My Go-To Plant-Based Cookbooks

Even though this is an Ina Garten cook-through blog, I have been broadening my recipe stash and blog posts since the beginning of 2021. Every so often I take a break from Ina’s recipes and when I do, I try to go plant-based. Over the years, I’ve toyed with going vegetarian or full-on vegan. As of yet, that has yet to happen…just look at a few recipe reviews posts.

However, I am still trying to include more plants in my diet on a regular basis. Thus, I have amassed a collection of cookbooks — both in print and on my Kindle e-reader — that have come in handy over the last couple of months.

Below, I have included photos of some of my favorites. You’ll notice that many of them are “general cookbooks.” The huge tomes that cover the gambit. Think Joy of Cooking but for plant eaters!

This book was one of the first vegetarian cookbooks I purchased! It is still a great reference and resource for me. Plus with Bittman’s extensive knowledge of all types of culinary escapades, I feel good making one of these recipes since I can trust them.

This book has a much different tone than that of Mark Bittman’s book. The author’s humor and love for food easily comes across on each page. There are some great recipes in here, and Dragonwagon’s approach to plant-based meals is much more loosey-goosey than other authors. This makes it a great book for beginners!

I call this one the “Vegan Bible.” It literally has every recipe you could ever want as a vegan. I highly recommend this book, especially since many of the recipes are approachable, even for those starting out on a vegan journey. If you are looking to buy a vegan cookbook, make it this one!


Some books that I have on my Kindle e-reader include:

Love Real Food by Kathryne Taylor, the creator of the food blog Cookie + Kate. It has many wonderful recipes that are whole food and plant-based. One added benefit is many of them include ways in which to make the recipe vegan or gluten free.

American’s Test Kitchen The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook by the Chefs at America’s Test Kitchen. While I know that the Mediterranean Diet is not vegetarian or vegan, it is plant-based. It uses animal protein to supplement the plant-based proteins. Even if you ignore the meat-based chapters, there are still some wonderful, tried and true recipes in this book!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into a small section of my cookbook shelf.

Until next time…

I finished the cutting prep for tonight’s soup! I’m glad I save the time now, so I’m not freaking out later. I can’t want to share recipe with you all next week. Now, I can start baking cookies. I can almost smell them already.

I store my chopped vegetables in a bag for simple storage and easy clean up when it comes time to make the soup. These ingredients will all go into the soup at the same time, so one bag is all I needed. Otherwise, I would divide the ingredients by when they are added to the pot.

Cold Days Are For Soups

Over the weekend, my house was filled with soups.

On Friday, I decided to make a recipe out of the cookbook I will be reviewing this week: The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. The review comes out on Thursday, so stay tuned! Since the weather turned back to more seasonably cold temperatures, I figured a soup recipe was in the cards.

So, I decided to make Butternut Squash Soup, North Africa Style.

Continue reading “Cold Days Are For Soups” →

Recipe #20 Eggplant Gratin

This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, page 54

This weekend, I decided to cook from one of the two remaining cookbooks that I had not yet cooked from: Barefoot in Paris and Cook Like a Pro. The first recipe I made this weekend was for dinner on Friday night and it was Eggplant Gratin, coming from Ina’s French cookbook.

This recipe is nothing more than a French take on the Italian Eggplant Parmesan. However, it was so much tastier! Who would have thought half and half would make such a difference! This recipe was pretty easy to make since I already had the eggplant fried. It was also a win for me since I only had to buy the half and half for this recipe. Everything else, including the ricotta and parmesan cheese was already in my fridge!

The thinning of the cheese mixture with half and half adds an unexpected richness that would probably be overwhelming if the recipe called for cream. It was a big hit with my family too! I think this will become the recipe I make in the future when I feel like making an eggplant parmesan.

Additionally, I also baked this weekend. It came from Cook Like a Pro and the recipe and review of that will be dropping later this week!

Yesterday’s Cooking

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did do some cooking this weekend, but I did not make Ina recipes.

Instead, I chose to make recipes that would give my family and me a little more plant protein versus meat protein. So, I crafted two dishes and my family liked them.

The first one was a take on Beef Wellington, but instead of meat, I used a delicious mushroom mixture to wrap in the puff pastry.

Mushroom Wellington

The other dish I made was kind of my own creation. I used quinoa and chickpeas (garbanzo beans) as the star players and make a dish that also featured kale, an orange pepper and cherry tomatoes. I added in some sherry wine and spices and it was so yummy! Though, I think I needed more salt and pepper. Oh well, you live and learn, right?

Quinoa & Kale Recipe

I’m not sure what I will make this week, but it will be an Ina recipe, that’s for sure!

Also, the cookbook reviews will return next week, but there will be more time between them. They will not be a weekly post, but I do still plan to review all twelve.

Sit tight, more is coming your way soon!!