Get the most out of Veganuary with the help of these vegan books. From cookbooks and nutrition help to environmental and ethical learning, these books will help you in your plant-based journey
These days, it’s all too easy to rely on the internet and social media to learn information. Whilst the internet can be a valuable tool, books have the power to transport you into a new world for understanding and thinking.
With Veganuary fast approaching, many people will be embarking on their plant-based journey for the first time.
While there are many resources on how to go vegan, books can be a great way to further your knowledge of a vegan lifestyle and learn how you this diet can impact your health, the environment, and of course, reduce animal suffering.
From vegan cookbooks to books on the environment, and even children’s books, there are so many exciting and informative vegan books on the market.
To help you find the best book for you, we’ve collated the top 11 vegan books to help you get the most out of your vegan lifestyle.
Jump to the best vegan books:
- Best for vegan-curious
- Best easy vegan cookbook
- Best vegan book for kids
- Best vegan book for animal lovers
- Best vegan baking book
- Best vegan nutrition book
- Best book for budget vegan cooking
- Best vegan cookbook for meat lovers
- Best book for ethical vegans
- Best book for empowering vegans
- Best one-pot vegan cookbook
- Best book for environmental vegans
ADVERTISEMENT
What is Veganuary?
Veganuary is an annual campaign that encourages people to go vegan for 31 days throughout January.
Launching in 2014, the campaign has seen growing success over the years, with more people than ever taking the plant-based pledge.
Veganuary 2022 saw over 629,000 participants from across the globe take part in the month-long challenge, breaking all previous records.
Best vegan books
1. Best for vegan-curious – The Vegan Kit
From the creators of Veganuary, The Vegan Kit: All You Need to Know to Try Plant-based is the perfect gift for the vegan-curious or for new vegans.
This kit is bursting with all the essential information and recipe cards that you need to kick-start your vegan journey. From weekly shopping guides to inspirational quotes, The Vegan Kit makes going vegan and, more importantly, staying vegan simple!
ADVERTISEMENT
2. Best easy vegan cookbook – Five Ingredient Vegan
When you first go vegan you may think that you need to spend hours in the kitchen to cook up something delicious. Thankfully, that is far from true!
In her book Five Ingredient Vegan, author Katy Beskow demonstrates how simple it can be to create nutritious, modern, and tasty recipes using minimal ingredients.
With recipes like Santorini tomato fritters, Welsh rarebit stuffed potatoes, and coconut panna cotta, there is plenty of fast, simple recipes to sink your teeth into.
ADVERTISEMENT
3. Best vegan book for kids – V is for Vegan
Teaching your child the ways of the world from a young age can be a valuable life skill as they grow older.
V is for Vegan: The ABCs of Being Kind, by Ruby Roth, aims to teach children compassion for animals and the basics of a vegan lifestyle through engaging illustrations and memorable rhymes.
4. Best vegan book for animal lovers – Why we Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows
Dr Melanie Joy’s Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows explores societies’ relationships with animals and digs deep into the hierarchy of speciesism, also known as carnism.
Joy coined the term Carnism in 2001, the concept is used to reflect humanity’s oppressive belief system of associating animals with foods and not questioning.
It suggests that eating certain animals is a choice that is no longer necessary for many people in the world today, but yet carnism conditions us not to think and go against our natural empathy.
5. Best vegan baking book – Simply Vegan Baking
Vegan baking may seem like a tricky business, but the truth is it is far easier than you may think with the help of the right plant-based ingredients.
Star of The Great British Bake Off, Freya Cox breaks down the basics of vegan baking in her cookbook Simply Vegan Baking, helping you to create magnificent vegan showstoppers of your own.
Celebrity chef and icon Nigella Lawson has praised Cox’s book, claiming: “The subtitle promises that the book takes “the faff out of vegan cakes, cookies, breads and desserts” and that is exactly what it does.”
6. Best vegan nutrition book – How Not to Die
Michael Greger, M.D.’s New York Times Bestseller How Not to Die uncovers how a whole food plant-based diet can help prevent and reverse diseases.
Greger investigates the top 15 causes of premature death in America, such as heart disease, Parkinson’s and even cancer, before explaining how a focus on lifestyle and nutrition can be more effective than prescription tablets and other pharmaceutical alternatives.
Additionally, How Not to Die includes a list of 12 foods we should all eat daily to improve our health.
7. Best book for budget vegan cooking – BOSH! on a Budget
We are all looking for extra ways to save money these days. Luckily, a vegan diet can be a great way to eat cheaply and nutritiously.
Vegan chefs Henry Firth and Ian Theasby are the creators behind one of the UK’s top vegan food brands, BOSH!.
BOSH! on a Budget was a Sunday Times Best Selling cookbook featuring over 100 delicious plant-based recipes that are affordable and accessible for all.
From money-saving hacks to batch-cooking tips, BOSH! on a Budget is the perfect addition to anyone’s cookbook collection.
8. Best vegan cookbook for meat lovers – The Vegan Butcher
Zacchary Bird’s revolutionary cookbook The Vegan Butcher has transformed everyday plant-based ingredients into meaty creations that are 100% cruelty-free.
Bird takes us on a deep dive into the technicalities of creative plant-based meat before showcasing an abundance of drool-worthy recipes that will satisfy any carnivore.
Taking humble ingredients like seitan, mushrooms, jackfruit, and even watermelon and transforming them into dishes like salami, whole roasted ‘duck’, and ‘fish’ pie, The Vegan Butcher will introduce you to a new world of vegan cooking.
9. Best book for ethical vegans – Animal Liberation
Originally published in 1975, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation opened millions of people to speciesism, the systemic disregard of nonhuman animals.
Animal Liberation helped to launch a worldwide movement dedicated to eliminating harm inflicted on all animals.
Newspaper Chicago Tribune described it as: “A most important book that will change the way many of us look at animals–and, ultimately, at ourselves.”
10. Best book for empowering vegans – This Is Vegan Propaganda: (And Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You)
Vegan activist and Youtuber, Ed Winters, published his first book during Veganuary 2022. This Is Vegan Propaganda: (And Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You) explores how the climate crisis, infectious and chronic diseases, human and non-human exploitation are all linked to industrial animal agriculture.
Set out to help inform both vegans and non-vegans on these pressing issues, Winters’ book uncovers the realities that have been buried for years.
Legendary vegan activist and musician Moby hailed the book as an “indisputable case for veganism”.
11. Best one-pot vegan cookbook – One Pot Vegan
Sometimes, one-pot cooking is all that will do, especially when the winter months draw in.
Thankfully, So Vegan creators Roxy Pope and Ben Pook have created a cookbook packed with 80 delicious vegan one-pot recipes that are bursting with flavour and colour and require minimal washing up.
Enjoy recipes like smoky sausage cassoulet, no-waste harissa cauliflower, and boozy Caribbean pear cake.
12. Best book for environmental vegans – We are the Weather
The climate crisis is one of the biggest threats to humanity. While it may seem like a helpless situation, there are steps that we can all take to reduce carbon emissions.
Jonathan Safran Foer’s booking We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast draws the link between our diets and climate change. Foer explains how if everyone collectively reduces their meat and dairy intake, we can drastically reduce our carbon footprint.
Looking for vegan recipe inspiration ahead of Veganuary?
Here are 21 easy Veganuary recipes that are healthy and tasty
