General Vegan Cooking Cookbook Review

Did you know that there are actually hundreds of vegan cookbooks out there? I have looked through many of them. A lot of them have delicious recipes, but I have pretty high standards for cookbooks since I want recipes that are both delicious and healthy. So the cookbooks listed here are only ones that meet my criteria of healthy.

The characteristics I look for in a good vegan cookbook are that they have to be both good for you and good tasting.

That means using whole flours and grains and unrefined sweeteners and oils (and not too much of them). It means giving good cooking tips and techniques and using non-toxic cooking methods. It also means lots of vegetables and not too much focus on soy/tofu.

It would be wonderful if you could let me know of any other cookbooks out there that fit these specifications. Thanks!

General Vegan Cookbooks

Vive le Vegan! Simple Delectable Recipes For The Everyday Vegan Family
Dreena Burton

This is Dreena's second book, and it's the best of the three in my opinion because she doesn't use much soy.

She includes an awesome variety of whole food ingredients, which is the essence of a healthy diet. While this means she uses flours that some may not have access to she also offers substitutes.

There are plenty of wheat-free recipes, or options for making a recipe wheat-free.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the actual food, but the real strength of this cookbook is its focus on nutrition and meals oriented to feeding babies and toddlers. I don't have kids, but I think it's so valuable to give this advice since there are many people who might not think to make their own baby food. Knowing how to plan meals for children is essential, since they have very different nutritional needs than adults.

Also, because the recipes are family-oriented, they're not as complicated or time-consuming as other vegan cookbooks, which are often gourmet. This is helpful not only for parents, but for everyone who wants to save a bit of time! Also, gourmet meals tend to rely on more fat and oil to bring flavor, while these recipes are flavorful but simple and healthy.

Click for more info on this book

The 30-Minute Vegan
Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray

This book gives a great overview of vegan health and cooking, and then dives into a huge amount of recipe ideas. I love the fact that they present a good proportion of raw dishes, and these aren't the kind of high-fat raw recipes you usually see. They are simple, but delicious and are a nice change from all the gourmet vegan and raw cookbooks that are so popular.

The recipes don't rely too heavily on tofu or meat replacements, and the ingredients are mostly whole foods rather than processed. The ingredients are simple and easy to find, but they use a wide variety of different foods to give you an idea of what to do with them. They give ideas for substitutions, which I love to see since it encourages cooks to have more creativity in the kitchen.

A great idea in the middle of the book is a section on snacks and food for kids. Once you read them the ideas are so obvious, but if you have never made your own popsicles you might not know how easy it is!

The dessert section is perfect. Rather than overwhelming with a complicated recipe, they give you elegant ideas for a simple treat. They use whole ingredients, including coconut oil, spelt flour and unrefined sugars and sweeteners - just what I like to see in baking! The great thing is, they don't have just baked desserts. They also give you ideas for jazzing up fruit and other simple desserts.

Click for more info on this book

ExtraVeganZa: Original Recipes from Phoenix Organic Farm
Laura Matthias

I first saw this cookbook because my mom had bought it for herself. My mom is not vegan, so I took a look through to see what kinds of concoctions she would be making for herself and my dad. The first thing I noticed was that the recipes were very interesting, with some flavor combinations I wanted to try like Walnut Basil Rice Casserole.

As usual, I skipped ahead to the baking and dessert section, since this is the most challenging section as a vegan and the one where most vegan cookbooks let me down by using vegan margarine and egg replacers. The only thing not quite to my liking was that she uses canola oil, but specifies that you can substitute another oil. Despite that, she emphasizes whole grain flours, including spelt and rice. I love that she challenges readers to expand their flour horizons, and she usually mentions that you can use whole wheat flour instead so it shouldn't be too intimidating.

Not only does she do the standard muffins, cookies and cakes, but pies and loaves as well. There is a yam pecan cranberry loaf that is perfect for Thanksgiving. Also impressive is the section of pie crusts, since she gets pretty creative! I probably wouldn't have experimented with Barley Coconut Crusts on my own.

One of the most exciting things I found in this book is a section of puddings, gels and mousses! Phil loves chocolate mousse, and I hadn't considered trying a vegan version, but it is amazing.

