Books like By Any Greens Necessary

I carry Michael Pollan’s decree close to my heart, and his wise words guide my choices around food, moderation and common sense to this day. 

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Words to live by, if ever there were any, and for this recovering emotional eater, Pollan was a much-needed voice of common sense. A great reminder to avoid industrialised, heavily processed foods, and get back to experiencing pleasure at the dinner table, enjoying whole foods that my grandparents would have recognised.

Pollan’s decree guides my decisions in the supermarket and my kitchen constantly. Another essential book discovered along my healing journey as I reclaimed my health.

This book changed the way I was living my life. It literally changed the words I used to speak about my future plans/goals and made me want to dream big. It leads you to make the connection between what we think and what shows up in our lives. This was an epiphany moment for me. That, we are, who we spend time with, the books we read, and the TV we watch. And thus, the people around us become mirrors of ourselves. It made me examine my thoughts on a minute-to-minute basis and ultimately start living in the present moment. It introduces you to the benefits of daily gratitude and of being of service to others.

I am a passionate advocate for the process of using foods and supplements, especially natural herbal ones to aid the body in the cleansing and detoxification process. This is one of the best books describing this process to help support and rejuvenate from the inside out.

A powerful book where the author describes her journey from extreme hardship through hope and into renewal, wisdom and healing. This book will teach you that the pain of your past doesn’t have to be your reality today and how to rise above.

Forks Over Knives describes how changing your diet (forks) can be used to good effect to improve health, therefore, avoid the need for surgery (knives). This is a book about the most important advice on healthy eating – guess what? eating a whole-food, plant-based diet. It is full of inspiring success stories of people who have taken charge of their diet and transformed their health, as well as useful recipes. The author advocates entirely plant-based, and although there is a healthy way to eat animal products, the foundational diet for everyone needs to be mostly plants, and most definitely whole foods, meaning not processed or industrially produced.

This guide is full of practical tips for traveling as a vegan, including how to plan and organize your trip, how to get insider help and advice from vegan locals in your destination, and even how to engage in vegan activism or volunteer work while traveling. 

The author is a keen world traveler who became vegan back in 2008, so she draws on lots of personal experience and also shares some funny personal stories so you can learn from her mistakes!

I discovered raw baking later in my vegan pastry career and have always admired chefs like Charlie Trotter for their impressive plating, which highlights pure ingredients and sets new standards for traditional techniques.

For me, raw baking represents a contemporary evolution of that approach. When my allergies were at their worst, I followed a raw diet that inspired me to cook without heat. This required eliminating processed salt, sugar, dairy, grains, and oils, focusing instead on raw ingredients and simple combinations.

As I experimented with raw baking, I loved its silky textures, natural flavors, and vibrant colors. It awakened my taste buds. This book taught me the basics of raw baking and how to create desserts using only nuts, fruits, and cacao.

Since there are not that many vegan travel books on the market (yet), this title sneaks onto this list, but with a caveat. This book is a collaboration by multiple authors, and some parts are definitely better than others.

The general travel information was clearly written by a vegan and is right on point. However, some of the destination-specific sections seem to be lifted from Lonely Planet’s other titles and weren’t written from a vegan perspective.

While the information about vegan food options in various countries is accurate, a vegan lifestyle is not just about food. Rather, it’s about avoiding causing harm to animals as far as possible through the choices we make in all aspects of our daily life.

Some of the activities mentioned in the Vegan Travel Handbook do not fit within this worldview, which may be off-putting for vegan readers. Nevertheless, for new vegans or vegan-curious travelers… show more.

This is one of my favorite baking recipe books when you are looking for a little of everything. Sally has created a baking empire and I have always been inspired by her baking and her business.

In this book, Sally shared a wide-variety of home baked treats including breads, muffins, bars and brownies, cakes, pies, candies, cookies, and cupcakes. I love how her baking feels like it was made by your grandmother, as she features old-fashioned classics that are sure to bring up fond memories. 

Justin Moore, the creator of the Lotus and the Artichoke website and recipe book series, has spent years traveling the globe and joining locals in their kitchens, learning directly from them how to prepare their traditional dishes. All in vegan versions, of course!

This is the book that kicked off the series of cookbooks back in 2012, and it offers a great overview of delicious, authentic vegan dishes from around the world. If you’re interested in a specific cuisine, you may also want to check out Justin’s vegan recipe books on Mexican, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Indian and Ethiopian cuisines.

He’s currently crowdfunding an update to the original book too, so keep an eye out for it when it hits the shelves!