12 Best Vegan And Vegetarian Cookbooks Of 2024

Vegetarian and vegan eating is by no means a new thing, and in various countries' cuisines, and many countries have cooked vegan cuisine for centuries due to religious and cultural reasons. In the US, it's a little less common, however, it's no longer as controversial as it was a decade ago and many people are seeing its value. Whether it's easier on their pockets, better for their health, or people are caring about the environmental and ethical ramifications of eating meat, there are plenty of reasons to turn to plant-based or vegetable-forward lifestyles. There is a growing list of chefs that hero plant-based cooking, and if the release of cookbooks this year is any measure to go by, there is a groundswell of interest in vegetarian and vegan cooking.

No matter where you are along the journey, everyone can use a great cookbook to teach the basics, provide inspiration, or give us new ideas for what to eat and how to cook it. There are plenty of options for any type of cook, and various cuisines to choose from too. This year has been an incredible year for vegan and vegetarian cookbooks, with so many exciting releases, it feels like there's a real movement growing. Whether you're looking to cut down on meat and wondering how to start, or you're a long-time fully fledged vegan, these cookbooks will have you excited about cooking. Here are some of the best vegan and vegetarian cookbooks of 2024.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Joe Yonan has made a name for himself as being an advocate for eating more vegetables and his previous book, "Cool Beans: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Most Versatile Plant-Based Protein, with 125 Recipes," was a whole dedication to beans and legumes. He got people talking about whether you actually need to soak your beans and how delicious a bean broth really is. Now, in 2024, he's back with a new offering, that's a super resource on plant-based cooking. "Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking" by Joe Yonan is a thorough, and well researched cookbook that's for everyone from the beginner cook, to the skilled home-cook.

This cookbook is for the person who wants to only buy one cookbook and be sorted for the rest of their lives. It's got it all, and has recipes for both daily and special occasion meals. Even though it's like a reference book you can refer to it over and over again, and allows you to learn about many different cuisines of the world. From salads, to pastas, soups, to snacks, and creative breakfast and brunch ideas like flaky biscuits with shiitake gravy and mung bean scrambled eggs, to satisfying main dishes like skillet spanakopita, whole roasted romanesco with romesco, and cashew mac and cheese (plus an entire section on vegan baking), you'll find an answer to any question or craving you might have.

Living a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle can come with its challenges, and as the internet is saturated with meat-centered recipes, everyone can use a little help or some vegan-friendly tips on how to live a more delicious life with plant-based dishes. Nisha Vora's mission as the creator behind her Rainbow Plant Life platform has always been to get people excited about cooking and eating plants. Her way of doing this is by making really delicious food with an emphasis on flavor. She's managed to create a huge following with her colorful and flavor-packed recipes on social media, and now, she's culminated all her wisdom into her cookbook, "Big Vegan Flavor: Techniques and 150 Recipes to Master Vegan Cooking". Her "flavor first" philosophy is the essence of this book, and with numerous creative recipes like loaded mushroom shawarma flatbreads, or sweet and sour tempeh peanut stir fry, it will keep you returning to it for years to come.

Vora's book is also so much more than intricate recipes. It's all about giving you the building blocks for great vegan cooking that will set you up for life. With almost 600 pages of beautifully captured food and the wisdom behind it, it helps you develop big picture principles for cooking vegan dishes with maximum flavor. Its approach is to educate and help you feel empowered to recreate favorite childhood dishes or recipes, using only plants, and how to pair flavors and ingredients so that you can cook with or without a recipe.

George Lee's "A-Gong's Table: Vegan Recipes from a Taiwanese Home" takes you on a moving journey through Taiwan, and through the family memories that inspired Lee's cooking. Part-photo book, part-cookbook, this publication is a powerful yet understated read about the beauty and complexity of Taiwanese vegetarian and vegan cooking. Food is an integral part of Lee's childhood memories, at the center of which is his "A-Gong" (grandfather), whose death leads his family to the Buddhist temple where they're fed vegetarian meals by the temple's nuns for 49 days, in observance of the traditions and rites of grieving. His family is comforted by the meals and the nun's teach him how to cook certain dishes.

Years later, Lee finds himself eating less and less meat, and finding sustenance in vegetarian foods. Taking the lessons he learned from the temple, and also adding in his own childhood foods, and the recipes he's developed over his life, "A-Gong's Table", is filled with delicate, simple, and complex Taiwanese recipes that will satisfy the stomach and the spirit. They also include many recipes for making vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes, which he writes is one of the ways that the Buddhist nuns help people adjust to vegetarian foods when they're not used to it. The tenderness of this cookbook is felt throughout the writing, photography, and the recipes, and is sure to warm you from the inside out.

