The Best Vegan Cookbooks You Need to Try

“Gorgeous, inviting, and amazingly well thought out, Big Vegan is a resource you’ll be cooking from for years to come.” That’s according to VegNews, who placed this collection of more than 350 easy-to-prepare vegan recipes on its list of “Ten Must-Have Vegan Cookbooks of 2011.” 

But despite the name, Big Vegan isn’t a cookbook just for vegans. It’s a perfect resource for anyone who wants to incorporate more plants and healthier alternatives into their diet, with approachable recipes that are easy to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

From casual get-togethers like game day or birthdays to the biggest celebrations including New Year’s Eve, Mardi Gras, Thanksgiving, Easter, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and more, this indispensable guide to vegan cooking for special occasions “makes vegan cooking non-intimidating and comfortable” (VegKitchen), while providing recipes for all sorts of gatherings and special events. 

Whether you’re making birthday treats or Halloween desserts or cooking up an entire feast for the whole family, “the recipes are so tempting, readers might not be able to resist their allure until the prescribed holiday” (VegNews).

Ann Gentry is one of Hollywood’s favorite vegan chefs – but you don’t have to be a chef, or a vegan, to enjoy the amazing meals in this cookbook, which is “less about converting you through environmental and health reasons and more about tempting your taste buds” (Seattle Weekly). 

As founder of one of LA’s most chic vegan restaurants, Gentry knows how to cook for a lot of people, and she brings that knowledge to this guide to vegan cooking for a hungry family, which “has the potential to be a fabulous cookbook for vegetarians, vegans, and even meat-eaters” (The Examiner).

“Short ingredient lists and easy-to-follow instructions make cooking Iranian, Moroccan, and Lebanese dishes easy for new vegan cooks,” crows VegNews about this exciting cookbook that sets out to “take traditional dishes and give [them] a vegan upgrade” (Book Riot). 

Written by Parvin Razavi, a food blogger and editor at Biorama, Vegan Recipes from the Middle East combines the joy and unmistakable flavor of cuisine from the middle east with “ecologically sustainable, fuss-free recipes that can be easily incorporated into a menu” (The Caterer) for a cookbook that can’t miss.

From the chefs at America’s Test Kitchen comes this “exhaustive but approachable primer for those looking for a ‘flexible’ diet” (Minneapolis Star Tribune) that offers more than 500 recipes, all of them vegan but many of them also offering non-vegan alternatives. 

The result is an IACP Award Winner in the Health & Nutrition Category that gives you the tools you need to make just about any recipe vegan or vegetarian, as you like – as well as access to countless vegan recipes that you can flex to accommodate your dietary preferences.

Named one of best cookbooks of the year by Boston Globe and Glamour alike, Edgar Castrejon’s “enticing collection of quick, relatively straightforward recipes” is a “solid starting point for vegan and nonvegan readers alike” (Library Journal). By taking some of his favorite traditional recipes that he grew up eating and giving them a plant-based twist, he introduces a whole new way to enjoy some sensational Mexican cuisine. 

“Give this to the person who never saw a taco they didn’t love, who could use a few new ways to fix up their frijoles, and who will appreciate having their mind blown by cashew cream tomato sauce slathered over their chile rellenos” (Bon Appetit).

“Full of recipes for which even a carnivore would give up a night of meat” (San Francisco Chronicle) this new book from vegan chefs and cooking partners Moskowitz and Romero is filled with over 250 “exuberant and unapologetic” (Saveur) recipes ranging from autumn latkes and a chocolate hazelnut biscotti to hot and sour soup with wood ears and napa cabbage and a porcini-wild rice soup that is “perfect for serving your yuppie friends.” 

The result is a “slam-bang effort” that makes “admirable use of every fruit and vegetable under the sun” (Publishers Weekly).

Subtitled “Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen,” this instant New York Times bestseller from the online sensation @thekoreanvegan was named one of the best cookbooks of the year by Epicurious, Publishers Weekly, Food52, the Toronto Star, and many others. 

Though it contains many recipes both traditional and new, it is also more than a Korean cookbook, following Molinaro’s tendency of sharing her family’s story alongside her recipes to paint a portrait of the immigrant experience and how food and family shape our lives, no matter where we’re from.

In this highly anticipated cookbook from the popular food blogger, Dana Schultz, the “Minimalist Baker,” showcases 101 simple, plant-based recipes that can be prepared with fewer than 10 ingredients, using just one bowl or pot, in less than 30 minutes. 

Filled with approachable recipes made with familiar ingredients, this book takes the same ideas that made Schultz’s blog so beloved and translates them to a vegan cuisine that you can make anytime, without a lot of fuss or muss.

Who better to introduce you to the world of vegan desserts than the first-ever vegan winner of the popular show Cupcake Wars? Chloe Coscarelli brings more than 100 recipes to her first all-dessert cookbook, all of them delicious, and all of them vegan, including everything from tiramisu pancakes to lemon poppy seed muffins and many more. 

“Coscarelli’s contagious enthusiasm and full-flavored recipes will appeal to readers who are considering going vegan but aren’t sure if they’re ready” (Library Journal) – and those who have already taken the plunge will find lots to love, too.