No Fancy Ingredients: Wholesome Recipes for Everyday People

Make It Vegan is absolutely terrific! This has gorgeously innovative recipes, all beautifully photographed, and affordable for anyone to make. From ‘Wake Up’ and quick eats, to nibbles, sides and main dishes, there are also plenty of sweets and treats.

Maddie starts off telling her life story (a history of eating disorders and drinking at university), before she ‘fell into’ a healthy lifestyle after moving to Cornwall. She strongly believes that unless you run a restaurant (or are appearing on Masterchef), there’s no need to get stressed about cooking.

She suggests trying a few of her recipes each week, putting on some music (she likes Norah Jones) and chilling, while you learn to cook!

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).

Before recycling cans, rinse then remove lids (pop ring-pulls over holes). Then use your fingers/thumb to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped. 

Recipes include:

• Pesto Potato Salad
• Cauliflower & Mushroom Burgers
• Maple Pancakes
• Spinach & Butter Bean Soup
• Sundried Tomato & Tahini Rigatoni
• Sticky Seitan Ribs
• One Pan Baked Scramble
• Butter No-Chicken Curry
• 10-Minute Mac & Cheese
• Vegan Paella
• Un-Sausage Rolls
• Beetroot Mushroom Wellington

Desserts include:

• Fluffy Lemon Sponge Cake
• Chocolate Spread Cheesecake
• Pain au Chocolat
• Choc-a-choc Chocolate Cake!

Madeleine Olivia is a popular chef and influencer, who lives in the Cornish countryside with her husband (together they have released a lovely guide to making bread!)

She makes the mac and cheese recipe from this book at least once a week, served with roasted garlic broccoli. She also enjoys making dals and stir-fries.

Liv B’s easy everyday vegan recipes

Liv B’s Easy Everyday Recipes is a lovely book of recipes by a Canadian chef (who with her husband has hundreds of thousands of followers on her blog, and 1 million YouTube monthly views). You only get that with good recipes! This is effortless and inexpensive plant-based cooking.

Find over 100 recipes that are tasty and easy, baked on just 5 ingredients, or in one pot or baking tray.  From meal prep to freezing instructions and from cooking tips to pressure cooker recipes.

Enjoy:

• One Pot Mac n Cheese
• Sheet Pan Pot Pie
• One Pot Mushroom Stroganoff
• Frying Pan Granola
• Chorizo Tempeh Breakfast Wraps

Liv B (short for Olivia) is one of Canada’s most popular recipe bloggers. She runs the site with her husband, who is also a mean cook!

The couple’s most popular recipe is this Vegan Big Mac Toast (5 ingredients), one of which is their vegan Big Mac sauce (just over 5 ingredients, including spices). So to be fair, this is 10 ingredients, but this is for two combined recipes.

Cooking with Nonna (vegan Italian recipes)

Cooking with Nonna is a fun and unique book to make the best Italian home cooking. Giuseppe is a second-generation British Italian where food and family have always been intertwined.

So when Giuseppe went vegan, he needed to find a way to cook the flavours of his family. There was only one person who could help; his nonna! Together they learned how to make the authentic Italian and Sicilian dishes that Nonna grew up with, using all plants.

Recipes include:

• Classic Lasagne with Homemade Mince
• Arancini (croquettes) Della Nonna!
• The Perfect Tomato Sauce
• Pasta Aglio Olio & Peperconico
• Homemade Focaccia
• Tiramisu
• Coffee Granita
• Biscotti

Giuseppe Federici comes from a long line of passionate foodies, and only at 15 did he realise that a British roast dinner did not begin with a full plate of pasta!

He has a huge fanbase of 440K Instagram followers and 300K on TikTok, and has hosted supper clubs and been crowned Digital Creator of the Year at Fortnum & Mason food and drinks awards.

15-Minute vegan meals (60 delicious recipes)

15-Minute Vegan Meals offers lovely meals packed with plant-based protein and good fats for dinners with taste, and nutrition. Ideal for people low on time and energy, who still want to make their meals with fresh ingredients.

Recipes include:

• Buffalo Tempeh Bowl with Vegan Honey Mustard
• Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo Penne with Broccoli
• Spiced Chickpea & Kale Salad
• Spicy Sweet & Sour Tofu with Broccoli
• BBQ Jackfruit & Chickpea Flatbread with Creamy Slaw
• Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Salad
• Ginger Noodle Soup:

Janet Gronnow is a popular vegan food blogger, whose recipes have been featured in many publications. She lives in Pennsylvania, USA.

It has few pictures, but Vegan in 15 is a lovely little read, an affordable book of easy recipes by Kate, who blogs at The Veg Space

Five Ingredient Vegan (by Yorkshire chef Katy Beskow)

Five Ingredient Vegan is just one of fab short-time cookbooks by Yorkshire’s Katy Beskow. As well as only having a few ingredients, most meals are ready in 15 minutes or less. The 100 recipes all include simple affordable lists and a sweet little tip for each one.

