- 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.
- 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!
- The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley: A great cookbook with very tasty and fancy foods. This book does have a number of
recipes with specialty ingredients and recipes that take a while to prepare... but the end result is always worth the work! I use this
book for special events, holidays, dinner parties, and the like. It's great food!
- How It All Vegan & Garden of Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard: These two fun books really started the glut of vegan cookbooks
on the market today. They are loaded with tasty and easy recipes. I love that many of their recipes use basic ingredients and are quick
to prepare. Good for weeknights when you're pooped out!
- 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.
- Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin: This is a family favorite amongst my kin, loving referred to as "The Green Book." Many
of the recipes are quite cheesy and oiley, but I find that even if I just eliminate the cheese and reduce the oil, the recipes are still
delicious and worth eating! And of course, if you do eat cheese, I'm sure they're all the tastier for it. This book emphasizes
practical recipes with on-hand ingredients, and for that reason it is really a useful book for using up stuff in the fridge or just for
planning easy dinners.
- 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.
Here a couple of good magazines:
* Vegetarian Times: features articles on nutrition, recipes, veggie suggestions, product reviews, and more
* Veggie Life: nothing but recipes! This is a fun magazine, with LOADS of recipes, and a picture for every single one.
Some good websites for finding recipes:
* Vegan Lunch Box: I am so in love
with this site, it's just ridiculous. I look at it every day, anticipating the updates! This blog chronicles the amazing
vegan lunches made every school day for one incredible lucky little fella out there in cyber land. Each day, his mom
prepares his lunch, photographs it, and then rates it based on how much he enjoyed it. Great ideas & super fun.
* Vegan Mania: This a great site operated by one person with really fantastic recipes. Very tasty, well organized,
and fun to browse through.
* 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."
* Live Earth Farm: This is the local farm where we get our CSA share (a box of fresh, organic produce each week!), and they have a fantastic
recipe database sorted by ingredient! This is very useful if you ever find yourself with a bunch of beets and you don't know what to
do.
* Post Punk Kitchen: web site for vegan tv cooking show, run by the author of "Vegan With A Vengence" (see above). Very tasty recipes!
* Vegan Food Pictures: I love this quirky site. It's a message board where people
post images of their latest home-made vegan creations, and often include the recipes. Very inspirational for ideas and presentation.
* Vegan Food: cool site and cool recipes, conveniently organized as well.
* Vegan Cooking: a fabulous site with suggestions on replacing eggs, different types of "milks," cream sauces... and a whole page
dedicated to tips on vegan baking. A very useful site for "veganizing" old favorite recipes.
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