9 Cooking Tips for Making Awesome Vegan Food
If you're feeling unmoored in your quest to be a better plant-based cook, I've got you.
One of the biggest keys to long term success on a plant-based diet is learning how to cook vegan food intuitively and well. It’s not so different than “regular” cooking, but there are some nuances worth mastering.
There is so much to gain by taking the time to cook at home; whether you’re a newbie in the kitchen, convinced you’re a “bad cook”, or have relied heavily on meat and dairy products in the past, you can learn how to cook excellent plant based food. It just takes an open mind, practice, dedication and a few easy tricks (plus my PDF guide to stocking a whole food pantry, FREE below).
Build up your recipe library. I recommend investing in a few great new cookbooks for a few reasons. For many self-professed “bad cooks”, it’s not about lacking culinary ability; it’s just bad recipes. Many recipes on Pinterest (and elsewhere) are posted by people who aren’t professionals - they’re well meaning, but there are usually errors or murky instructions that result in less than stellar food. If you stick to recipes created by A) long-time plant based people (who have been cooking this way for a while) and B) professionally trained chefs/recipe developers, you’re much more likely to be able to execute something easily and well, because the instructions are clear, organized and well-tested. A great cookbook will also go over essential cookware, special techniques and terminology, and demystify unfamiliar ingredients (not to mention provide lots of inspiration). I have so many cookbooks that I rely on, but if I had to recommend a few, you’ll find some of my all time favorites listed under the “Bookshelf” tab in my website shop. I also strongly recommend a subscription to New York Times Cooking - their recipe library is massive (with filters for vegan recipes) and full of total gems from cooking all-stars. There are lots of reviews so you can be confident whatever you’re about to make is going to turn out great.
Stock your pantry like a plant-based pro. One of the best parts of going vegan is experimenting with new, bold flavors. It’s funny to me that plant based food is sometimes called “bland”, “boring” or “rabbit food”. Let’s consider this: would you ever serve a plain, boiled chicken breast at dinner? Of course not - you’d season it up with maybe some garlic, lemon juice, lots of herbs…those are all things from the plant kingdom. Plants are where the flavor is! Build up your spice rack and cabinet with the most flavorful ingredients and “boring food” will be a thing of the past, and I’d bet you’ll even expand your palate. I came up with a pantry guide to help you fill your kitchen with everything you’ll need to make vegan food brimming with flavor, all while sticking to more wholesome ingredients. Download (for free) below!
Learn to cook vegetables by category. This will allow you not only to batch cook different vegetables at the same time, but will allow you to figure out swaps and substitutions much more easily. For example, root vegetables - beets, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, winter squash - are all roughly the same when it comes their cooking times/temperatures/methods. Same goes for your dark leafy greens (kale, collards, Swiss chard, spinach). Sturdy cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, Romanesco, and cabbage) can be cooked similarly. Veggies like onion, fennel, and celery all have similar cook times…and so on!
Learn to cook beans and legumes. Beans, peas and lentils are a huge part of plant based cuisine, and learning to cook them well and full of flavor is a skill you’ll need to have in your back pocket. It’ll really enhance all of your soups, stews, chilis, and many, many other dishes tenfold (not to mention that beans, greens and grains is, IMO, the simplest and best formula for a satisfying, healthy plant based meal). Here is a good guide to get started.
Give tempeh and tofu a chance. Tofu and tempeh are never going to taste like chicken, beef or fish (psst… that’s a good thing) - you will learn to love them on their own, but you have to give them a chance. They’re not alien foods - both contain very few ingredients, the primary one being soy beans. There are many ways to prepare these staples of vegan cuisine, keep experimenting until you find the methods and seasonings that make them sing for you. Also, if you’re worried about eating too much soy, stop that right now (seriously, please stop)! Many studies show how organic, minimally processed soy foods (like tofu, tempeh, edamame, soymilk, etc) are actually great for you, and can help prevent (not cause!) certain cancers, like breast cancer.
Understand flavor profiles. Once you have an understanding of which flavors and spices dominate various cuisines, the more you’ll be able to experiment and riff on your own. I strongly recommend The Vegetarian Flavor Bible, which breaks down in great detail flavors and ingredients that go together well. It’s a valuable resource for any kitchen.
Learn how to finish a dish. One of the basic things you learn in culinary school is the importance of seasoning a dish from start to finish, and to taste as you go. Say you get to the end, taste your recipe, and it’s… well, lacking. What to do? Usually the answer is either:
A) more salt (it’s fine, don’t stress; either kosher salt or something umami-rich yet salty, like tamari)
B) some acid (lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, hot sauce)
C) more fat, whether it be diced avocado or a showering of chopped toasted nuts, or a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of cashew cream, and/or a dollop of high quality vegan plain yogurt (my favorite is Anita’s).
D) fresh herbs, like basil, parsley, cilantro, mint, chives, thyme, rosemary, oregano… etc. They can bring a dish from zero to hero pretty quickly.
Fresh and in season is best. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - if you can buy veggies when they’re in season (bonus points if you get them locally!), they’re going to taste a lot better, and you won’t need to do as much to them to make them sing. Case in point: a farmstand tomato in late August, versus something you find on your supermarket shelf in February. Or, just picked strawberries in late June, versus strawberries in January. It’s almost not the same thing.
Practice, practice, practice. Just like the advice given to aspiring musicians who want to get to Carnegie Hall, if you want to be a better cook, you need to put in the hours at the cutting board. It’s going to mean some failed recipes, time that you’d (potentially) rather spend doing something else, and lots of dish washing, but that’s how you get better. Cooking more is the only way to develop culinary intuition, which is really what separates a good cook from a great cook. If you want extra credit, take a cooking class or two. If you don’t live near a cooking school with plant based classes (which you probably don’t, unless you’re very lucky), there are some great ones online - I recommend Rouxbe, Food Future Institute, Forks Over Knives, and Colleen Patrick Goudreau’s library of classes. If you’re looking to take things to a more professional level, famed culinary school Escoffier now offers a plant based professional course entirely online.