Savvy Vegetarian's Favorite Cookbooks

Our guide to the best cookbooks we've found for vegetarian recipes, how-to's, info, and techniques for vegetarian food, cooking and nutrition

Here are some of the easiest, most complete, and practical vegetarian cookbooks for everybody from beginner to gourmet vegetarian cooks. To be concise, we give short reviews of all the cookbooks we recommend, with links to any full length reviews in SV Articles

We love these cookbook authors because they're committed long-time vegetarians, or near-vegetarians, who understand what it means to go veg. They not only love food, and are excellent cooks, but have lots of practical knowledge about vegetarian food and nutrition. They're good writers, dedicated teachers of vegetarian cooking, plus they're charming & witty!

All Purpose Vegetarian Cookbooks, For Everyone From Beginners to Gourmet Cooks, Vegans or Vegetarians

Heaven's Banquet, Vegetarian Cooking for Lifelong Health the Ayurveda Way

Miriam Kasin Hospodar, Dutton, 1999, Lacto Vegetarian Easily adapts to vegan, with many vegan recipes, and vegan alternatives given throughout. Practical, flexible, simple approach to Ayurvedic cooking, integrates International & Western cooking, with vegan alternatives. Great for beginning cooks, because of her simple but complete directions, and basic cooking methods clearly spelled out in each section.

How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Mark Bittman, Ovo Lacto VegetarianHow To Cook Everything Vegetarian: Mark Bittman knows about delicious food and how to cook it. His omnivore perpective makes his cookbook a valuable introduction to cooking and eating veg.

Lorna Sass's Complete Vegetarian Kitchen

Lorna Sass, William Morrow, 2002: All purpose vegan cookbook, bursting with useful information not found elsewhere, such as selection, storage and cooking basics for ingredients from A - Z, plus hundreds of time-saving healthy vegan recipes using pressure cooker, wok and steaming techniques - fully explained, complete with charts.

The New Laurel's Kitchen

1986, Brian Ruppenthal, Carol L. Flinders, Laurel Robertson, Basic Vegetarian Cooking: This cookbook harks back to the '70's brown-rice-crunchy-granola style of vegetarian cooking. But we still like the nutrition tables, the simple family oriented recipes, the love and sincerity with which it is written. Great for beginning vegetarian cooks.

The Vegetarian Family Cookbook

Nava Atlas, Broadway Books, Random House Publishers, 2004, Mostly Vegan: Mostly vegan, useful for everyone from beginners to experienced vegetarian cooks, with information on vegetarian lifestyle, nutrition, ingredients, cooking techniques, and tips, along with menu suggestions for each recipe.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Deborah Madison, Broadway Books, 1997, Gourmet Vegetarian: A complete cookbook, packed with information about all aspects of vegetarian cooking, equipment, ingredients, and 1400+ excellent recipes, for everyone from beginners to seasoned cooks. The recipes are oriented to contemporary urban and gourmet tastes.

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Transitional Vegetarian Cookbooks, for Ovo-Lacto and Lacto Vegetarians

Cabbages and Roses

Debbie Nothaft, 1st World Library, 2003: Recipes by a divinely inspired cook, from 12 years of catering for vegetarians and near vegetarians. We often use these recipes for company, or adapt them to vegan, because they are simple, delicious, quick and failproof - and appeal to a wide range of tastes. Includes chicken or turkey recipes, but not fish.

Not Just For Vegetarians

Geraldine Hartman, Self Published, 2004, Transitional and Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian: Ideal for transitional veg, or non-veg who want a healthier, lighter, more varied diet. Flexible and familiar recipes - comfort food from your childhood, or favorite family recipes in a vegetarian version. Not for calorie counters!

The Moosewood Cookbook 15th Anniversary Edition

American Vegetarian: Mollie Katzen, Ten Speed Press, 1992, Ovo-Lacto Vegetarian: This was one of my first vegetarian cookbooks, a Godsend to me in the '70's, providing all kinds of delicous nourishing vegetarian recipes my famlily would happily eat. And it's so much fun! This edition has the original recipes, hand lettering and drawings, plus new & updated recipes, and a proper index, which makes it much easier to use. If you can find a copy - wonderful, if not, try any of Mollie Katzen's cookbooks.

