the best budget-friendly vegan recipe books

Thrifty Vegan is just one of many of Katy’s wonderful cookbooks, all using affordable plant-based everyday ingredients you can find in any store, to make tasty recipes in 15 minutes. In this book, find advice on stocking your cupboard and making your cooking cost less and go faster. The 150 recipes are sure to appeal to all tastes and are also wallet-friendly.

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people & pets (many human foods are unsafe around animal friends).

This is feelgood, effortless food by an expert in vegan cuisine. The recipe includes frugal breakfast, light bites, family-friendly suppers, snacks, sides, dressings and sweet treats. The truth is that most people can’t find nor afford swanky indie health shops and farm shops. So these kind of books can help people cook delicious plant-based food on low incomes, using affordable ingredients that you can find in any store. Recipes include:

3-ingredient banana pancakes
Almond butter morning cookies
Cranberry & orange granola
Cherry & garden mint smoothie bowl
Cinnamon or coffee & cream French toast
Sticky nutmeg & date palmiers

Consider shopping at fruit and vegetable markets, for good prices on seasonal produce. Overheads are less than supermarket chains, so savings can be passed onto the consumer. Be cautious of coupons and vouchers, and purchase only what you will actually use, no matter what the discount. Tonnes of cooked rice are wasted due to overestimating volumes of uncooked rice (90g of uncooked rice will serve one person – chill unused rice in the fridge for up to 24 hours and thoroughly reheat before serving).

Katy Beskow grew up in Yorkshire, and learned to cook while studying physiotherapy in London (inspired by the markets of fresh produce, while having to eat on a budget). Returning to her home county, her blog led to a cookbook deal which led to another, and now Katy has many top-selling vegan cookbooks under her belt. Also look out for her upcoming book Vegan Pantry featuring 100 recipes, divided up into 10 of her favourite storecupboard ingredients, to provide year-round recipes.

the rising prices of everyday foods

Food poverty campaigner Jack Monroe recently launched her own Vimes Index, saying that supermarkets had used inflation as a cover to raise the prices of everyday goods (like apples) but kept existing prices for luxury goods (like champagne). Jack was recently contacted by an elderly gentleman who had eaten a teaspoon of toothpaste for his dinner, to fool himself into thinking he had eaten something.

Tesco responded by saying their own prices are affected by rising energy prices. But this is because big supermarkets use oil from lorries (bringing foods from central distribution houses miles away (that are heated by oil) and many foods are made from factory-farmed animals (powered by fossil fuels) and palm oil (lots of oil to fly them to England from Indonesia). That’s why walkable shops that sell seasonal foods is a good idea. Also learn where to find, share or grow free food.

The Vimes Boots Index is a warning shot to retailers who keep their £7.50 ready meals and £6 bottles of wine at the same price for a decade, while quadrupling the price of basic stock cubes and broken irregular grains of white rice. This issue isn’t going anywhere, and neither am I. Jack Monroe

Miguel’s one-pound vegan recipe book

Vegan One Pound Meals is by London chef Miguel Barclay. He previously worked in finances and used his hobby of spreadsheets (?) to come up with easy meals that are both tasty and affordable. There are no desserts, but super-simple recipes with short ingredients lists. Though the author’s Spanish grandmother is not impressed with his recipe for paella which she says is ‘rice, with stuff in it!’ Recipes include:

Artichoke paella
Sweet potato katsu curry
Golden syrup broccoli nooddles
Mac & no cheese
Sticky aubergine bao
Black bean meatballs
Mexican stuffed peppers
Oothappam Indian crumpets
Vegan sausage rolls (use palm-oil-free pastry)

three recipe books for broke vegans

Broke Vegan, Broke Vegan Speedy and Broke Vegan One-Pot are three recipe books by Saskia Sidey, a chef who trained at Leith’s School of Food & Wine. All feature super-simple recipes for people on any budget. There are also tips for batch cooking and feeding crowds on a budget.

The truth is that most people can’t find nor afford swanky indie health shops and farm shops. So these kind of books can help people cook delicious plant-based food on low incomes, using affordable ingredients that you can find in any store. Between them, the recipes include: