The Big Book of Vegan Cooking: 175 Recipes for a Healthy Vegan Lifestyle
The complete cookbook of vibrant vegan recipes for every occasion
Vegan food is so much more than salad—you just need the right recipes to bring your healthy lifestyle to life. This standout among vegan cookbooks has a plethora of plant-based dishes to keep your meals exciting, ranging from vegan twists on comfort food favorites to creative innovations.
Whether you’re vegan-curious or a seasoned veteran, you’ll find options for every meal of the day, plus snacks and sweets. Even those salads get an upgrade! This distinctive choice in vegan cookbooks includes 175 delicious dishes, like Baked Avocado Fries, Buffalo Cauliflower Pizza, Lemon Asparagus Risotto, Chocolate Tahini Brownies, and much more.
- Vegan essentials—Brush up on the basics of a plant-based diet, get advice for pantry and kitchen staples, find nutrition guidance, and learn plenty of tips and tricks.
- Simple, flexible recipes—Find the perfect dish for your needs with handy labels for 30-minute meals, one-pot/pan recipes, and kid-friendly choices the whole family can enjoy.
- At-a-glance dietary info—Each of the recipes in this plant-based cookbook includes nutritional facts, and the allergy-friendly lineup includes many nut-, gluten-, and soy-free options.
Find your new favorite recipe in this complete vegan cookbook.
Reviews (47)
Comprehensive and Beautiful Cookbook
The Big Book of Vegan Cooking is a very comprehensive and beautifully photographed cookbook. I have already bookmarked dozens of recipes to make, including baked apple cinnamon oatmeal squares, summer rolls, mac 'n' cheese soup, red curry noodles, raspberry almond shortbread bars, and many others. The recipes use fresh whole foods and easy to find ingredients, and range from quick and easy for weeknight cooking to extra special recipes to impress guests. I also love the 2 week getting started menus with grocery lists, and suggestions for special occasion menus. I am looking forward to making many dishes from this cookbook! I received a free review copy from the publisher.
Easy, Flavorful Recipes
Another great book from vegan chef and nutritionist Dianne Wenz! The author focuses on delivering recipes that are flavorful and easy to accomplish. So far some of my favorites have been from the chapter, “Do It Yourself Homemade Sauces and Staples”. Some of these recipes have truly become staples in our kitchen, like the Spicy Peanut Sauce, and the Carrot Ginger Dressing. There are over 170 more recipes to try!
Good for Beginning or Expanding Your Awareness of Vegan -- Only a Few Stock Pictures
First, my main annoyance with this book -- the print is small and hard to read, ingredients are in black ink but the directions and intros are in gray ink, TIPS are in white ink on a medium gray background, and recipe titles are in a light purple with a lime green highlight line. Second, I have a hard time adjusting to the "tone" of the book -- for example, from the intro to one recipe: "I once got out of my green car carrying my green purse and wearing my favorite green dress, and I realized I must have looked like this crazy green lady to anyone watching me....You, too, can get your green on with this healthy bowl." If that approach makes you want to read the recipe that follows, then you'll love this book. Once into the recipes themselves, there are many good things to choose from. "Creamy Queso Dip" is built around potato and carrot--not cheese, Butternut Tahini Soup, Chickpea and Rice Soup, General Tso's Cauliflower, Portabella Schnitzel, White Bean Shakshuka, Coconut Milk Rice Pudding, and Baked Tofu Three Ways (three different marinades). In the back of the book there's a two-week Getting Started Plan "if you're just dipping your toe into the world of vegan cooking" and some Special Occasion menus to help you figure out how to entertain within your new lifestyle. This is a BIG BOOK from Rockridge Press, -- 8"x10" and 256 pages. It has 175 recipes and there are only a few ingredients you can't find at your local grocery store. If you want a picture with every recipe, that will be Annoyance Number Three about the book.
