11 Best Vegan Cookbooks, According to an Award-Winning Chef

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Your kitchen shelves only have so much space, and your cooking time is even more limited. While it’s easy to scroll through endless free vegan recipes online, there is a different kind of joy in holding a physical cookbook you trust to help you learn fun plant-based recipes. However, we know it can be hard to tell which cookbooks are actually worth buying until you’ve already brought them home and tried the recipes.

No one wants to spend the afternoon hunting down hard-to-find ingredients just to end up with a dinner that doesn’t turn out well. Whether you’re fully vegan, wanting to cut down on your meat consumption or looking to try a new way of eating, we wanted to find the vegan titles that are worth keeping in the kitchen, so we asked an award-winning chef to share the ones he uses for inspiration.

Rich Landau is the chef and co-owner of Vedge and Ground Provisions, two vegetable-centric restaurants that have changed the way people think about plant-based dining. Alongside his wife and business partner, Kate Jacoby, Landau has spent decades working with seasonal produce and building bold flavors.

He is a six-time James Beard finalist, won an episode of Food Network’s Chopped and routinely breaks down dishes as a judge on Beat Bobby Flay. Because he has also written four cookbooks of his own, including Vedge and The Vedge Bar Book, he understands the care it takes to make a recipe easy to follow and successful at home.

Whether you want to explore regional styles or just need a simple weeknight dinner, here are the 11 best vegan cookbooks Landau recommends.

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How These Cookbooks Were Chosen

Instead of sticking to one specific style of cooking, Landau pulled a diverse mix of titles from his personal collection. His selections range from high-end restaurant manuals to simple weeknight guides and deep dives into regional cuisines.

While the techniques and flavors vary completely from book to book, Landau chose each one because it stands out as one of the best examples of its style, offering reliable recipes that he personally uses for inspiration.

Related: The Genius Way To Make Grilled Veggies 10x Better, According to an Award-Winning Chef

Top Vegan Cookbooks

• Best Vegan Cookbook for Korean Comfort Food: The Korean Vegan Homemade: Recipes and Stories from My Kitchen by Joanne Lee Molinaro
• Best Vegan Cookbook for Seasonal Cooking:Plant-Based Magic: 120 Seasonal Recipes for Healing Body and Soul by Lisanna Wallance
• Best Mediterranean Vegan Cookbook:Crossroads: Extraordinary Recipes from the Restaurant That Is Reinventing Vegan Cuisine by Tal Ronnen
• Best All-In-One Kitchen Reference:Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips, and Techniques by Joe Yonan
• Best Vegan Cookbook for Baking and Desserts:Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts by Fran Costigan
• Best Indian Vegan Cookbook:Plant-Based India: Nourishing Recipes Rooted in Tradition by Dr. Sheil Shukla
• Best Japanese Vegan Cookbook:Vegan Japan: 70 Comforting Plant-Based Recipes by Julia Boucachard
• Best Caribbean Vegan Cookbook:Caribbean Vegan, Second Edition: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Authentic Island Cuisine for Every Occasion by Taymer Mason
• Best Vegan Cookbook for Healthy Longevity:The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100 by Dan Buettner
• Best Vegan Cookbook for Beginners: Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook by Del Sroufe
• Best Southern Cooking Vegan Cookbook:Mississippi Vegan: Recipes and Stories from a Southern Boy’s Heart by Timothy Pakron

11 Best Vegan Cookbooks, According to an Award-Winning Chef

These are the best vegan cookbooks Rich Landau highly recommends adding to your collection.

1. Best for Korean Comfort Food: The Korean Vegan Homemade: Recipes and Stories from My Kitchen by Joanne Lee Molinaro, $37 (Originally $40) at Barnes & Noble

Instead of relying on easy shortcuts or processed meat alternatives, Joanne Lee Molinaro builds deep flavor by teaching readers how to use traditional, fermented pantry staples like doenjang (soybean paste) and gochujang (chili paste).

This cookbook features traditional staples like jjajangmyun (black bean noodles) alongside personal essays about her mother fleeing North Korea.

“Beautiful photography and great recipe adaptations from a very meat-heavy cuisine,” Chef Landau says. “These recipes capture the essence of Korean cooking without sacrificing flavor or soul.”

Related: 50+ Satisfying Vegan Breakfasts To Power Your Day

2. Best for Seasonal Cooking:Plant-Based Magic: 120 Seasonal Recipes for Healing Body and Soul by Lisanna Wallance, $27.95 at Barnes & Noble

After being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, clinical herbalist and chef Lisanna Wallance used plant and mushroom medicine to help manage her chronic pain.

This book organizes her entirely gluten-free, vegan recipes by the calendar, pairing in-season produce with functional herbs. Instead of traditional weeknight cooking, you get unusual, playful recipes, such as lilac panna cotta and adaptogenic stuffed zucchini, that are designed to target energy, focus and digestion.

“Fresh and inspired, this book blends food and healing both gracefully and deliciously,” Chef Landau notes. It’s a fantastic guide if you want to switch up your cooking habits and align your kitchen with the changing seasons.

Related: The Genius Way to Make Guacamole 10x Better, According to an Award-Winning Chef

3. Best Mediterranean:Crossroads: Extraordinary Recipes from the Restaurant That Is Reinventing Vegan Cuisine by Tal Ronnen, $35 at Barnes & Noble

Chef Tal Ronnen skips tofu blocks and processed meat substitutes in his cookbook, focusing instead on upscale Mediterranean cooking.

The book brings the menu of his famous Los Angeles restaurant straight to your stove, teaching you how to use nuts, grains and seasonal vegetables to build rich textures. You’ll learn how to make house staples like almond-based ricotta cheese, hearts of palm “calamari” and fresh pasta tossed in homemade sauces.

“My dear friend and rockstar chef Tal Ronnen brings his Mediterranean-inspired approach to vegan food,” Chef Landau says. “Crossroads effortlessly blends creativity and ingenuity with simplicity and clean flavors.”

4. Best All-In-One Kitchen Reference:Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking: Vegan Recipes, Tips and Techniques by Joe Yonan, $50 at Barnes & Noble

Instead of just listing dinner ideas, former Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan delivers a massive, technique-focused guide to the fundamentals of plant-based cooking.

This 500-page volume opens with a comprehensive “building blocks” chapter that teaches you how to handle scratch-made kitchen basics. Instead of relying on store-bought substitutes, you’ll learn how to emulsify aquafaba mayonnaise, churn homemade nut butters, and craft your own oat milk and stocks from scratch.

“Joe’s curiosity and support for plant-based dining is infectious and always apparent in the pages of his books,” Chef Landau says. It’s a great technical handbook for anyone who wants to master the fundamental kitchen skills behind great everyday meals.

5. Best for Baking and Desserts:Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts by Fran Costigan, $40 at Barnes & Noble

Traditional baking relies on the chemistry of eggs and dairy fat, making plant-based pastries notoriously hard to master. Professional pastry instructor Fran Costigan skips common shortcuts like processed margarine and tofu, treating dessert-making like a science.

Her recipes in this cookbook focus on precise techniques, like tracking exact chocolate percentages and learning to properly emulsify almond milk ganache, to deliver bakery-quality tortes, tarts and mousses.

“Fran works magic with her vegan desserts; her experience and approachability shine through in this wonderful book,” Chef Landau says. “If you have a sweet tooth, this is the book you need.”

6. Best Indian: Plant-Based India: Nourishing Recipes Rooted in Tradition by Dr. Sheil Shukla, $32.50 at Barnes & Noble

“Indian food is everyone’s favorite, and one of the most complex and extraordinary cuisines on the planet,” Chef Landau says. “This book will have you mastering curry at home.”

While Indian cuisine is inherently vegetarian-friendly, restaurant dishes still use dairy staples like ghee, yogurt and paneer cheese. Dr. Sheil Shukla, a physician who learned to cook traditional Gujarati dishes from his grandmother, reworks his family’s heritage meals into completely plant-based versions with Plant-Based India.

Instead of using processed substitutes, his recipes focus on the whole food basics of the Indian pantry, showing you how to build a rich shak (spiced vegetable dish) or a comforting dal using whole legumes and home-toasted spice blends.

Related: The 8 Best Cookbook Stands That Chefs Swear By

7. Best Japanese:Vegan Japan: 70 Comforting Plant-Based Recipes by Julia Boucachard, $24.95 at Barnes & Noble

“Once you have visited Japan, you realize two things,” Chef Landau notes. “The food is seemingly simple yet deeply soul-satisfying, and the other is that it is unexpectedly difficult to navigate vegan eating there. This book satisfies both points.”

