In troubled times, a nourishing meal can make all the difference. These cookbooks can help get us there.

In addition to supplying stacks of hot dish recipes, my picks for 2024’s best vegan and vegetarian cookbooks either examine the significance of plant-based meals through the lens of culture, health, sustainability and spiritual growth or focus on a specific aspect of vegetarian cuisine. The ancient influence of Buddhism is a strong theme this year, along with a move to share vegetarian history alongside recipes.

Publishers cranked out significant lists of plant-based titles, once again, making choosing my favorites a heavy lift. After much debate, these eight books emerged as my selections for this year’s best plant-based titles.

Ten Speed Press

“Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking,” by Joe Yonan. Ten Speed Press. $50

This comprehensive book had me on page one with its quick romp through 2,500 years of vegetarian history. It impressed me with its aim to “codify plant-based cooking as … a cuisine” and won me over with its extensive recipes for pantry staples (pumpkin seed tofu, soy milk, butter, melty cheese, tempeh bacon) and sweeping menu of contemporary American vegan dishes. Yonan, the food editor of and a food columnist for The Washington Post, weaves together culinary instruction, thought-provoking essays from a collection of food writers and beautiful photos from Erin Scott. With more than 300 recipes — biscuits with shiitake gravy, fried oyster mushroom sandwiches, leek-wrapped seitan roast, baked stuffed shells, pumpkin chapatis, apple pie with salted vanilla sugar, black tahini swirled cheesecake, and salted baklava — “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” makes a significant contribution to American cuisine and is a must-have for all serious cooks, vegetarian or not.

Ten Speed Press

“A-Gong’s Table: Vegan Recipes from a Taiwanese Home,” by George Lee. Ten Speed Press. $28

It was at the Dizang Temple in Taipei, Taiwan, where Lee developed a love for the “elegant yet unpretentious” plant-based food prepared by the nuns after his grandfather, A-Gong, died. There, his non-vegetarian family observed Buddhist customs that require the departed’s loved ones to abstain from animal meat for at least 49 days. Afterwards, Lee gradually grew less interested in cooking and eating animal-based meat. The result is this informative vegan cookbook. Lee, who trained at Le Cordon Blue in Paris and now studies biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, explains that Taiwanese people prefer light rather than heavily seasoned or sauced food. Unlike Buddhist temple food, which are the world’s oldest vegan dishes, his recipes do include members of the allium family, such as scallions, garlic, chives and onions. In addition to soy milk and peanut milk recipes, “A-Gong’s Table” includes sections on making preserved vegetables and seitan-based vegan meats, alongside recipes such as sweet potato congee, flaky toon pancakes, crispy fried tofu skin, stir fried mustard greens and New Year rice cakes.

Hardie Grant Books

“Vegan Chinese Food,” by Yang Liu. Hardie Grant. $32.99

Known for her mouth-watering Little Rice Noodle blog and Instagram page, Liu brings her creativity to the printed page by sharing popular Chinese dishes, some naturally vegan and others modified to be plant-based. Liu, who grew up in China and now lives in Austria, begins with a history of veganism in China, where tofu is 2,000 years old and by the 13th century, vegetarian restaurants and plant-based meat makers were flourishing. With plenty of technique instructions, ingredient primers and gorgeous photos from Katharina Pinczolits, the book serves recipes such as mapo tofu, sweet and sour tofu, stir-fried eggplant with green beans, Kung Pao king oyster mushrooms, Biang Biang noodles, Yibin burning noodles, mushroom chow fun, and pak choi congee. The book includes recipes for soy milk, tofu, sauces, drinks and desserts, such as mango sticky rice balls and mung bean cakes.

NewSeed Press

“Eat Like A Monk,” by Jody Eddy. NewSeed Press. $35

Following up on her 2022 non-vegetarian cookbook “Elysian Kitchens,” which examined the cuisines of religious centers, Eddy returns with an exploration of the plant-based culinary traditions of Buddhist monasteries in Asia. She shares insights into the Buddhist focus on mindfully cultivating, preparing and eating food, and discusses the idea of transference, where the energy directed at the ingredients during farming and cooking is believed to transfer to the eater. Reflecting the Buddhist emphasis on simplicity, Eddy, who has written many cookbooks, calls for three pieces of equipment: a bamboo mat, a bamboo steamer and a wok. Using those, recipes – most of which lack the onions, garlic and chilies eschewed in Buddhist monasteries – include classics from an array of countries such as pho chay, kichari, gado gado, ume onigiri, pad Thai jay, sambal goreng tempeh, bibimbap and samosas. In between, Eddy tucks profiles of individual temples and insights into Buddhist principles and practices.