Perfect for Beginners and Well-Seasoned Vegans Alike
I love the lay-out of this book. You get pantry staples, meal prep ideas, shopping lists, nutrition info, and a TON of easily-approachable recipes. It's the kind of book I gravitated toward when I became vegan many years ago, and with all the more advanced books I own, it's still the type I lean on the most. I could make many of these recipes with ingredients I already have in my kitchen, which is handy considering we're all avoiding too many trips to the grocery store right now. My fingers are already itching to make the Blueberry Banana Muffins and eat the whole pan on my next snow day. I know this book is a welcome addition to my kitchen library, and I think it would be a benefit to all. While I received this book in exchange for my review, my opinions are mine, unbiased, and honest.
Delicious recipes, easy to follow, includes great tips
All of these recipes look awesome. It was difficult to choose one to start off with because there were so many that I was eager to try. Our first recipes were the tofu ricotta to add to the lasagna soup. I have often been hesitant to make lasagna because of the long time commitment, but Dianne's recipes made for an incredible dinner in a short amount of time. Nearly all of the ingredients were already on hand in my pantry and frig. The ricotta came out so creamy and flavorful. The lasagna soup had all of the richness you would expect from a casserole that was prepped and bake for over an hour, but here within about 30 minutes dinner was served. I really liked Dianne's tips and suggestions especially as I am a fairly new to vegan cooking. I know I am going to keep coming back to this cookbook to try more fantastic recipes.
WELL ROUNDED VEGAN COOKBOOK GEM!
175 easy recipes to help make your vegan lifestyle a little easier?? Yes please! This new cookbook is a wealth of information covering everything from breakfasts and snacks, main meals, noodle dishes and bowl food, desserts, homemade sauces and as well as some suggested menus. The oven fried okra, portobello schnitzel and chocolate tahini brownies are calling my name! The Big Book Of Vegan Cooking is very well organized and makes a quick read while you plot your meals for the week and has a sprinkling of beautiful photos throughout to keep your interest. I especially liked the info sections with in-depth information and easy cooking guides. That’s a true gift as it makes it easier to create your own recipes in the future. If you are a new vegan, someone that likes quick and easy recipes but short on time, looking for a healthier approach to vegan comfort foods or maybe a kid going off to college that needs an accessible yet solid vegan cookbook for their common area/kitchen, this book deserves a center spot on your bookshelf.
So much healthful variety!
My whole family approves of the 10 recipes I’ve made so far, and I’m definitely going to be trying more! Since it’s bigger than most cookbooks, I was expecting more variety and unique recipes beyond the standard vegan versions of popular dishes, and this book delivered. Plus it’s fun to read straight through with all the author’s witty, funny comments. The mac ‘n’ cheese soup is a new favorite, and my 7-year-old had fun making a couple of the desserts pretty much all by herself (she would have eaten them all by herself too if I’d let her!). Most of the recipes look pretty quick and uncomplicated. We eat whole-food, plant-based and generally avoid processed foods but still found a lot we’d be happy to make in here, unlike many other vegan cookbooks that aren’t too health conscious. Though I will say, if you miss bacon, there’s a lot of tempeh bacon in here...I personally don’t miss bacon, but now I think I’m going to have to try making it one of these days. I received a free digital review copy from the publisher.
GREAT book with LOTS of interesting recipes
This is a really GREAT book that has LOTS of interesting recipes from basic sauces and stuff you can use in a recipe like a creamy white sauce that uses beans as a base or queso dip to “fancier” things like no bake chocolate cherry cheesecake, portabella schnitzel, mushroom wellington, and cauliflower piccata. These are like GREAT recipes that you would see in a restaurant – which is awesome! I really like the way the author really makes things interesting like by using beans as a base for a cream sauce and she doesn’t just say to add a faux meat substitute for piccata or schnitzel – very creative and cool. The only flaw I see is that the author uses regular flour a lot – that is so old-school as most vegans, especially lately, have moved onto a Vegan gluten-free diet. I would have really liked to see some recipes reference another flour to use like brown rice, tapioca, or even just a general all-purpose gluten-free flour in at least some recipes. There can be a difference in just substituting – so actual recipes including these would have been really nice. The chapters are laid out well, have quirky names, and really do have something for everyone. I LOVE salads but don’t need a recipe for them really. I am also not a ‘bowl’ person but I know others who literally ONLY eat bowl meals. Again – not for me – but great for others. Almost all the other chapters would be my favorites, though. Other notable recipes: chocolate tahini brownies, zucchini manicotti, broccoli tots, popcorn tofu, lentil loaf, and chicken nuggets you make with oats and chickpeas - among many others too. : ) Again, a REALLY nice solid (and larger) cookbook for the seasoned vegan, a veg newbie, or anyone else who just wants to get more creative in the kitchen and give plant-based foods a try. There are also some guides and sample menus in the back to plan meals and parties. I guess that can be helpful for some as well. If you found my review helpful, why not click the “helpful” button. Thanks! Have a Great Day! : )
OK -- basic information but lots of recipes; many quite EZ & not just for vegans...
I'm not a vegan or even a vegetarian...but I am interested in adding more plant-based foods into the meals I prepare for my family. I'm a fan of those beautifully produced, comprehensive cookbooks featuring vegetables that have hundred of recipes, but they are quite expensive and I wasn't really sure I would use it enough to justify a purchase. I happened to run across this vegan cookbook that has quite a few recipes and I figured it might just be healthier as well, so I was happy to order it. The cookbooks starts off with a very basic introduction to the vegan lifestyle (and I do mean basic) as well as some tips on getting started. The recipes are organized into 10 chapters, and I would say there truly is something for everyone in this cookbook. I have only tried a couple of the recipes so far, but a lot of them do sound intriguing. I have made the broccoli and tomato quiche and the lentil burgers; both came out great. I was a bit surprised that the recipe for the lentil burgers called for a can of lentils, which I didn't have, but it was easy enough to cook up a quick batch of dried lentils. In fact, I thought it was odd that so many recipes use canned ingredients. Each recipe includes some nutritional information (but as another reviewer has noted, this is not complete) as well as some tips on preparation. I found the author's style a bit off-putting, and after reading the first chapter as well as few of the recipe introductions, I just ignored it and focused not the recipes themselves. I often use recipes as a basis for my own ideas rather than as written (I'm apparently just not creative enough to come up with those ideas on my own). There is a two-week getting started plan as well as a list of useful conversions, extra resources on the topic and references as well as an index at the back. This is a fairly large cookbook at just over 250 pages and the design is simple -- soft covers and basic, matte paper that is thick enough not to bleed through the other side. It is well bound so I think it will hold up well to regular use. Each chapter provides a brief introduction and some pictures over several pages, and for the most part, each recipe within the chapter is presented on its own page. The format for the recipes is okay, but I didn't really care for the purple and green color scheme. There are also some tables and charts with additional information sprinkled in as well as a few more pictures, but this cookbook is not heavy on images. This doesn't bother me, but might be important for some consumers. This is a basic cookbook with 150 or so recipes, and I'm sure it will be handy for vegans and non-vegans alike, but at a price of $18.99 it seems a bit pricey.
Better then Expects, tasty, easy to cook, simple to find ingreds.
This is a big Vegan cookbook, thick paper, and I like it better then a few more expensive cookbooks I have. The recipes are easy, tasty, and I have almost everything in my pantry, or fridge. The recipes -food can be found in your grocery store, nothing odd here to find, or shop for. There is color pictures, but would like to see more, although it is very easy to get a idea of what your making/cooking looks like. This is Not a complicated cookbook... Although I’m not a fan of Rockridge press cause they do not show many pictures, this is probably one of there better books from them. I think there a less expensive printing Co.and they charge less. Actually makes this book, a win, win. At The top of the page it shows different for each page , but if it’s, nut free , soy free, kid friendly etc. How many mins to cook, Pan/pot. How many it serves, prep time,cooking time, etc. Left side of page shows Ingredients, In dark black thicker print. I personally would like to see the full page in Darker Print. But this is NOT tiny print. Bottom page, time Saving tips. And Substitutions. . Per serving , Calories, fat, sat fat, Chols, protein , Fiber, Sodium... I’m glad I got this cookbook, and enjoying the recipes I have cooked from this book. 5 stars
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