Recipes include:

• Cauliflower cheese soup
• Carrot Cake Porridge
• No-Fish Fishcakes (above)
• Spiced Parsnip Bisque
• Country Lentil Pottage
• Cauliflower ‘Cheese’ Soup
• Pantry Minestrone
• Spinach Pancakes
• Zesty Bread & Butter Pudding

I’m a firm believer that a few, simple good quality ingredients can make the most satisfying of home-cooked meals.

Buy the best that you can afford, particularly fresh ingredients such as vegetables, fruits and bread, and aim to buy ingredients in season for maximum flavour.

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.

Made in Hackney (London) is a social enterprise that hosts affordable cooking classes to local people (from youngsters to seniors). Proceeds raised help fund their free cookery classes and Global Plant Kitchens (an online toolkit to help communities worldwide do the same).

I thought vegan meant eating rabbit food. I never realised how tasty it could all be. I’m a changed man! Fred

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets. Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).

For tinned foods, remove and pop lids inside, or pop ring-pulls back over holes (pinch top closed) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.

This organisation offers a whole host of classes, some very unique including:

• Plant-based French cooking
• Zero Waste Meals
• Dinner Party Essentials
• Fermented Foods
• Czech Easter Feast!
• Budget-Friendly Cooking
• Soups with No-Knead Breads
• Ethiopian or Turkish Recipes

Made in Hackney also offers a ‘weekly cooking for your community’ class, where you’ll learn how to prepare 200 portions of healthy plant-based food for local people.

Many of the volunteers here, have gone on to find paid work in the food industry.

Can’t Make It to Class? There’s a Book!

 

We Cook Plants is the cookbook just released by Made in Hackney! Written by the founder, this colourful book distils 12 years of experience to teach anyone how to cook, no matter where you live. The 100 mouth-watering recipes include:

• Chipotle Mushroom Tacos
• Brazilian Feijoada
• Mango Kombucha
• Chocolate & Black Bean Pudding

Other good vegan cooking classes

The Vegan Chef School offers a course for home cooks that takes around 3 months, and a Vegan Diploma for professional cooks that includes scaling recipes, adapting for allergies, pricing menus and plating skills. Graduates receive a certificate for employers.

Our Lizzy (Worcestershire) offers cooking classes with bed-and-breakfast accommodation near the Malvern Hills (so you can walk your dinner off, after making it!).

Prices include tuition, ingredients and a recipe booklet.  The day courses include various international cuisine (Greek, Mexican, Thai) plus there are courses for dairy-free desserts and making bread.

Brownble is another membership cooking site, the founder’s medically-trained husband ensures everything is nutritious. From cooking without recipes to knife skills, you’ll also learn to bake bread and vegan cheese, and discover how to plan your meals. A portion of profits are donated to farm sanctuaries and plant-based food charities.

Veecoco (Germany) is a membership site run by two brothers, who work with the world’s best chefs and teachers to offer over 290 courses from Italian, Thai and Japanese meals to making vegan cheese and desserts/pastries. Learn at your own pace with over 600 hours of video content.

All About Greens offers an accredited ‘cook like a pro’ course with 19 modules, teaching over 100 recipes by Michelin-trained chefs. Again there’s an accredited certificate on graduation. From making soups and stock to stews and pasta, you’ll also learn to bake bread, and create no-egg cakes and bakes.

Vegan Academy offers affordable online courses from continental Europe. You’ll learn to cook street food, Italian food and make vegan pastry. Again graduates receive a certificate.

Plant Academy offers tiered online classes, from a chef who has worked at top cooking schools. Ideal for professional chefs, Plant One covers knife skills, creams, baking and desserts. Plant Two shows how to cook from market ingredients (no waste), sea salt and seaweed. The founder has a recipe book.

Dreena’s Kind Kitchen (wholesome recipes from Canada)

Dreena’s Kind Kitchen is a nice book by one of our favourite cookbook authors, who always uses fresh wholefood ingredients and uses a little oil and maple syrup (she’s Canadian!) with recipes that will appeal to most tastebuds. This book offers 100 easy-to-make and delicious recipes.

This is a book you will use, whether you want a quick weeknight supper or a dish for a special occasion. From breakfasts to small bites to dinner and dessert.

Enjoy recipes for:

• Light Fluffy Breakfast Pancakes
• Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
• Potato Cauliflower Scramble
• Seasoned Potato Squashers
• A-Game Chilli
• White Bean Corn Chowder
• Beyond Beet Burgers
• Fiesta Taco Filling
• Smoky Caesar Salad
• Lentil Sweet Potato Meatloaf
• Holiday Dinner Torte

There’s also a troubleshooting section to boost your kitchen skills, with tips on techniques, time-saving skills and suggestions for re-purposing leftovers into delicious new dishes.

Dreena Burton is a self-taught cook and one of North America’s most popular cookbook authors, whose recipes are recommended by health professionals, due to always using real wholefoods. A mother of three children (who she and her husband have raised vegan), she is author of several best-selling recipe books.