Reading list · 11 books
The best vegan cookbooks to start with
Ten cookbooks for a first shelf, from all-purpose references to a beans-only book, with the kind of cook each one suits.
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Cookbook
Veganomicon (opens Bookshop.org)
The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook
Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero · 2007
Moskowitz and Romero cover soups, grains, beans, vegetables and desserts in more than 250 recipes, and the tenth-anniversary edition adds and retests a number of them. A general reference for the kitchen shelf.
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Cookbook
Isa Does It (opens Bookshop.org)
Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week
Isa Chandra Moskowitz · 2015
Moskowitz writes for the weeknight cook, with dinners built on supermarket ingredients and short methods. The tone is chatty and the recipes rarely ask for a specialty store.
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Cookbook
Vegan for Everybody (opens Bookshop.org)
Foolproof Plant-Based Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and In-Between
America's Test Kitchen · 2017
America's Test Kitchen brings its repeat-testing method to vegan cooking, with recipes aimed at cooks who have not made vegan meals before.
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Cookbook
Big Vegan Flavor (opens Bookshop.org)
Techniques and Recipes to Make Every Meal Delicious
Nisha Vora · 2021
Nisha Vora arranges around what makes food taste good, with fat, acid, umami and texture each getting a chapter's worth of technique before the recipes. Suits a cook who already follows a recipe and wants to start improvising.
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Cookbook
Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking (opens Bookshop.org)
Joe Yonan · 2021
Joe Yonan, the Washington Post's food and dining editor, teaches methods first and recipes second, in a reference sized for people who cook most nights.
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Cookbook
Cool Beans (opens Bookshop.org)
The Ultimate Guide to Cooking with the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein
Joe Yonan · 2020
Joe Yonan gives beans a whole book, with 125 recipes for the cheapest protein in the store. Dried and canned beans both get their due.
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Cookbook
Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking (opens Bookshop.org)
101 Entirely Plant-Based, Mostly Gluten-Free, Easy Recipes That Are Big on Flavor
Dana Shultz · 2016
Dana Shultz's 101 recipes stick to ten ingredients or fewer, one bowl, or thirty minutes of work. Every recipe is plant-based and many are gluten-free.
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Cookbook
Vegan Planet (opens Bookshop.org)
400 Irresistible Recipes with Fantastic Flavors from Every Corner of the World
Robin Robertson · 2003
Robertson's revised edition runs to 425 recipes from home kitchens and other countries. It suits a cook who wants one thick book that covers a lot of ground.
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Cookbook
Vegan with a Vengeance (opens Bookshop.org)
Over 150 Delicious, Cheap, Animal-Free Recipes That Rock
Isa Chandra Moskowitz · 2005
Moskowitz's first solo book, in a tenth-anniversary edition, collects home-style recipes in an irreverent voice. It reads like a friend's dog-eared kitchen copy.
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Cookbook
Vegan Cooking for Carnivores (opens Bookshop.org)
Over 125 Recipes So Hearty and Satisfying You Won't Miss the Meat
Roberto Martin · 2012
Roberto Martin, who cooked for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, aims recipes at guests who expect meat, with hearty, comfort-style dishes.
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Cookbook
The Oh She Glows Cookbook (opens Bookshop.org)
Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out
Angela Liddon · 2014
Angela Liddon's first cookbook grew out of her blog and gathers more than 100 whole-food vegan recipes, many of them built for breakfast and snacks.
Chosen by the Vegan Brief desk. No publisher pays for a place on this list. Updated September 2026.
More from the shelf
The practical answers, then the daily ones.
These guides answer the questions a vegan kitchen asks once. The morning brief answers the ones the world asks daily: what actually moved veganism forward, quoted and checked. One short read, free.
Free, every morning. No guilt. No preaching.