From Korean To Indian: 5 Multicultural Vegan Cookbooks We Are Obsessed With

Vegan food is great. Finding new vegan recipes to try is even better. As more cuisines lend themselves to easy plant-based substitutions and reimaginings, global palates are opening up. So, step away from the ready meals and press pause on the same old favourites because we’ve found five cookbooks that will awaken your inner gastronome.

1. The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen

Striking cover visual appreciation complete, The Korean Vegan Cookbook is one to explore when you want to connect with your food. The author, Joanne Lee Molinaro, opens up her personal experiences and family legacy of cooking on every page, bringing context and flavour in equal measure. Dishes are uncomplicated, for the most part, and offer big rewards in terms of moreish tastes. The chocolate sweet potato cake offers poignant context and incredible depth of flavour. Don’t miss it.

No previous experience with Korean food will be necessary. For those not in Asia, you might just find the excuse you’ve been looking for to explore your local Asian supermarket. Grab a lychee Mogu Mogu drink while you’re there!

Buy it here.

2. Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora

Bryant Terry is back after his successful Vegetable Kingdom release. Black Food will nourish your body, open your mind and help you tap into emotional plains you didn’t know you had. We have to admit that it is not a vegan collection, though many, if not all of the recipes could be veganised with today’s ingredients. We’ve included it because it’s more than just a cookbook (unsurprising given Terry’s roots as THE US plant-based food community activist), it is a choral symphony of elegantly powerful voices talking about the Black experience and interweaving food with it. As an introduction to Bryant, it is a beautiful read and will lead you to his other works.

Sweet potato pie, skillet cakes and pickled carrots are some of the highlights. You’ll come for lessons on using okra but you’ll stay for the poetry and education. 

Buy it here.

For a fully vegan cookbook from Bryant, try his infamous Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed. It manages to be creative, nostalgic and comforting all at once and feels as fresh as the first day it was released.

Buy it here.

3. Unbelievably Vegan: 100+ Life-Changing, Plant-Based Recipes

You know a cookbook is going to be good when it has a foreword from Venus Williams. Unbelievably Vegan does not disappoint. Author Charity Morgan is a private chef to the world’s elite athletes. She was featured in the 2018 documentary The Game Changers and has compiled recipes easy enough for home cooks to master, while compromising no nutritional values or taste. The vibe is undeniably southern, with comfort and soul food coming together with a punch of Puerto Rican heritage. 

Coconut rice with mango, jerk lentils, and a knee-tremblingly good Jambalaya will have you screaming out for more. Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered how to use walnuts to make chorizo…you’re in luck.

Buy it here.

4. Provecho: 100 Vegan Mexican Recipes to Celebrate Culture and Community

Edgar Castrejón is here to show you there is much more to Mexican cooking than tossing some chili into your food. Over the course of 100 traditional dishes, usually meat-heavy, he takes you on a journey to discover how flavour profiles work. By the end of Provecho, you’ll understand why dark chocolate is used in savoury dishes. He breaks his recipes down into big meals, snacks, little tastings, and desserts. Everything has a comforting nuance, despite being largely unfamiliar to non-Latin American cooks. 

You will definitely wonder how you’ve lived without oat milk horchata in your life. Meanwhile, the cauliflower ceviche will have you wondering if you’ve ever eaten good food before. 

Buy it here.

5. The Modern Tiffin: On-TheGo Vegan Dishes with a Global Flair

Priyanka Naik hangs up her celebrity apron for a while and gets down to some seriously personal recipe development in The Modern Tiffin. Using her Indian heritage and love of the traditional packed food methodology, she has created a host of transportable vegan delights that you will want to make time and time again (and that you can easily transport wherever). Being a self-taught chef, there is no false modesty to Naik, making her words a delight to follow. She gives you the confidence to reach for the unfamiliar spice, and the rewards are plentiful.

Green chutney quesadillas, Indian home fries with peanuts and chili-maple skillet cornbread. Need we say more? (Actually, we will. In this interview with Naik).

Buy it here.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article suggested Black by Bryant Terry was comprised of entirely vegan recipes. We regret the error.

All images courtesy of listed cookbook author websites/blogs. Lead image by Jennifer Schmidt on Unsplash.