There is an excellent section on making your own dyes with foods that I found particularly interesting because my sister-in-law has been thinking about how to make her own Play-Dough for her almost 2-year-old son. They can be used for so many things, and I'm so glad she brought to her readers' attention the fact that we should be using non-toxic dyes when we need to color icings or whatever else.

Now, there isn't a section in this book that tells you in detail how to cook as a vegan, so this isn't an entry-level cookbook, or even an entry-level vegan cookbook. It does have a lot of very simple recipes, like sesame cabbage, that are more of an idea than a recipe. These simple recipes are not clearly identified or grouped together though, so in flipping through the book you have to know what you're looking for. Sections are arranged by the type of dish, not the simplicity of preparation.

When making recipes from this book, I am always relieved by her minimal use of tofu and soy products. So many vegan and vegetarian cookbooks use tofu and soy as crutches, but there is so much creativity to be had by not relying on them all the time! A small detail that I appreciate is the naming of the recipes - you know right off the bat what you're about to make. Fresh Avocado, Tomato and Artichoke Sauce on Garlic Rotini Noodles pretty much puts it right out there.

While I said that there are some simple recipes in this book, there are also recipes that are created with some unusual ingredients, such as sake and lavendar. This makes for very unique dishes, and while there are some that should really only be made with those ingredients many of them can be substituted or left out for an every day meal.

Click for more info on this book

Vegan Baking Cookbooks

Unfortunately, if you are interested in making your vegan baking healthy, good cookbooks are few and far between. They mostly get the vegan thing right, but they stick with the standard unhealthy ingredients.

Flying Apron's Gluten-free & Vegan Baking Book
Jennifer Katzinger

Other than canola oil (I strongly suggest you use olive oil instead), Jennifer uses lots of healthy ingredients, including clever use of yam and pumpkin. She uses whole grain and bean flours instead of white flours, and wholesome sweeteners instead of white sugar or refined cane sugar. She doesn't use soy, which is awesome.

The dough is very nice. The pie dough is crumbly, like a shortbread, and grainy compared to conventional pastry, but it is really delicious. The cookies stay together nicely due to recipes that are carefully put together.

The only downfall of this book for strict vegans is that 5 of the recipes use honey. If you are willing to support the author in spite of that, this is a real gem. I would classify it more as a gluten-free book that just happens to be vegan.

It doesn't have all the hype that the famous vegan authors get, but if you want to learn to bake healthy goods, you should get this book.

Click for more info on this book

Family- And Kid-Friendly Cookbooks

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan
Dreena Burton

Dreena Burton is one of the few vegan cookbook authors that is focused on creating healthy meals for her family, which includes children. Because of this, the food is flavorful but simple to prepare for the most part.

Although her first cookbook, The Everyday Vegan, was more reliant on soy and meat replacements as well as refined flours an sugars, this book and her other one, Vive le Vegan! (also great for families and kids), focus more attention on vegetables, whole grains, unrefined flours and natural sweeteners.

The recipes work very well. It seems that they were very well tested.

She has recipes on things to make with tofu and tempeh, but they don't dominate the book, which I like. She also has put more attention into creating wheat- and soy-free recipes. This means that some people may have trouble finding all of the ingredients she uses in a typical grocery store.

I see that as a good thing - huge supermarkets are not where I shop, and they often don't have a healthy variety of products despite the number of aisles. It is great to encourage people to go out and find these ingredients, but for those who can't Dreena lists possible substitutions for more accessible ingredients.

The dessert section is one of the better ones, since she uses less sweetener than most cookbooks and lists natural sweeteners rather than refined. She gives plenty of notes with her recipes, offering suggestions on substitutions for the more unique ingredients or to make the recipes wheat- or soy-free.

There are only a few downsides to this book. She lists more oil than necessary in a lot of the recipes, but this is easily fixed if you go by feel rather than precise measurements. She uses agave nectar fairly often, which is one I choose not to use, but it is very simple to swap brown rice syrup for agave. Or, if you want something sweeter, try maple syrup.

Some of the recipes use pre-made ingredients (e.g. pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin pie mix), which I try to avoid, but there aren't very many of these ones at all. The last thing, a bit picky I know, is that the index doesn't list the recipes, just the ingredients. This adds a bit of time when trying to get inspiration for dinner, but is not a big deal at all.

Click for more info on this book