Best vegan cookbooks for adventurous cooks
I've been vegetarian for many decades - in fact I've never cooked a non-vegetarian meal - and I'm cooking more vegan meals so I thought it would be useful to share some vegan cookbooks that might have more challenging recipes, ingredients or techniques.
Read on to find out more..
Isa Does It Appetite for Reduction
by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
My very first vegan cookbook was Isa Does It and I loved that it was different to any other cookbook that I owned at the time.
It's punky, punchy American style was such a change to my usual UK cookbooks but I soaked it up. Some of the ingredients and terminology were new to me but I got stuck in and a whole new world of cooking and tastes were opened up to me.
There's some instructions for newbies in here such as how to cut tofu and tempeh and how to make seitan - I'd never even heard of tempeh or seitan when I bought this book!
As well as using the conversion chart from imperial/cups to metric, I invested in a set of cup measures and I'm glad I did - they get so much use.
Although the instructions are clear and easy to follow, I think this might be more suited to a confident cook rather than an inexperienced cook but if you're adventurous then go for it!
You'll find over 150 recipes and I use this book every week - I love it.. this is definitely the book to prove that vegan food isn't boring!
My next vegan cookbook was Appetite for Reduction with 125 fast and filling low fat recipes.
This book is used more in Summer when we feel like lighter meals but there's a great variety of recipes here and as they're low fat, you can increase the portions if you feel you need a little more..
I like the section on sandwiches (as this is something I usually struggle with) and there's an appendix of recipes by type - gluten free, soy-free, recipes under 30 minutes, recipes with downtime etc
There aren't many photographs and although the instructions are clear and there's lots of extra hints and tips I think this book might be suited to a confident cook due to some long ingredients lists.
The Happy Pear The World of the Happy Pear The Happy Pear: Vegan Cooking for Everyone
by David and Stephen Flynn
I was unsure whether to include The Happy Pear books as suitable for beginners because some of the recipes have a large ingredients list, some recipes take quite some time and not all recipes are vegan in three of the books (vegan substitutes can be made).
However the focus of the books is very much on healthy eating (such as low-fat) and plant-based diet and there's lots of advice for newbies around ingredients and techniques.
With that said, lets dive in to these books from the Flynn twins from Ireland!
The Happy Pear was the first book I owned from the Flynn twins and I found it interesting enough to own more of their books.
Not all of recipes in here are vegan (some have dairy in but are easily substituted) but the vast majority are dairy- gluten- and sugar-free.
There's interesting sections on their background, some basic recipes as well as more complex ones - the focus is definitely on the health food side and there's plenty of curry based ideas in the Mains section.
This book might be suited to an adventurous beginner who's interested in the healthy eating side of vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.
The World of the Happy Pear was the next Flynn twins book that I owned and it's the same idea as the first book.
Focus is on healthy eating, most recipes are vegan or easily veganised and most recipes have photos and again this book might be suited to an adventurous beginner who's interested in the healthy eating side of vegetarian/vegan lifestyle.
The last book from the twins that I have is The Happy Pear: Vegan Cooking for Everyone.
As the title says, this book is 100% vegan with over 200 recipes but the layout is different - it's more about techniques rather than following a recipe.
For example, there's one method for making burgers but three different variations on that burger and there's one method for stewed fruit but four variations on fruits to use.
The idea is to teach you how to cook and work with flavours and ingredients - there's sections on tastes, flavours, spices and texture.
This book really does teach you how to take your cooking to the next level and be creative and improvise, so might be suited to an adventurous beginner.
Epic Vegan encourages you to have fun with your cooking and this is a great book to try something new!
There's a lot of vegan versions of American classics (Lobster Rolls) and most of the recipes have longer ingredients lists.
I love that it has metric, imperial, cup and spoon measurements and many of the recipes use leftovers from other recipes.
These probably aren't the healthiest of recipes (oil is used) and there isn't a photograph of every dish but it is a great, fun (Unicorn French Bread Pizza!), experimental book for an adventurous cook - highly recommended if you're looking for something different!
The 30 Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfield and Jennifer Murray
I was unsure whether to include The 30-Minute Vegan as it's possibly a little dated - it's from 2009 and there's only a handful of black and white photographs.
If you're looking for a coffee table book.... this isn't it!
However what you will find in here is over 175 healthy vegan recipes for salads, snack, wraps, bowls, light meals, soups, smoothies, main meals and desserts.
The recipes are designed for those transitioning to veganism and there's 'raw' food options in here as well.
There's some unusual flavours and some recipes have quite a long ingredients list.
Also there's variations on the recipes if you have longer than 30 minutes available and some tips and tricks to make your cooking easier.
Measurements are in cups, so measuring cups are handy here.
As I say, not a pretty coffee table book but a good workhorse with healthy, fast (and a little bit different) recipes.
Let's look at some more well-known books and authors next - starting with Dirty Vegan: Proper Banging Vegan Food
This is along the same punky lines as Isa's books and it's a decent beginners guide to vegan cooking but with an adventurous approach.
The focus is on healthy cooking, there's over 80 recipes and it does include some recipes to recreate 'meaty' dishes (which can be positive and negative) and there's a photograph for every recipe.
There's a largish bio section bio section at beginning of the book which I'm not really interested in as I buy cookbooks for recipes but I understand that some people like to know of others 'vegan journey'.
Matt has written another book Dirty Vegan: Another Bite which I don't own but I'll add to my Christmas list - it's more of the same as the first book so I've included them both in this review!
Both of these are a bargain if you can find them at Used price..
I have a few of Hugh's books but I've chosen River Cottage Much More Veg as it puts veg firmly centre stage in 175 recipes.
You won't find desserts in here (but you will find fruit in main courses) and there's spices and grains in abundance and there isn't any bread, pasta, noodles or pastry - many of the recipes are gluten-free.
This book is a celebration of vegetables, there's a photo for each recipe and some suggested variations, which is great if you 'grow your own'.
As vegetables are cheaper than meat and dairy, most of these recipes are budget friendly but not necessarily time friendly if you have to roast veg.
I think this would be suited to an adventurous beginner cook or someone wanted to take their veg cooking to the next level - highly recommended for veg lovers, fans of tapas/mezze and those looking for healthy options.
We hope these short reviews have helped you - we'll add more items as we try them - please let us know what else you'd like to see.
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