Your Vegan and Vegetarian Cookbooks Christmas Gift List, 2019, Part 1
(See Gift Books on Herbs, Spices and Aromatics, here.)This year’s Vegetarian and Vegan Cookbooks are gorgeously illustrated with photographs and artwork! Like your treasured tin of spices, they’ll be exciting additions to the cookbook shelf in your kitchen, or for that special someone who loves to try unique and flavorful meals with an international flair.For vegan cooks, herbs and spices create stylish menus. Chefs with expertise gained on several continents have your favorites all worked out. So now you can make dishes with complex tastes and wow your guests.
At the end I’ve included a few that are non-vegetarian, just because of their similarity in many ways to the vegan cookbooks, etc. You may know someone who’d really like to cook from them. Or you can do research in them—inspiration can blossom anywhere!
30-Minute Vegan Dinners. / Megan Sadd, 2019. Published in Salem by Page Street Publishing.
Gather your ingredients. The timer is set!! All you have to do is follow instructions for some really fabulous entrees, ready in one-half hour. How does that fit your schedule? What’s super about 30-Minute Vegan is that author Sadd reveals how our favorite flavors are in fact easy to make. I’d chose Chipotle Black Bean and Plantain Quesadillas, Date Night Mac n’ Cheese (truffle oil and nutritional yeast for parties, right?), Mongolian Mushrooms and Onions (over rice), or Tofu Pad See Ew any night of the week. From California Cuisine, Southern comfort, Pan-Asian, Italian favorites, Latin flare and even more casual encounters in Pub Grub and Food Truck, she’s organized her collection of recipes into themes for easy food-styling in your kitchen! Bon appetit!
The Delicious Book of Dhal: Comforting Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes Made with Lentils, Peas and Beans. / Nitisha Patel. Photography by Clare Winfield, 2019. Published by Ryland, Peters and Small.
The best thing about dhals is that they are versatile. And Nishita shows you how in The Delicious Book. But what exactly is a dhal? According to Patel, “dhal” can refer to dried split-lentils, beans and peas, much like talking about other food groups, like “green vegetables”, for example. And dhal also connotes a kind of dish—a dhal is generally a hot cooked meal that includes protein and vegetables, flavored by delicious spices, served with a type of bread or with rice. Patel offers 6 different kinds of dhal (the dried lentils/beans and peas) and a variety of recipes featuring them. A delightfully well-rounded cookbook, The Delicious Book contains recipes for sauces, desserts—like pancakes and puddings, relish and pickles, and breads like naan and roti. A smaller book, it’s got irresistibly delicious-looking photographs. Pages are decorated with floral block prints.
East Meets Vegan. / Sasha Gill, 2019. Published in New York by The Experiment.
Do you love experimenting with new tastes for vegan food, but wonder how to get the specific details right? They make all the difference, you know. Consider how Tofu Pad Thai needs to show little bits of “egg” in the mix? Or what ingredients in a sauce makes that inimitable Pad Thai flavor? Author Sasha Gill‘s got your answers, ready, in quick and no-fuss form she leads you through the techniques for each dish in her collection. Especially the more elusive dishes, dhals, curries and dosa. Now you can make a sweet, too. Cashew burfi, that uniquely Indian confection made by a reduction of cow’s milk, is now yours and vegan with cashews, coconut milk, chickpea flour and cardamom. Quite exciting spicy fare for your vegan table!
Hot for Food: Vegan Comfort Classic. / Karen Toyota, 2018. Published in Berkeley by Ten Speed Press.
Hot for Food is a wonderful collection of recipes for what you most want to eat—we call it comfort food. It’s not straight-laced and diet-oriented! But it is vegan, so we are 99% arrived at healthy! Maybe there’s a 1% chance that so much richness is fattening? No matter. Like gravy, perhaps the comfort part is what we most want to eat—on top of everything else in a meal. And Toyota brings that to your table in sauces, dips, relishes, and chutneys. Oh, did I mention frostings and cakes? Brownies? You’ll have them in Hot for Food, as well as Tiramisu, too.
Lands of the Curry Leaf. / Peter Kuruvita, 2018. Published in Sydney by Murdoch Books.
Consider a journey where the focus reveals unique and tasteful dishes from Indian, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. Author Peter Kuruvita reflects on his family’s travels in Lands of the Curry Leaf when he was young. The Kuruvita’s sampled vegetarian food and found some real keepers that can be made in Western kitchens with ease. You’ll discover how to add these to your collection of recipes, making incidentally fabulous sauces, soups, curries, sweets, and of course, chai! His Masala Chai recipe contains cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, white peppercorns and fresh ginger.
Vibrant India: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Brooklyn. / Chitra Agrawal. Photography by Erin Scott. Illustrations by Karen Vasudev, 2017. Published by Ten Speed Press.
If I had to choose a cookbook with vegetarian Indian recipes right now, I would definitely choose Vibrant India. And Agrawal’s focus is South Indian cooking featuring coconut milk and spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, turmeric and saffron. Vibrant India is arranged like an American cookbook that presents you typical day at meals—from breakfast to salads and yogurts, curries, soups, snacks, sweets, chutneys and pickles and pantry items. So, you have everything you need here to embark on a vegetarian diet, Indian-Brooklyn style. And, packaged in beautifully photographed dishes, with delicate and dream-like illustrations as well.
Non-veg, but seen and noted fabulous cookbooks.
These are inclusive of all types of recipes.
Coconut Lagoon : Recipes from a South Indian Kitchen. / Joe Thottungal with Anne DesBrisay, 2019. Published in Berkeley, London, Vancouver by Figure 1. View on Goodreads, here.
Double Awesome Chinese Food : Irresistable and Totally Achievable Recipes from Our Chinese-American Kitchen. / Margaret, Irene & Andrew Li, 2019. Published in Boulder by Roost Books. View on Goodreads, here.
Chetna’s Healthy Indian: Everyday Meals Effortlessly Good for You. / Chetna Makan, 2019. Published in London by Mitchell Beazley. View on Goodreads, here.
