Recipes: Recommended Cookbooks & Magazines & Websites

Of course, before you go shopping, you might need some good recipes! These days, it seems like there are five new vegan cookbooks every time I go to Bookshop Santa Cruz. How Cool! I really love cooking and I especially love trying new recipes. Usually this works out great, although there are certainly a few misses now and again. I have loads of cookbooks & resources, and these are just a FEW of my favorites. It's so hard to chose!
  • Vegan With A Vengence by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: This cookbook is so fantastic! It's full of very delicious recipes, easy ingredients & instructions, and new ideas. Before being vegan, french toast was my all-time favorite breakfast treat... and I went for many years without it after committing to veganism. Imagine my JOY when I found the truly amazing recipe for "fronch toast" in this cookbook... she really throws together some fantastic recipes. Plus, this is also just a very fun read. It also has vegan versions of many traditional Jewish dishes like kugel, knishes & matzo ball soup - and those can be hard to find.

  • Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: A huge tome full of so many different recipes. Moskowitz is one of my all-time favorite cookbook authors: great flavors and a wide variety of ideas throughout the book. This book also has useful symbols for recipes that take less than 45 minutes, use everyday regular ingredients, are gluten-free, and so on.

  • Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: All low-calorie, high-nutrient recipes. I absolutely love this book. The recipes tend to be easy (but flavorful!) and it's a great book for simple weeknight dinners. It has become one of my favorites!

  • Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero: A totally glorious book of all-Latin recipes. Soups, (amazing) seitains, bean dishes, sandwiches, desserts... this is really a great book.

  • Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero: Everyone really should have this absolutely amazing book. FULL of totally glorious cupcake recipes and ideas - from down-right indulgent, to upscale classy little affairs. Also, any of these recipes can be used for sheet cakes and such, so you don't need to stick to cuppers if you're more of a full-size cake person. Like me.

  • How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman: This is an enormous book, as much a reference book and an idea book as a recipe book. You can look up pretty much any recipe or any veggie or any grain or any hot pepper or any seaweed, and find good, helpful info about it in this book. This is my new go-to reference for veggie staples, for cooking beans, and much much more. I especially love the section of homemade spice mixes with flavors from around the world.

  • The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein: This is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. Almost without failure, every thing I've tried from this book has been tasty and fantastic! It's full of delicious recipes using real foods... no unusual or unfamiliar ingredients. This is great food for people who are wary of what vegetarian food might entail.

  • The Real Food Daily Cookbook by Ann Gentry: Real Food Daily is an AMAZING vegan restaurant down in Santa Monica, serving up unbelievably tasty versions of American standards, as well as all sorts of creative new ideas. I have been waiting for years for this cookbook & I love it! The recipes are delicious & sophisticated. Especially great for special occassion ideas & introducing some new flavors and textures into your palate!

  • Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey: This book has a great selection of international recipes... with a special focus on Indian and Asian cuisines. The recipes are great and there are recipes from many different countries. It's fun to look through and see the appetizing dishes from all over the world.

  • Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison: A fantastic staple of a veggie cookbook collection. This fabulous book has a comprehensive section picturing many different veggies, offering successful flavor combinations, storage and preparation suggestions, and recipes. There are also loads of other great recipes!

  • Joy of Cooking by Marion Rombauer Becker, Irma S. Rombauer, and Ethan Becker: This book has loads of meaty recipes, but also has all the traditional American basics. I love the challenge of "veganizing" old favorites, and The Joy of Cooking has them all. It also has some great veggie side dishes and suggestions.

Here a couple of good magazines:

* Vegetarian Times: features articles on nutrition, recipes, veggie suggestions, product reviews, and more. Not all vegan, but there are loads of vegan (or easily veganized) recipes.
* VegNews: All vegan, all the time! Great recipes, product reviews, veggie news, and veg travel reports.

Some good websites for finding recipes:

* Post Punk Kitchen: web site for vegan tv cooking show, run by the author of "Vegan With A Vengence" (see above). Very tasty recipes!
* VegWeb: I love this site because people post all their favorite recipes, and then other users rate the recipes and offer feedback (for example: "This was great, but I took out the oil and added some spinach"... or whatever). It's useful, because you can quickly decide to avoid the two-star "Veggie Casserole" in place of the 5-star "Veggie Casserole."
* Plus, just get to work on Google! There are so many blogs, recipe sites, and resources on the web. Being vegan got about 1 million times easier once the internet kicked into gear!

Next: Resources: Recommended Books & Magazines & Websites
Back: The Vegan Pantry!
Back to the Veganism Page

 
Updated January 6, 2013   amey@yogawithamey.com