What is your most used vegan cookbook?
Posted by Saskia on Feb 26, 2007 · Member since Jan 2007 · 1976 posts
I'm a vegetarian and want to buy a cookbook to help me transition into a vegan diet. I am looking for a vegan cookbook with easy, tasty recipes and ingredients that are easy to find. Can you help me?
Honestly, I have a stockpile of cookbooks that I NEVER use. I just use the internet. Like it better because you can read reviews of the recipe. If I were to pick a cookbook, however, I'd go with "The Completer Vegan Cookbook." It has a lot of recipes I use frequently. Even though I've altered the recipes so much it doesn't even resemble the original....that's just how I role though. Lol....
Vegan with a Vengance or The Everyday Vegan. close runner up: The Garden of Vegan
Passionate Vegetarian is my "bible". It's vegetarian, however, there are lots of recipes that the author converts into vegan, and tons of useful info.
The Mediterranean Vegan Cookbook and VwaV are my favorites. I mainly use cookbooks for inspiration though.
The Mediterranean one is probably my favorite. I like the fact that the author researched recipes that are traditionally vegan and doesn't rely on a lot of substitutes.
Vegan Planet, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and Vegan With a Vengence are tied for my most used. I, too, use the internet all the time, but these 3 just have such excellent, tried and true recipes that nothing will ever take their places... I hear people mention the second two, but rarely Vegan Planet, so I want to give it an extra special shout out. The recipe for Shepherd's Pie in there is out of this world good. The same author also has a book called The Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook that I like a lot, too.
I also use stuff from the various Sarah Kramer cookbooks from time to time (How it all Vegan, The Garden of Vegan, etc.), although sometimes I think the flavor combos in those books are a little weird.
ThePPK.com is also a really useful resource, and there are an increasing number of excellent vegan food blogs, www.veganyumyum.com and www.vegancore.blogspot.com being two of my personal favs.
My one, and only, vegan cookbook is Vegan with a Vengeance. I have several Vegetarian cookbooks, but only the one vegan. I plan to change that by taking advantage of the information in this thread! ;D
Who needs vegan cookbooks when we have this site? ;) When I'm in need of inspiration, I just refresh the homepage a few times until something appetizing comes up on the featured recipe, or under the users list with the single picture. The only thing I'd rather have a cookbook for is that I don't have a printer at my apartment and running back and forth between the kitchen and the internet for recipe instructions is annoying... Yes I am too lazy to write them down... but not too lazy to run back and forth.. I'm special.. what can I say.
Yep I agree with Janeyboo....who needs a cookbook when you've got this site???
Don't get me wrong I love the recipes from this site but some people are just book types. There is something I love about getting a new book and paging through it. I love the way they feel in my hands.
Thank you Tanevab. You nailed it. I am a bookworm. Writer. Nerd.
I am technologically-challenged too. A newbie at this site who has already made errors when I've tried to post, errors that you may have seen. Plus, I can't figure out how to fix my damn printer, I've handwritten several recipes from this site, or printed them out on someone else's printer.
Having said that, you should now that since a friend turned be on to this website not long ago, I have become so involved in it. That's saying a lot from someone who hates being in front of a computer. The vegweb topics are intriguing. The users honest, creative and compassionate. The photos titillating. And the recipes I've tried give my mouth multiple orgasms. Ay yi yi ....
I like VwaV and Vegan Lunch Box and Vive La Vegan personally.... BUT if you're already veg, and say already familiar with tofu... I'd think the most helpful in making the vegan transition would be something like Ultimate Uncheese to replace the 'dairy' you might be missing.
Vegan Vittles. I actually got it as one of those "gifts" from Farm Sanctuary when I adopted (sponsored really) my first pig there. It's the only vegan cookbook I have, and it was so helpful to me, and to this day still is.
I am actually trying to get more use out of all my veg cookbooks, but I always end up searching for recipes either on this site (or in other places like the food network or epicurious that I "vegify"). The book that does get the most use is Vegan Planet for me. Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes comes close. :)
I may be in the minority, here, and I apologize for violating the terms of the request, but I LOVE Cooking the Whole Foods Way. It's a macrobiotic cookbook, and with the exception of one chapter on fish is entirely vegan. It is full of really really simple recipes and I've yet to make anything from it that isn't delicious. Good luck!
I have only one vegan cookbook "How it all Vegan." I bought it when I first switched to vegan from lacto-ovo veggie. I made some really good stuff out of it. But I hardly use it now. Like a few said here, I use this site a lot to find recipes.
VWAV, Vive Le Vegan, The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton, Sarah Kramers books, Vegan Vittles.
I'm a VWAV girl. But there is a special place in my heart for Vegan Planet; that's the first vegan cookbook I purchased, and in fact that's why I became vegan. Also, the Kramer cookbooks are good, especially for inexperienced cooks or cooks who generally don't have much time.
I have never seen this one mentioned on this board, but Lorna Sass' Complete Vegetarian Kitchen was as essential to me in learning how to cook. It is about 50% recipes and the rest is charts on how long to cook beans, grains, etc.., a huge glossary of foods and methods of cooking each (chard, aduki beans, kombu, etc...), ideas on taste combos, and lots of other stuff.
Thank you for the recommendations. I'm going to the bookstore to check those out. Let you know if I see anything else that might be of interest that is not listed here.
Any and all of my Indian cookbooks. :)
Any dish that uses meat can be substituted with firm tofu or other meat-substitue with minor adjustments to the spices if any at all.
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