Avery

“Big Vegan Flavor,” by Nisha Vora. Avery. $45

While some vegan cookbooks lean into the low-fat nature of plants, this book is all about teasing out full-bodied flavors using vegan oils, butters and fats alongside bold spices. Vora, known for her colorful Rainbow Plant Life presence online and her culinary embrace of her Indian-American heritage, outlines the principles of plant-based cooking by packing this book with both flavor and all the techniques and ingredient combinations needed to get there. The huge book – clocking in at more than 600 pages – takes until page 150 to get to the recipes, but when it does Vora dishes out instructions for carrot lox, mushroom bacon, French toast casserole with black sesame butter, cauliflower steaks with parsley salsa verde, sweet and sour tempeh peanut stir-fry and so many others. Vora’s book ends on a sweet note, with desserts that include ginger cookies with cardamom sugar, chai-spiced custard tart with mango and celebration cake with chocolate buttercream frosting.

Gestalten

“Cooking Greens on Fire,” by Nicolai & Eva Tram. Gestalten. $60

Campfire cooking is a well-established tradition in Maine, and this unusual vegetarian book from the chef-owners of the rural Swedish restaurant Knystaforsen (Michelin starred for sustainability) supplies recipes, techniques and tools to expertly cook vegetables over an unpredictable open fire. While neither the restaurant nor the writers are vegetarian, they write that they eat very little meat at home and find vegetables “more interesting.” “Cooking Greens on Fire” goes well beyond grilling vegetables and includes instructions for charring artichokes, eggplants and pineapples directly in a fire, spit roasting celeriac on a rotisserie, grilling grapes, baking unwrapped potatoes in embers, slow-roasting tomatoes hung above a fire and baking flatbread above the embers. The book concludes with a selection of sauces, syrups and pickles, including elderberry capers. This is a four-season book, as the Trams “actually prefer the cold months” for cooking outside over fire.

Hachette Go

“PlantYou Scrappy Cooking,” by Carleigh Bodrug. Hachette Books. $32

Speaking to the reality of wilted spinach, mushy berries and stale bread haunting modern kitchens, this cookbook makes it easy to reduce household food waste while creating delicious food. Bodrug, who writes vegan cookbooks, includes a visual guide that notes which recipes make use of particular common wasted items, such as fading greens and broccoli stems, and a list of Kitchen Raid recipes that accommodate fridge and pantry clean-outs. Dishes include Last Week’s Loaf breakfast casserole, banana peel bacon, beet green chips, corncob chick’n broth, celery leaf tabbouleh, and celeriac corned beef. Bodrug also includes her take on Wacky Cake (a recipe that dates back to the Depression and world wars and used no eggs, milk or butter because of rationing or as a cost-savings), along with candied citrus peels, apple scrap honey and pineapple skin tea. Each recipe is accompanied by a photo of the dish alongside a photo of each ingredient.  Bodrug comes from Ontario, so like many Mainers often uses maple syrup to sweeten her recipes.

Quadrille

“The Seriously Good Veggie Student Cookbook.” Quadrille. $19.99

This compilation recipe book follows Quadrille’s non-vegetarian student cookbook from last year, and brings together simple, student-friendly recipes that are either vegetarian or vegan. The book’s smaller size – you can easily hold it in one hand – and introduction that covers essential kitchen tools, kitchen safety and budget solutions for buying food make the “Veggie Student Cookbook” perfect for new cooks. Each recipe fits on a single page and none takes more than one hour to prepare, with most in the 25 to 30 minute range. Dishes have a British bent with British spellings, Indian influences and classic British dishes such as egg-in-a-hole rarebit, mulligatawny soup, cheesy courgette gratin, and cauliflower-broccoli cheesy bake. Desserts to reward study sessions include custard tarts, banoffee pies, mascarpone blueberry crêpes and no-bake Oreo peanut tarts.

Avery Yale Kamila is a food writer who lives in Portland. She can be reached at avery.kamila@gmail.com.