James Beard Award winner Salma Hage is no stranger to the scene of vegetarian and Middle Eastern cooking, with previous books like "The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook", and "The Lebanese Cookbook." Hage hails from Northern Lebanon, and has over 50 years of experience in cooking. Her deep understanding of the region's cuisine, and her years of knowledge are evident in her latest offering, The Levantine Vegetarian: Recipes from the Middle East which includes 140 recipes.

As vegetarian and vegan dishes are popular in Lebanese cuisine and from the Levant as a whole, Hage continues to celebrate both the traditional and give her own new takes on the classics too. With recipes ranging from Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, and more, you'll find colorful and bold dishes, including sesame halloumi fries with chilli yogurt, freekeh tabbouleh, lime and herb baked rice, and savoury baklava pie. If you have a sweet tooth, you'll love the labneh frozen yogurt, the Syrian sesame and pistachio biscuits, and of course, the knafeh.

Alexa Soto's Plantas: Modern Vegan Recipes for Traditional Mexican Cooking, highlights the plant-based origins of Mexican cuisine. She writes about how the cuisine developed from indigenous ways of eating that belonged to Aztec and Mayan traditions. In her introduction to the book, she writes, "Mexican cooking is rooted in plants. Corn, beans, rice, tomatoes, cacao, chiles, spices, fruits, herbs ... all come from the earth." All these ingredients are essential to Mexican cuisine. Taking inspiration from these beginnings, Soto develops modern and ancient plant-based Mexican recipes, and captures the photographs of these beautiful plates herself.

In Plantas, you'll feast with your eyes before you start cooking. The dishes bursting off the page while still looking accessible to make yourself. You'll find a variety of vegan salsas, taco dishes, desserts, drinks, and centerpiece style main dishes. Dig in to some satisfying taquitos de flor de Jamaica (hibiscus flower rolled tacos), or Soto's grandmother's zingy pineapple and habanero salsa. For dessert, you'll find vegan adaptations of all the sweet favorites like churros, chocoflan, and tres leches cake.

Lloyd Rose embarked on his vegan journey about six years ago, embracing what he describes as a "compassionate and sustainable lifestyle." His new cookbook, "Island Vegan: 75 Flavorful Recipes from the Caribbean: Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Dominican Republic & More" honors the recipes of his Jamaican heritage, and the wider Caribbean. This exciting publication just makes this list with its highly anticipated end of year release in December 2024. With 75 enticing recipes, you can enjoy all the Caribbean hits that people love, but completely vegan.

To get you started, "Island Vegan" has a useful section on all the ingredients you'll need to master the flavors of the Caribbean, and three extensive sections, labelled "sun-kissed comfort food," "soul nourishing stews," and "brekky+lunch." Enjoy vegan ackee pasta, Jamaican jerk porck, barbi fried chick'n using oyster mushrooms, Belizean Recado using mushrooms, Noxtail (vegan oxtail), salt phish fritters, and sweet delights like Puerto Rican flan.

Christine Wong's "The Vibrant Hong Kong Table: 88 Iconic Vegan Recipes from Dim Sum to Late-Night Snacks" is a love letter to Hong Kong, the city of her childhood, which she left about twenty years ago. She laments about the changes in this bustling metropolis over the years and the disappearance of landmarks and restaurants and more, but writes that despite all of this one thing remains the same: "Hongkongers love to eat." Wong makes you fall in love with the culinary heritage of Hong Kong, even if you've never visited, and writes this book to document and continue its legacy, with a plant-based lens.

This cookbook takes you on a day out of eating in Hong Kong, which Wong writes is how most people in the city do it. Eating out isn't reserved for the rich — in fact, it's quite normal to eat all or most of your meals out due to the compact living spaces of people's homes. Travel through some of Hong Kong's most iconic dishes, starting with a congee and dim sum for breakfast, lunches comprised of baked tempeh chop rice, black-pink pepper cabbage steak, jackfruit brisket noodles, and family-style dinners of "fish fragrant" eggplant, sweet and sour cauliflower. Finish the day with some late night snacks like curry "fishballs," or Hong Kong sweet buns.

Jenny Rosenstrach's cookbooks are perfect for newcomers to vegetarianism, or people who don't necessarily want to be full-time vegetarians, but do still want to eat more vegetarian meals. Her latest book, "The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple: Strategies and So-Good Recipes to Suit Every Craving and Mood: A Cookbook" aims to make it even easier to cook vegetarian meals. With answers to the common misconception that cooking vegetarian meals is complicated, Rosenstrach has got recipes to get you past any roadblock you might face. "The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple" helps you move beyond turning to pasta every time you cook a vegetarian meal, to making filling and interesting "bowls", pies, and easy sheet pan dinners.

