These Cookbook Gifts, Spices and Teas
are Vegan and Vegetarian-Friendly cookbooks
for the serious collector on your gift list!
The cookbooks are all authored by outstanding, brilliant cooks
and have excellent recipes for your vegan and vegetarian meals.
Each cookbook rates very high on my list of
10 Attributes of Great Vegan and Vegetarian Cookbook.
A Votre Sante!
1. Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison
Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy will advance your knowledge about vegetables and increase your recipe cache to abundant. She has here effectively described the twelve categories of vegetables in their families (a botanical term), and given directions for cooking them… Madison’s borrowed ideas from Asian and European, and from South American kitchens. Her recipes are cosmopolitan and use updated methods and equipment, yet do not require expensive tools…
See my review of the book at Set seed, water, harvest, cook
2. Modern Sauces by Martha Holmberg
With 15 chapters plus index, you get “sauce essentials”, vinaigrettes and a whole collection of sauces made of herbs, vegetables, chiles, nuts, butter, cream, mayonnaise, custard, fruit, and chocolate to go with soups, salads, vegetable dishes, pastas, berries, cakes, puddings, and a variety of desserts.
See my review of the book at You Need Sauce to Go with That.
3. The Whole Coconut Cookbook by Natalie Fraise.
One of the—or perhaps the most—complete foods, one that shares every bit of itself for human consumption is the main feature of Natalie Fraise’s “The Whole Coconut Cookbook“.
See my review of the book at Coconut Love to Last a Lifetime
4. Vegetarian India by Madhur Jaffrey.
How to put together an Indian-themed dinner (or lunch), from recipes in Madhur Jaffrey’s Vegetarian India…
See my review of the book at Taste Test, Indian style
5. Spice! by Ana Sortun
I can’t get enough of Ana Sortun’s Spice! It presents the seasonings in complex dishes you can whip up in your home kitchen. Some of the flavors are exotic and you’ll notice that many feature meat and dairy. Don’t let that stop you! The book is a source of ideas for a variety of vegetarian, even vegan menus.
See my review of the book at Chocolate Chili Peppers!
6. The New Taste of Chocolate by Maricel Presilla
It’s delightful that chocolate begets so many forms of chocolate: drinks, sauces, confections and cakes, enriched by the addition of nuts, coffee, spices and even chiles. Author Maricel Presilla’s recipes in are the delicious finale to her treatise on chocolate, a natural history of the food of the gods!
See my review of the book at Dreams of Chocolate.
7. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
The photos are all the evidence I need. And so it is with “Mixed Beans with Many Spices and Lovage”. It’s pictured as a duo of brilliant reds and greens combined with lots of shine, probably from the 3 T of oil to go with more than 4 cups of beans, 1 onion, the lovage, lots of spice, canned tomatoes and 2 T tomato paste. How elegant!
See my review of the book at Homespun Elegance.
8. Meatless by Martha Stewart
People will recognize in Meatless, a strikingly sophisticated approach to elegant vegetarian food that sees vegans, special dieters and gluten-free seekers just as welcome at the table as those going meatless for the evening. It is a lively, entertaining book…
See my review of the book at Major League Vegetarian
Spices, Condiments
9. The Encyclopedia of Spices & Herbs by Padma Lakshmi
In the tones and colors of a well-stocked bazaar along the silk road, Padma Lakshmi’s third book, The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs, shows how ancient lore and the present uses of seasonings describe food trends and traditions the world over. Her rendition of a dictionary-style list of these seasonings is just right for both the novice and the professional cook, created in a format based on the most desired features for easy reference.
See my review of the book at Spices and Herbs.
10. Herbs and Spices, the Cook’s Reference by Jill Norman
I love a book on spices, not just for the promise of fantastic taste, but for seductive aromas and textures evoked in the text and illustrations. This printing represents the most up-to-date version of Jill Norman’s collections.
11. The Spice and Herb Bible by Ian Hemphill
An appropriately titled book, a collection of 97 herbs and spices thoroughly described with both factual and anecdotal information, The Spice and Herb Bible is a must-have reference for both cooks and foodies.
See my review of the book at Mingled with Delight!
12. Extra Virginity: the Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller.
Olive oil in your kitchen is a flavoring agent in so many recipes… It’s the legendary salve of European history, whether on victual or in ritual, adulated by cooks worldwide; this oil is the only oil/juice we have* of a fruit tree…
See my review of the book at EVOO—Code for Good Oil
Drinks, Sweets
13. Infuse: Herbal Teas to Cleanse, Nourish and Heal by Paula Grainger and Karen Sullivan.
Infuse: introduces freshly steeped herbs and spices in combinations that enhance your body and mind and their capacities to find relief, to feel better in your day to day life.
See my review of the book at Your Magical Tea Cup.
14. Culinary Tea More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tea from Around the World by Cynthia Gold and Lisë Stern.
As you leaf through the first few pages, chapters for “Starters” and “Entrees” in Culinary Tea gives the impression of a strong exotic note in the classic recipes… By the way, its culinary exploration is limitless.
See my review of the book at Epicurean.
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