Japanese-French chef Julia Boucachard draws on her childhood memories, splitting time between Tokyo and France, to recreate her favorite comfort foods without hidden fish-based dashi or bonito flakes.

Her recipes in Vegan Japan make the most of clean, homestyle staples like kabocha squash stew, crispy karaage, miso butter ramen and even yoshoku favorites like Japanese potato salad.

8. Best Caribbean: Caribbean Vegan, Second Edition: Meat-Free, Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Authentic Island Cuisine for Every Occasion by Taymer Mason, $26.95 at Barnes & Noble

Barbadian food scientist Taymer Mason celebrates the rich, traditional heritage of West Indian cooking by using regional, whole-food staples like cassava, breadfruit and green bananas as the foundation for her dishes in Caribbean Vegan.

“Caribbean food is so hauntingly delicious,” Chef Landau says. “The spices, the unique ingredients, the taste of vacation and a window into an underrated food culture that deserves a bigger spotlight; this book is for that journey.”

Mason teaches you how to create these complex flavor profiles from scratch, sharing reliable recipes for fiery Jamaican jerk marinades, slow-simmered Trinidadian doubles and your own homemade Bajan green seasonings.

9. Best for Healthy Longevity:The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100 by Dan Buettner, $35 at Barnes & Noble

National Geographic fellow Dan Buettner spent decades traveling the globe to document the world’s “Blue Zones”—the specific regions where people consistently live past 100. This book serves as a field guide and cookbook, collecting recipes directly from families in these communities.

Instead of calorie counting or focusing on micronutrients, The Blue Zones Kitchen pages feature traditional, whole-food plant combinations. You will learn how to make daily staples like Sardinian herbed lentil minestrone, Costa Rican hearts of palm ceviche and steamed Okinawan sweet potatoes.

Chef Landau has personally collaborated with Buettner over the last decade and considers his findings game changing. “The importance of his discovery of the Blue Zones cannot be understated,” Chef Landau shares. “His knowledge of these cuisines and the effects on our well-being are extraordinary.”

10. Best for Beginners: Forks Over Knives—The Cookbook by Del Sroufe, $22.95 at Barnes & Noble

“From the eye-opening documentary that changed so many minds,” Chef Landau notes. “Everyone should see this movie no matter what, and if it inspires them, then this book will be a great next step forward.”

Chef Del Sroufe handles the transition to plant-based eating by skipping processed meat substitutes and keeping the cooking methods simple. The Forks Over Knives cookbook features more than 300 oil-free recipes that use basic items like oats, canned beans and potatoes.

Instead of learning complex techniques, you learn how to make healthy and quick meals like mushroom stroganoff, black-eyed pea stew and baked oatmeal.

11. Best Southern Cooking: Mississippi Vegan: Recipes and Stories from a Southern Boy’s Heart by Timothy Pakron, $36 at Barnes & Noble

Classic American Southern food is legendary for its comfort, but the culture traditionally relies on ham hocks, bacon grease and butter. Photographer and chef Timothy Pakron reclaims his Gulf Coast heritage by letting the regional agricultural bounty take center stage in Mississippi Vegan.

He uses wild mushrooms, fresh okra and local root vegetables to recreate the comforting textures of the Deep South, offering recipes for plant-based gumbos, flaky biscuits and slow-smothered greens.

“Southern food may best represent what the USA has to offer the global culinary stage, but it is notoriously meaty despite having some of the best growing soil for vegetables. This book answers that call,” Chef Landau says.

Final Thoughts

Investing in a few solid cookbooks makes a big difference when you’re standing in front of the stove on a Tuesday night, and having a physical book on the counter means you can skip scrolling on your phone to find a recipe.

Plant-based cooking is at its best when it stops trying to mimic meat and just lets whole foods, vegetables, plants and spices taste great on their own terms.

Whether you want to spend a weekend afternoon simmering a vegan pasta sauce or just need a fast, reliable dinner after work, these are the best vegan cookbook titles you’ll keep coming back to week after week.

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Source:

• Rich Landau is the chef and co-owner of Vedge and Ground Provisions. Landau is a six-time James Beard finalist, and he has written four cookbooks, including Vedge and The Vedge Bar Book.