This year, I broke my cookbook-buying habit. Instead of 5 or 6 new cookbooks, I bought only two. It wasn’t an intentional move. It just happened.

Neither book is 100% plant-based; I consider each plant-forward. Both were written by recipe creators I follow religiously, on Substack, in NYT Cooking, and in The Guardian. I know their work. That means I knew I’d cook my way through most of each book — far more than the 2–3 recipes home cooks typically make from a cookbook. Are you looking for a gift that keeps on giving? Or perhaps a self-gift?

What Made the Cut (and Why)

Linger, by Hetty McKinnon. I’m a die-hard Hetty McKinnon fan-girl. I fell hard for her Crispy Sheet Pan Noodles with Glazed Tofu. (NYT paywall, sorry). Hetty’s Roasted Tomato and Dumpling Salad sealed the deal. Her new book, Linger, celebrates salads. In Hetty-speak, salads are “layers of flavors, balancing acid, and weaving textures, while always remembering the principles of good seasoning.” You will not find a recipe for romaine leaves slathered in Green Goddess dressing in this book. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Each salad has a backstory. Bibimbap Style Gnocchi with Gochujang Vinaigrette was inspired by Hetty’s frequent trips to the beloved Korean supermarket chain, H Mart. Coronation Cauliflower and Chickpeas is a riff on “Poulet Reine Elizabeth,” a cold chicken dish served for lunch at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Sprinkled throughout the book are gorgeous food essays, Hetty’s photographs of her friends and food, even QR codes linked to playlists curated by her daughter, to be enjoyed while cooking and lingering.

Linger is the name of Hetty’s monthly lunch gathering. Her idea was to invite guests to enjoy a mid-day meal together, unhurriedly, to fill their souls with new foods and new friendships. Why salads? So the cook (Hetty) could prepare the dishes ahead of time, and place them on the table before anyone arrived.

What a concept! Finish cooking before your guests arrive, so that you can get out of the kitchen and enjoy the company of your friends. This will be my one and only 2026 New Year resolution.

Want more Hetty? There are dozens of (free) recipes on her website, and Substack, where you can find her newsletter, recipes and musings “dedicated to vegetables.”

 

Dinner, by Meera Sodha. The Guardian food section used to be light-years ahead of New York Times Cooking when it came to plant-based and plant-forward recipes. Thankfully, Cooking is starting to catch up (they’ve just hired super-star Nisha Vora, and Hetty McKinnon is finally a frequent contributor). Meera Sodha (in my humble opinion) was the Guardian’s culinary star. Her gift is for creating new takes on multi-cultural classics.

Sodha’s Iraqi White Bean Stew, was one of the most popular recipes from her Guardian column. In Dinner, she confesses to taking the simple ingredients (2 cans of white beans, a can of chopped tomatoes, and a mixture of cinnamon, allspice and cumin) with her on trips to visit friends, because it’s “ludicrously easy” to make away from home.

My favorite recipe in the book, so far, is Broccoli Spaghetti with Zhoug. “The truth about broccoli,” Sodha writes, “is that there is always a head of it in our fridge, and so on a weekly basis I …. undertake what is known as the Great Broccoli Challenge to work out how to turn it into a meal.” I thought I was the only one who scoured the Internet and my extensive cookbook collection searching for recipes that used broccoli. It was heartening to learn that broccoli can stump a professional like Sodha.

Many of the recipes in Dinner can be found in the Guardian. But I love having them all between two covers — and the book version, created for an American audience, has converted those pesky measurements like grams to ounces.

I Can Cook Vegan, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. This book was published in 2019, but it’s a classic, and can’t be beat as a starter book for the plant-curious. My friend Phil, who fits this bill (an omnivore frequently in search of a simple 6-ingredient, plant-based recipe), often calls to ask me questions like, which frozen dumplings should I buy at Trader Joe’s? (I get this as an emergency text while he is at Trader Joe’s), or what’s an easy Asian recipe that uses a block of tofu? This Christmas, I am buying I Can Cook Vegan for Phil. Because I can cook vegan. And so can Phil.

Isa starts by asking, “Who is this book for?” Chances are you, or someone close to you, falls into one or a couple of these categories: The just-born, brand-new cook. The tried-and-true seasoned cook who is tofu-curious. The busy weeknight pantry cook. The farmers’ market junkie who looks at all the pretty colors. The reluctant parent to the vegan child. Lazy vegans doing it for the animals. GrubHub addicts. Everyone who saw something about eating plant-based for your health on a talk show. Yep, that’s Phil.

I’ve had this book for years, and here are the pages that are most spotted with specks of food (I am a messy cook):

Beefy Tempeh and Broccoli: I’m not wild about tempeh, but my husband is. It’s full of protein and ridiculously good for you, so I’ve tried and tried to find a recipe I like. This is it. The secret is in the sauce. You’ll never order beef and broccoli at a Chinese restaurant again.

Pantry Mole Bowl with Seitan, Spinach Salad, and Sweet Potatoes: What is seitan? Popularly known as “wheat meat,” seitan is the protein part of wheat. It is minimally processed (just wheat gluten, water and spices), high in protein and calcium, low in carbohydrates, and extremely low in calories. Like tofu (which it is even healthier than!), it doesn’t have much flavor, so it’s adaptable to whichever kinds of flavors you want to add. You can make your own (use Bob’s Red Mill wheat gluten, in the flour section of the supermarket). Or, you can buy it in a supermarket like Whole Foods, near the tofu. I use this recipe when I make my own; store-bought tends to contain more salt than I prefer. (You can easily wash some of it off). This recipe is worth it for the pantry mole. Even if you decide not to try seitan, the mole can go on just about anything, and is especially great in tacos. (Note: If you are gluten-free, avoid seitan! It is gluten!)

For more cookbooks that celebrate plant-forward cooking, check out my list of picks from 2024.