Vegetarian cookbooks

[ericparkr]

Good veg cook books are:

Vegan Express by Nava Atlas

Veganomicon

Quick-fix vegan by Robin Robertson

[nickrey]

Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty is one of the best restaurant vegetarian cookbooks I've come across. The recipes are easily made at home.

[Ttogull]

Two books not mentioned but fantastic for upscale vegan/vegetarian are

The Artful Vegan: Fresh Flavors from the Millennium Restaurant

And

The Millennium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine

They are not your 30-minute after-work cookbooks, but they have some fantastic dishes for someone who is willing to put in the time!

[ElainaA]

While Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Somerville's Field's of Greens are two of my most used cookbooks, I really learned vegetarian cooking form Julie Jordan's now out of print Wings of Life. It gives basic structures for dishes - soups, stews, chili, quiches, stir fry and then riffs of lots of possible variations. The curried lentil soup and cashew chili are among my standards. It is based on recipes from her restaurant, Cabbagetown Cafe, a favorite in Ithaca in the 1970's-80's - rivaling Moosewood. I liked it better - I found Moosewood's food, at that time anyway, too heavy and rather bland. ( I have lived in or near Ithaca since the mid 1970's.)

[ash]

Either Plenty or as also mentioned the River Cottage book(s).

[ChrisTaylor]

Bump. Started working from Nobu's Nobu Vegetarian Cookbook and have had some mostly positive results. Admittedly, I went for two of the less ambitious dishes in the book (not that anything's too crazy for a fine dining cookbook--we're not in Alinea territory here) because it was a midweek meal. I do have some concerns, though. The stated roasting times for the vegetable pintxos and onion 'steak' were way off. My onion steaks took twice as long, easy, as his. And I reckon I could've given them another 5 minutes. There's no way 7 minutes is enough at 220C. No way. Not at 3 cm thick. Not if you want the onion caramelised as described in the text and shown in the picture. The one dressing I made for the pintxos was perhaps too heavy on the sesame oil: not bad, but clearly in need of something else. I wonder if that was my fault, though, making only one of the four sauces. Still, the book clearly holds promise. 

[SobaAddict70]

I'm a flexitarian (or in other words, "a vegetarian who eats meat on occasion").

Deborah has published "The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (which I don't have but will eventually get) and "Vegetable Literacy" (which I do have, and is worth buying).

Vedge is a great book, although note that most if not all of the recipes therein are vegan: http://www.amazon.com/Vedge-Plates-Redefine-Vegetable-Cooking/dp/1615190856

[Anna N]

I'm a flexitarian (or in other words, "a vegetarian who eats meat on occasion").Deborah has published "The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (which I don't have but will eventually get) and "Vegetable Literacy" (which I do have, and is worth buying).Vedge is a great book, although note that most if not all of the recipes therein are vegan: http://www.amazon.com/Vedge-Plates-Redefine-Vegetable-Cooking/dp/1615190856

Vedge is an eye opener for sure. Although it calls for some vegan ingredients, unlikely to be found in a meat-eater's kitchen, they can easily be substituted. I am working through a long list of recipes that call out to me. The roasted cauliflower with kimchi mayonnaise has already won a permanent place in my repertoire.

[CeeCee]

I like Vedge too and the not mentioned yet Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "River Cottage Veg", which is less vegan than Vedge.

[ahpadt]

Either Plenty or as also mentioned the River Cottage book(s).

 

There's now a Plenty More book out. I flicked around in it the other day and it looked pretty interesting. And I don't own any vegetarian cookbooks.

[ninagluck]

I just got my Plenty more copy, found it pretty boring, go for the first one!

[Honkman]

There are some older discussions but I am always looking for more vegetarian cookbooks. So it would be interesting to hear some favorites (old and new) covering all types of cuisines (and I am actually also interested in the more unknown/obscure ones, e.g. in a recent discussion on another board I read for the first time about "Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-E​ast Vegetarian Cooking" which wasn't really on my radar but after reading about it seems to be very interesting.)

[Alex]

Here are some from our collection -- some obscure, some not:

 

Tomes: Passionate Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon (really!); Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison

Relatively recent, from 2014 (I love this book): Silk Road Vegetarian, Dahlia Abraham Klein

Indian/International (older books, but still good): The Indian Vegetarian, Neelam Batra; The Bold Vegetarian, Bharti Kirchner

By Martha Rose Shulman: The Vegetarian Feast; Fast Vegetarian Feasts

Desserts: Chef Sato's All-Natural Desserts, Satoru Sato

[Darienne]

My personal favorite: Habeeb Salloum.  Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa. 

[Ttogull]

I have a ton of vegetarian cookbooks. I am a committed carnivore, but often like to make vegetables the main part of a meal with meat as a side complement.

I'm only listing books that I find to be somewhat valuable to me, with descriptions as I recall them. (Others might think of the books differently.) I don't think they are obscure. I have Madhur Jaffrey's book you mentioned above - I consider it a mainstream classic. I have several other books by her, and they have lots of vegetarian recipes. Very good.

If you can find it, there is a British TV show called River Cottage <something>. I last saw it on the European version of YouTube for free. A season was devoted to vegetarian food. Fantastic. There is an associated cookbook called "River Cottage Veg". I have the cookbook, but I don't use it often. The show was inspiring.

"From a Breton Garden" has lots of interesting flavor combos. I think it is a classic.

"Super Natural Cooking" is fantastic, and focused on grains. I think the author might have other books too. Probably worth getting.

If you are into more complicated stuff, "The Millennium Cookbook", "The Artful Vegan," and "Candle 79 Cookbook" are great. I ate at Candle 79 and had probably the best nachos in my life. That's saying something because I grew up in Texas.

For newer "cutting edge" stuff, maybe "Dirty Candy", "Vedge" or "Vedgetronic".

[Duvel]

"Plenty" by Yotam Ottolenghi is my favorite vegetarian cookbook. Makes you think that meat might be optional (at least for some parts of the week).

"Chinese Vegetarian Cooking" by Kenneth Lo is interesting as well, at least for the discussions on certain ingredients and some of the more unusual Chinese combinations of them ...

[Honkman]

Here are some from our collection -- some obscure, some not:

 

Tomes: Passionate Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon (really!); Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison

Relatively recent, from 2014 (I love this book): Silk Road Vegetarian, Dahlia Abraham Klein

Indian/International (older books, but still good): The Indian Vegetarian, Neelam Batra; The Bold Vegetarian, Bharti Kirchner

By Martha Rose Shulman: The Vegetarian Feast; Fast Vegetarian Feasts

Desserts: Chef Sato's All-Natural Desserts, Satoru Sato

 

Vegetarian Cooking for Everybody (with Plenty and Plenty More) are our some of our vegetarian cookbooks at home but Passionate Vegetarian sounds quite interesting

[Honkman]

My personal favorite: Habeeb Salloum.  Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa. 

 

 

Just checked it on Amazon and it looks interesting as it covers cuisines which are often not covered in other vegetarian cookbooks

[hummingbirdkiss]

The Hare Krishna Cookbook is a free download and old school good vegetarian 

you can download it free on their site 

 

Kathy Cooks …Naturally ..it is on amazon for less than $10 has 1000 recipes and I think I Have tried and failed/succeeded with most of them at one time or another I just challenged myself to "get though" her book (I never did that again with any other book that sucks) a very good fun cooking and lots of really unusual vegetarian and vegan recipes ) 

she had a PBS cooking series a long time ago and taught me how to cook a new way 

my kids adored her yuba ribs!..we made fake mcRibs out of them but i had to search high and low back then to find yuba and then I found my first  East Asia grocer in this area .. (obscure for sure I would say) 

 

so many more books  ..I find my best vegetarian recipes in "regular"  cookbooks  I just browse and really so many have a huge portion dedicated to non meat meals 

 

 

(edited ..her other book Kathy Cooks Vegetarian (Art of Dieting With out Dieting) Is just as good 

Edited November 3, 2015 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Carole Grogloth Hawaii]

I just discovered a great vegan cookbook by a very creative chef.  Every recipe has been a success with my tasters... Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner.  It just came out in June 2015.

 

Here is the Amazon link.

 

Aloha,

Carole Grogloth

Molokai Hawaii

Edited January 2, 2016 by lesliec
eG-friendly Amazon link (log)

[Anna N]

 I am currently reading Veggiestan by Sally Butcher. I am not a vegetarian nor am I much of a fan of middle eastern food  but this book has me totally entranced. I love her casual approach to measurements (a splodge of oil is right up my alley) and her quirky sense of humour.   It is my opinion that an attempt to offer a review of a cookbook without ever trying a recipe is doomed to failure. So I am not reviewing this as a cookbook but just as a damn good read. Any book that forces me to consult a dictionary or turn again and again to Google to learn about an ingredient I have never heard of wins my heart every time. I do hope that I will give some of these recipes a try in the not-too-distant future but for the time being I don't want to come to the end of this book. 

[FauxPas]

The Moosewood 40th Anniversary Cookbook (Kindle edition) is only $1.99 right now at Amazon. Not sure if that is short-term or regular pricing. 

[kayb]

Wonder what relationship a splodge of oil is to a glug? I always tend to measure liquids in glugs.

 

Martha Rose Schulman's "Recipes for Health," while not exclusively vegetarian, is a good resource for vegetarian/vegan recipes.

 

 

[kayb]

On 10/30/2015 at 2:37 PM, Alex said:

Here are some from our collection -- some obscure, some not:

 

Tomes: Passionate Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon (really!); Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison

Relatively recent, from 2014 (I love this book): Silk Road Vegetarian, Dahlia Abraham Klein

Indian/International (older books, but still good): The Indian Vegetarian, Neelam Batra; The Bold Vegetarian, Bharti Kirchner

By Martha Rose Shulman: The Vegetarian Feast; Fast Vegetarian Feasts

Desserts: Chef Sato's All-Natural Desserts, Satoru Sato

Ah. Crescent Dragonwagon, hippie par excellence, a fine Arkansan and resident (I guess, still), of Eureka Springs, where she did at one time run a restaurant and hotel. I was never impressed by her cuisine, but she's an interesting character.

 

[Alex]

10 minutes ago, kayb said:

Ah. Crescent Dragonwagon, hippie par excellence, a fine Arkansan and resident (I guess, still), of Eureka Springs, where she did at one time run a restaurant and hotel. I was never impressed by her cuisine, but she's an interesting character.

 

 

Yes, she and her now-late husband owned Dairy Hollow House.