4 Cookbooks to Kickstart a Plant-Based Diet

As someone who is both a cookbook author and a relatively new vegan, I field a lot of questions from family, friends, and readers looking for help with making the transition to a more plant-based diet. 

First: What Is a Plant-Based Diet?

One of the first questions I get involves the terminology itself. These days, the terms “plant-based diet” and “vegan diet” are often used interchangeably and for the purposes of this article, that’s how I’ve used them. There are no official definitions. However, “vegan” often refers to a whole lifestyle and value system with ethics and animal welfare at its core. True vegans don’t wear wool or leather, for example.

Plant-based, on the other hand, usually refers to a diet whose focus is health. A “whole-food plant-based diet” usually eschews even oil and flour on the grounds that these ingredients are processed and not whole foods. Plenty of people who follow plant-based diets also consider themselves vegan. 

Some people claim that a plant-based diet can include some animal products or even meat, but I think people who follow that approach are more accurately described as “vegetarians” (if they eat eggs and dairy), “pescatarian” (if they eat eggs, dairy, and seafood), or “flexitarians” (if they eat plants most of the time and anything else in moderation). Regardless of how you label your way of eating or the way you aspire to eat, adding more plants in the form of fruits and vegetables to your diet is an unambiguously positive thing.

Second: What Are the Best Resources for Starting a Plant-Based Diet?

No matter what kind of dietary transition you are making, I know firsthand that it can be overwhelming and confusing from when I made the shift in 2017. There are so many vegan recipe resources out there—blogs, magazines, apps, cookbooks, and more. I learned the hard way that some of these recipes are a lot more reliable than others.

For me, cookbooks have been the most trustworthy source for learning plant-based cooking techniques. So when I've helped other people kickstart their plant-based diets, I typically give them a few tried-and-true cookbooks to help them establish a  strong knowledge base that they can build on. In addition to working from a trusted source (resulting in actually delicious food), this approach cuts overwhelm and decision fatigue. I suggest cooking exclusively from one book for a month to really get to know and learn from the recipes and techniques

Here are the top four vegan cookbooks that I have personally cooked through and recommended countless times to anyone who wants to eat less meat and more plants.