loved cooking & preparing my own meals— the autonomy that comes with making the decisions that both nourish & satisfy me & my family is why I love it. I have consistently heard that many people who have switched to a plant-based lifestyle have found a similar love for cooking, something about the creativity & flavor combinations tend to make cooking a pleasurable experience. I have even heard people share that they formerly hated cooking & meal preparation but fell completely in love with it after transitioning to a plant-based diet. Isn’t that interesting?!
For me, one of life’s greatest pleasures is using a cookbook. I love to pull them out & flip through the recipes & images & it makes my meal planning routine an indulgent ritual. I also find it much easier to use an open cookbook to prepare a recipe than constantly picking up my iPhone (all the germs on there— yuuuuuck). I do have a Google Home Nest in our kitchen & I use it to house any digital-based recipes that we use constantly (like our go-to vegan ranch, oatmeal blender pancakes, favorite food blogger recipes, etc) but I would say those recipes account for 5-10% of the recipes I actually use. At this point, I have a pretty extensive (& well-loved!!) collection of cookbooks & I am frequently asked which are my favorite. I’m here to spill the beans!
These are my most-used plant-based*/vegan cookbooks with a little blurb about what specifically I love about them. These are not in a preferred order because that’s like asking me to choose a favorite kid or pet, they each serve me in wonderful ways but the top two on the list might be my most used. If any of these catch your attention I’d love for you to consider calling up your local bookstore & seeing if they have a copy or if they can request a copy for you, if not many of them are available on Amazon but I do love supporting my local bookstores as much as I can. At any rate, enjoy!
Chloe Flavor: Saucy, Crispy, Spicy, Vegan: I stumbled up this gem at Urban Outfitters randomly & that title instantly hooked me. This book is AMAZING, it’s full of the most delicious recipes & I have yet to make something from it that my entire family didn’t love. The Vegan Ramen Bowl is what dreams are made of, but the 5-Ingredient Kale Pesto, Meatball Parm, Sriracha Tempeh Alfredo, Burnt Garlic Un-Fried Rice, California Nachos, Brussel Sprout Tacos, Fiesta Mac N Cheese, Spicy Rigatoni Vodka, Penne Broccoli Alfredo Casserole & Cinnamon Roll Pancakes, & Cauliflower Al Pastor Tacos are also among our favorites. Woah that’s a lot of favorites. It’s not the most “health-conscious” of options but it sure is delicious & from everything I have learned, cutting out animal products alone is one of the best things you can do for your health— so the indulgence is justified.
Love and Lemons Every Day: More than 100 Bright, Plant-Forward Recipes for Every Meal: Heads-up, this cookbook isn’t 100% plant-based (some recipes do include dairy & eggs) BUT with how I use it, it is. For the meals that call for cheese or dairy, I simply use a plant-based alternative (what a time to be alive, I mean, ammirite?!). Jeanine also offers many vegan modifications as well so for those reasons it deserves a spot on this list. These recipes really put plants & their amazing flavors at the front of every dish & similar to the Chloe Flavor cookbook I haven’t tried a recipe from it that we didn’t all love. The Breaded & Baked Artichoke “Fish” Tacos, Zucchini Verde Vegan Enchiladas, Rainbow Summer Veggie Skewers, Kale & Sweet Potato Lasagna roll-Ups (& her vegan ricotta OMG!!), Shitake Bok Choy Buddha Bowls, Baked Red Lentil Falafel, Broccolo Rice Black Bean Burritos, Grilled Romaine Vegan Caesar Wedges, Coconut Soup with Sweet Potato & Kale & Yellow Squash Turmeric Tofu Scramble are among our very favorites. This one is probably in my top 2 most used along with Chloe Flavor!
Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking: 101 Entirely Plant-based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy and Delicious Recipes: This cookbook also does not disappoint & it’s a great option for gluten-free folks (which we are not but we still love the recipes!). Dana makes things super easy & many of the recipes are even one-bowl or 10 ingredients or less, how handy! She also includes a wide variety of baked goods which is great to have on hand. We love the Smashed Black Bean Green Chile Taquitos, Vegan “No Tuna” Salad, Smoky BBQ Veggie Burgers (a crowd pleaser!), Vanilla Cupcakes, Pumpkin Chai Tea Latte, Easy Weeknight Burrito Bowls, Masala Chickpea Curry, Sun-Dried Tomato Hummus, 1-Bowl Zucchini Walnut Muffins, Vegan Breakfast Burrito, & Banana Chocolate Muffins.
Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-based Recipes: A Cookbook: Angela is all about nutrition & health so these recipes are not only yummy but highly nourishing! I also love her first cookbook, The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out, & have found many amazing recipes in both. I particularly love her books for snacks, soups, breakfasts & when I need a bit more of a nutritional kick (think: after traveling, after the holidays, etc). I’ve been reaching for both of these more lately as we strive to eat more plant-based whole foods.
Recipes for Your Perfectly Imperfect Life: Everyday Ways to Live and Eat for Health, Healing, and Happiness: This book is my current obsession & it not only offers amazing recipes that meet the optimal digestive & nutritional needs of our bodies but she has packed a TON of research-based information about plants in here! She also includes general emotional & spiritual wellness which is a beautiful addition to find in a cookbook. I love that she offers a kids section full of recipes too, so far we have loved everything we have tried.
I Can Cook Vegan & Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week: I haven’t spent a ton of time in both of these yet but what I have made from them I have completely loved. These books are also LOADED with recipes, so there is truly something for everyone within them.
The Love and Lemons Cookbook: An Apple-to-Zucchini Celebration of Impromptu Cooking: This is the first Love & Lemons cookbook I owned & what I love most about it— aside from yet again how YUMMY everything is, is the functionality of it. The book is organized by produce so you can use it as a seasonal guide or when you end up with an ingredient & don’t know what to do with it. Simply turn to that plant’s section & you’ll find 3-5 amazing recipes to consider! Similar to her other cookbook this one is not 100% vegan but can be used the same way— with market-available vegan substitutes & her guidance on easily adapting the recipe to be vegan.
The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples: This is such a great book to have on hand in any kitchen. I love the empowered feeling of being able to make staples that we use in a pinch! This book taught me how to make a French baguette & while I feel slightly more sophisticated as a result it was really quite simple & painless. I anticipate using this one over & over again for a long time.
Hot for Food Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face: This is my newest cookbook but from what I’ve made from it thus far I am already in love. This one falls under the “indulgent” category with yummy fried foods & all the “meaty” favorites but I mean, the nacho cheese sauce is still carrot & potato based so... there are many many worse things (like dairy-based nacho cheese— yikes). It’s certainly not a day-to-day cookbook but as I’ve already mentioned, when you’re cutting out animal products you can still feel really good about indulging in plant foods. This could be a great resource for a newly-transitioning vegan— along with Chole Flavor.
I have several others with favorite recipes saved like The Forest Feast: Simple Vegetarian Recipes from My Cabin in the Woods, Nom Yourself: Simple Vegan Cooking, Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi, The First Mess Cookbook: Vibrant Plant-Based Recipes to Eat Well Through the Seasons, The Moosewood Cookbook, Purely Pumpkin: More Than 100 Seasonal Recipes to Share, Savor, and Warm Your Kitchen, Mississippi Vegan: Recipes and Stories from a Southern Boy's Heart: A Cookbook, Elsa's Wholesome Life: Eat Less from a Box and More from the Earth, & Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck if you want more inspiration but the books listed above, at the current moment, are my most used!
If you use any of these please share with me & tag me on my Instagram. I love knowing that my efforts in sharing these things are helpful. And yes the above links are affiliate links to Amazon meaning, I make pennies (no really, pennies) off your purchase should you choose to order them via Amazon, however, I have encouraged you to consider an alternative purchasing method that supports your local community (Amazon just happens to be the single easiest way I can link a book for you & offer you access to more robust information about the book + others’ reviews). While I could likely make a grand total of .85 cents off of the work I poured into this post I genuinely just want to make a vegan/plant-based lifestyle more accessible to you & your family. Why? Well I’ll share that more in-depth on a future blog post but simply put: 1. compassion for ALL living beings, 2. so our children have a habitable planet to live on in the future & 3. the overwhelming research that plant-based living is dramatically better for you (plus so yummy!).