How to Cook Everything Vegan by Mark Bittman
Available October 6, 2026, Publisher:: Harvest, hardcover, $40.00
336 pages, Series: How to Cook Everything Series, 100 color photographs
9 in H | 8 in W | 1.4 lb Wt
Review by Nancy J. Rodwan
You do not have to be vegan or contemplating going vegan to benefit from and enjoy Mark Bittman’s comprehensive new book How to Cook Everything Vegan. Bittman has proclaimed himself “a strict part-time vegan.” This choice was made for health reasons. In his introduction he says, “If you are vegan, it could be your touchstone: There are more than a lifetime of vegan recipes in here.” (He is not exaggerating.) “I’m not interested in you ‘going vegan’; I’m interested in you eating more and better plant-based dishes.”
Bittman has crafted brief and very useful guides to ingredients, vegan substitutes, equipment, and techniques. The chapters are broken down by food type – vegetables, grains, legumes, and so on – each including information on the best season for using, how to store, and the various ways to prepare. There is also a section on how to make the most of vegetable scraps and leftovers.
Each recipe in the book includes at least a couple of variations. He covers everything from making your own non-dairy milk to building a tasty bean burger. Ghazalle Badiozamani’s stunning photographs of the dishes made me want to try them all. For this review, I limited myself to three recipes and one variation. I will be making a lot more from this book. In all cases where nondairy milk is necessary, I used oat milk (store bought.)
- Banana Bread – The directions are simple and easy to follow. It calls for baking the bread for 60 to 70 minutes and mine was done is 65. Lining the baking loaf with parchment paper makes removal of the bread and clean-up a breeze. The bread is delightfully moist, very flavorful and it has an excellent crust and crumb. Highly recommended. Bittman’s variations on the loaf are pumpkin bread, sweet potato bread, and applesauce bread. I am looking forward to trying the applesauce version.
- Cream of Mushroom Soup – This soup is a mushroom lover’s dream! The list of ingredients is short, the cooking time is brief, and the flavor is intense. I will be making a double batch next time.
Coconut-Carrot Soup with Lots of Ginger is the variation I tried. Instead of coconut milk I used oat milk for two reasons: it was what I had on hand and my husband is not a big fan of coconut. I did make a double batch of this soup and glad I did. The texture and flavor are so pleasing.
- One Big Vegetable Pancake – If you try this recipe, I recommend the longer cooking time and/or putting it under the broiler to finish it. The crispier the pancake the better. We ate it as a side dish to a cup of the mushroom soup and it was an excellent pairing. If you are non-vegan, I also suggest eating a slice with a fried egg on top.
Some of the other recipes I intend to try are Saucy Sheet Pan Pasta, Paella with Lots of Vegetables, Gnocchi, Hot and Sour Skillet Beans, and the Silky Rice Paper Rolls.
This is the perfect cookbook for anyone who is looking to add more plant-based foods to their diet. Bittman writes with a keen mixture of knowledge and humor. There is much to offer both the experienced cook and anyone who may be learning the art of preparing their own food. It is also a bonus that the ingredients Bittman uses are readily accessible in most groceries and farmers’ markets.
Nancy Rodwan photo of Banana Bread, baked from a recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegan.
Nancy J. Rodwan is an artist, writer, and owner of Rodwan Permissions, with over 16 years of experience in intellectual property rights clearance, specializing in print, electronic, music, and film rights.She works parttime at Book Beat, writes for the Book Beat Journal and was a featured artist in this issue of the Detroit art journal Essay’d.