If you're on the fence about vegetarianism, this book is the perfect way in. With over a hundred accessible recipes from summery Sicilian eggplant parm and miso-mushroom tacos, to roasted vegetable Reuben sandwiches with Russian dressing, you'll be covered for any meal.

Most cookbooks promise easy and quick meals, but Savoring: Meaningful Vegan Recipes from Across Oceans by Murielle Banackissa encourages you to consciously slow down, and take more time to enjoy the art of cooking and eating. This self-photographed cookbook is full of luxurious recipes for special occasions or weekend cooking. Banackissa wants you to savor the process as well as the result, while making sure the vegan table is as delicious and indulgent as any other. This means, not rushing onions as they caramelize, and grilling peaches for long enough.

Banackissa's recipes are informed by her heritage and environment; she was born in the Republic of Congo to a Congolese father and a mother with Ukrainian and Russian roots. Plus, you'll find some Canadian influence too, as her family emigrated to Canada. The variety of recipes is thrilling, and the book takes you from satisfying breakfast plates like crispy chickpea pancakes with avocado and salsa and rum-coconut French toast with caramelized bananas to hearty main dishes like peanut butter and sweet potato stew and Quebec meatless pie.

Meera Sodha is no newcomer to the scene and her previous book "East," was featured on our best vegetarian cookbooks that even meat eaters will love. In her newest cookbook "Dinner: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes for the Most Important Meal of the Day" Sodha helps the home cook with the one meal that often defines your and your family's day. With 120 recipes, you won't have any trouble figuring out what to make for dinner, and, helpfully, the recipes are sorted into the seasons so that we're able to eat what's at its peak at the time, and know how best to use it in our cooking.

Sodha's heritage and journey to the East in her previous cookbook is still informing her cooking, so you'll find incredibly flavor packed and creative fusion cooking, like baked butter paneer, kimchi and tomato spaghetti, and aubergines roasted in satay sauce, and decadent desserts like coconut and cardamom dream cake and bubble tea ice cream. Plus, the sections "bung it in the oven" and "one pot/pan" are the perfect recipes to use for more fuss-free cooking.

For people who aren't very familiar with Turkish cooking, it's a possibility that you might only know of Turkish kebabs and think it's a meat-centered cuisine. Özlem Warren's "Sebze: Vegetarian Recipes from My Turkish Kitchen" brings vegetarian Turkish dishes to the forefront, and showcases just how abundant and essential vegetarian cooking is in Turkish culinary heritage. "Sebze," which means vegetables in Turkish, introduces you to seasonal recipes that are full of color, juicy produce, and tastes that range from savory and spicy to tangy and sour, plus a perfect balance of them all.

The recipes educate and inspire, highlighting all the cultural influences that are present in Turkish cuisine, and also take you through the varied regional cooking in Turkey. Learn how to make an aromatic pilaf dish, create delicate gözleme (Stuffed Flatbreads), and master the perfect Çılbır (poached eggs with garlicky yoghurt). There are also some sweet treats to discover too, like a pumpkin and walnut baklava. It's both the perfect introduction to Turkish cuisine, and a beautiful vegetarian resource for any home cook.

Italian food can sometimes offer a sanctuary for vegetarians and vegans looking to travel to Europe or even just to eat out with their friends. There's always a naturally vegan pasta dish, and if you're a cheese-eating vegetarian, pizza is the perfect comfort food. However, sometimes the big classics like meatballs or the iconic dessert tiramisu are impossible to eat as a vegetarian or vegan. Well, Shannon Martinez's "Vegan Italian Food: Over 100 Recipes for a Plant-based Feast," helps you make a vegan version of those big hitters so you don't have to miss out anymore.

With a neatly categorized cookbook, you'll find ease and accessibility to cook bold Italian flavors and learn the building blocks of Italian cooking, from using what's in season to haggling at the farmer's market. "Vegan Italian Food" has elegant and hearty recipes that will take you from "aperitivos" to soups, salads, pastas, arancini, main dishes, and all the luscious Italian desserts you can dream of.

As a food writer and long-time cookbook collector, I have found this year extremely generous in not just the amount of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks that have come out, but also in their variety. I've compiled this list to showcase that variety in both cuisines, cooking styles, and food philosophies, so that anyone can find something that speaks to them. Whether you're a beginner home cook, a newcomer to vegan and vegetarian cooking, or someone who has all the skills but want a new collection of recipes that excites you and inspires you to cook, there will be a book for you.

This list also includes books that will help you when you want easy weeknight meals or more elaborate recipes for special days — and if you want to cook beyond the cuisines and flavors you're comfortable or familiar with, this list will have you covered.