There are a few vegetarian cookbooks in my library that I find myself returning to again and again. Even if you’re not a vegetarian, these cookbooks can help you learn how to make delicious, meat-free meals.
1. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison – A great teaching guide for beginner cooks, and an inspiration for more advanced foodies. (Click here for my adaptation of Madison’s quinoa muffin recipe.)
2. Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey – This cookbook has over 650 meatless recipes from around the world.
3. The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen – A classic cookbook with playful, healthful recipes.
4. How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman -Modern, simple-to-prepare recipes, with a great chapter on high-protein meals. (Click here for one of Bittman’s tomato salad recipes.)
Do you have a favorite vegetarian cookbook? Share it as a comment!
Image courtesy of megabeth via a Creative Commons license.
If you’ve got Madison and Bittman, you’re good to go. But Jack Bishop’s books, A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen and The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook, are wonderful as well.
[...] The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley: I’ve been obsessed with this vegetarian cookbook for months now. The recipes are sophisticated without being overly complicated. Plenty of vegan [...]
Laurel’s Kitchen is a fabulous vegetarian cookbook.
[...] 3. Vegetarian Cookbook: [...]
My favorite vegan cookbook is Extraveganza, by Laura Matthias – local B&B owner on Vancouver Island, but her recipes are awesome! She has a ton of cool pastry recipes, like oat-almond and such. She also has a lot of good flavor combination ideas. It’s not an instructional cookbook, and a lot of the recipes are more just ideas than recipes, but that’s why I like it – for the ideas.
Sounds inspirational.
A favorite vegetarian cookbook in my house is Linda McCartney’s World of Vegetarian Cooking. I know that it doesn’t sound like much from the title, but it really has a lot of great vegetarian recipes.
I can’t wait to check it out – thanks!
I second The Moosewood Cookbook! Molly Katzen is a veggie superstar, and her writing style is so loose and fun – it makes cooking feel accessible.
I’m a huge fan as well. The first recipes I ever cooked were from the Moosewood Cookbook! Here’s a recipe for squash pancakes from another one of her cookbooks:
http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2010/02/08/gluten-free-squash-pancakes/
My most favorite vegetarian cookbook is Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons for it’s huge selection of easy favorites and especially for it’s entire chapter of pizza variations.
But my most favorite cookbook is The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider. She teaches you to cook creatively with variations on a theme. That includes leaving the meat out.
I’m also really looking forward to the new Eric Gower [Breakaway Cook] book which will be all vegetarian. I’m in love with his creative fusion cooking.
Ahhhh, my library list is growing! Thanks for the great recommendations!
(thanks Mari!)