Yes, You Can Go Vegan! These Cookbooks Will Show You How

Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
What on Earth can vegans eat? Tofu mushroom stroganoff, juuuuicy beet burgers, cheddary broccoli soup, and strawberries and cream bread pudding, for starters. Isa’s recipes aren’t just basic meals sans meat and dairy; they are original, inventive dishes you’ve probably never heard of before. Most of the meals can be cooked in thirty minutes or fewer—the ones that do not include built-in downtime (so while the beans are soaking, you can “iron out your plans for world domination or play with your cat”—oh! The writing is fun, too!). The meals do not call for impossible-to-pronounce ingredients that require you to drive to a health food store three hours away. With her previous cookbook Veganomicon and her blog Post Punk Kitchen, Isa has made veganism accessible, delicious, and very cool. Her book will make you love her and her food.

The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out, by Angela Liddon
Angela Liddon believes that we are what we eat—so she only cooks with natural, colorful, wholesome ingredients. They come together beautifully in her vegan cookbook, an offshoot of her wildly successful blog Oh She Glows. The pages are brimming with bold, hearty salads, satisfying entrees, and decadent desserts that you won’t believe are plant-based. If you’re worried that meat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, and processed foods-free recipes are boring, you’ve got to get this book. Liddon’s recipes are fresh and delicious, and will inspire you to eat a healthier diet (at least sometimes). This is the book non-vegans will be clamoring for—it belongs on the shelves of anyone who wants the food she eats to make her feel energized and clean. What’s on the menu? Lightened-up crispy baked fries, Tex-Mex casserole, chana masala, nacho cheese dip, and fudgy mocha pudding cake. Which one will you make first?

Mayim’s Vegan Table: More than 100 Great-Tasting and Healthy Recipes from My Family to Yours, by Mayim Bialik
Mayim Bialik (famous TV star-slash-neuroscientist) has written not just a cookbook, but a bible for families who want to change their entire approach to eating, health, and eco-friendliness. With the help of pediatrician Jay Gordon, she offers a complete guide to starting a plant-based diet, tips for raising vegan kids, and advice for making home-cooked meals quick and dining out stress-free. The “pantry staple” list will come in handy for anyone who needs help giving their kitchen a vegan makeover. And Mayim’s recipes reflect the fact that she’s a busy mom. They’re reasonable, approachable, and totally doable. She offers meals that picky kids will love (like build-your-own tacos and mac ‘n’ cheez), grown-up foods to salivate over (like sprout and potato croquettes, tzimmes, spanikopita, and vegan reuben sandwiches), and comfort foods (like kugel, latkes, and matzoh ball soup) that will get everyone to the table.

Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen: 150 Pizzas, Pastas, Pestos, Risottos, & Lots of Creamy Italian Classics, by Chloe Coscarelli
It may be hard to picture Italian dishes like pizza, stuffed pastas, and creamy risottos without dairy, but Chloe Coscarelli (vegan chef and winner of the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars) has figured out how to make them without leaving diners feeling deprived of milk, cheese, and eggs. She swears the secret to recipes like white lasagna, eggplant parm, bechamel sauce, shittake bacon, and ricotta isn’t dairy; it’s love. And with tons of easy recipes that will have your guests licking vegan alfredo sauce off their plates, this book offers a lot to love. Coscarelli offers simple tweaks that will make all recipes allergy- and gluten-free, if need be. Anyone with dietary restrictions who once thought that delicious Italian food was off-limits will be overjoyed to be proven wrong.

But I Could Never Go Vegan!: 125 Recipes That Prove You Can Live Without Cheese, It’s Not All Rabbit Food, and Your Friends Will Still Come Over for Dinner, by Kristi Turner
With a title like that, Kristi Turner seems to writing from a defensive place—and you can see why. Vegan food has the unfortunate reputation of dull and tasteless, not fit for company. But would you cook your guests tofu feta, spinach, and potato gratin? Potato and pea samosa cakes? Cheeseburger pie? Southern biscuits? Veggie stromboli? Caramel apple-stuffed French toast? Artichoke crab cakes? If so, then a) this cookbook has you covered, and b) please invite me over for dinner. Kristi Turner fights the ever-popular, eternally-annoying complaints vegans hear (“I could never give up cheese,” “All those special ingredients are way more expensive,” “Where would I get my protein?,” “Tofu doesn’t taste like anything,” and “Fake ‘foods’ freak me out,”) with her simple, satisfying recipes. To all the vegan naysayers out there, try making just one of these recipes and see if you change your tune. We bet you will.
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