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Specialty Vegetarian Cookbooks - Quick Cooking, Crock Pot or Slowcooker, Pressure Cooker, Desserts

Fresh From The Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Robin Robertson, Harvard Common Press, 2004: The first chapter tells you everything you need to know about slow cookers, and how to use them, before you get to the 200 delicious recipes for everything from appetizers to desserts.

Quick Fix Vegetarian

Robin Robertson, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007, Quick Egg-and-Dairy-Free Meals: Healthy meals in 30 minutes or less. Eat quickly without frozen entrees and fast food. Simple cooking techiques, shortcuts, and strategies for novice or seasoned vegetarians or vegans. SV Review of Quick Fix Vegetarian

The Joy of Vegan Baking

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Delectable Vegan Desserts and More: In addition to the recipes, Patrick-Goudreau offers an in depth explanation of dairy and egg substitutions that will allow her readers to make other non-vegan dessert recipes vegan. She also has several useful appendices covering such topics as baking terms, ingredients, and more. Patrick-Goudreau is the founder of Compassionate Cooks

The Vegetarian 5 Ingredient Gourmet

Nava Atlas, Broadway Books, Random House Publishers, 2001, Simple and Easy: For beginners, children and teens, busy people, the cooking challenged, and the lazy. Lots of information about ingredients, cooking techniques, and shortcuts, plus a menu planner, and suggested menus with every recipe.

The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook

Cathe Olson, Simple Natural Books - GOCO Publishing, 2005, Pregnant and Nursing Vegetarian: Healthy, vegan friendly, nourishing recipes for Mom and family, pregnancy and breastfeeding advice, nutritional tables, sample menus, shopping lists, cooking lessons, and time saving tips. Unique recipes and hard-to-find information.

Vegan Express

Nava Atlas, Broadway Books, Random House Publishers, 2004, Time Crunch Vegan Cooking: A very usable cookbook with a lot of great stuff packed into it, from basic vegan nutrition, to grocery shopping tips, to a wide variety of quick flavorful recipes accompanied by handy menu suggestions, and nutrition summaries. SV Review of Vegan Express

Vegetarian Soups For All Seasons

Nava Atlas, Year Round Soup Based Meals: This popular cookbook has been revised and updated as 'Vegan Soups And Hearty Stews For All Seasons'. It's now dairy free, with 20 new recipes, low fat, delightfully illustrated by Nava, with mouthwatering photos. The introduction covers soup making basics and equipment. Each recipe also includes a handy nutrition summary. The last chapter has a selection of quick breads, muffins, scones, etc, to accompany the soups. For more info read the SV Review of Vegetarian Soups For All Seasons

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International Cookbooks

Lord Krishna's Cuisine - The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking

Yamuna Devi, Indian Lacto-Vegetarian: An exhaustive resource - the Indian vegetarian version of 'The Joy of Cooking'. Detailed descriptions of ingredients, equipment, cooking techniques, menus, and hundreds of delicious recipes. In our opinion, Indian cuisine is the the most complete, delicious, and refined of vegetarian cooking. In our experience, Indian recipes also easily convert to vegan.

Paakam - Everyday Indian for a Vegetarian Lifestyle

Anu J. Canumalla, Indian Lacto-Vegetarian: A personal Indian cookbook - recipes that a traditional Indian cook makes for her family at home. Many of the recipes are vegan, most are simple and relatively easy, with clear directions. There's a large section on ingredients, which is invaluable. Paakam has a table of contents, but no index. However, this is a short cookbook, so that isn't a serious drawback. The recipes are divine!

Vegan Fire And Spice - 200 Sultry and Savory Global Recipes

Robin Robertson's Spicy World Cuisine: "It's amazing to realize that in our very own kitchens, we can have the world at our fingertips. Start with some unadorned grains, beans, and fresh vegetables, and with the mere twist of a spice mill, you can treat yourself to an astounding variety of global dishes. Whether we prefer our food mildly seasoned or searingly hot, most of us enjoy the unique flavor experiences that spices, chiles, and other seasonings have to offer."

World Fusion Cuisine

Mark Reinfeld, Bo Rinaldi, Chefs, The Blossoming Lotus Cafe, Kapa'a, Kaui, Hawaii: Vegan Raw Fusion Besides the beautiful presentation and the incredible recipes, there's a marvellous section on vegan natural food preparation, with basic prepping and cooking techniques, how to make marinades and condiments, soup stock, soaking and sprouting, grain and legume cooking charts, and a sugar conversion chart. SV Review of World Fusion Cuisine

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