DIY Vegan Meats: These Cookbooks Show You How to Make Them at Home

Today, most grocery stores carry meatless burgers, nuggets, sausages, and tenders—just about any meaty option you’re craving. These vegan meat products are great for days when you want something quick, easy, and satisfying. But if you’ve got a little extra time, making your own plant-based meat from scratch can be a healthier, less processed, and just as tasty alternative. Ready to turn your kitchen into a plant-based butcher shop? We’ve rounded up the best vegan meat cookbooks to help guide you. 

The best vegan cookbooks for making plant-based meat from scratch

Here are some of our favorite vegan meat cookbooks to get you started in plant butchery.

1 The Vegan Meat Cookbook

You can always count on Miyoko Schinner for incredible plant-based food. As the founder of Miyoko’s Creamery, she helped redefine vegan cheese. While she’s no longer with the brand, her passion for flavor lives on—just take this cookbook, for example. It features recipes for everything from indulgent sausage calzones to spicy garlic prawns. Yes, really. You have to taste it to believe it.
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2 Fake Meat

Isa Chandra Moskowitz understands that for many, meat is tied to comfort and nostalgia. That’s exactly why she wrote this cookbook—to help recreate those familiar flavors and textures, minus the animal products. Inside, you’ll find plant-based versions of everything from Irish beef stew to wings to bacon. “I remember all the tastes and sensations from my omnivore days, even though they were so long ago,” Moskowitz writes in the introduction. “These are the moments you could say I miss. Maybe you do, too. But we don’t have to.”
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3 The Herbivorous Butcher Cookbook

If you can’t make it to The Herbivorous Butcher’s vegan restaurant and butcher shop in Minneapolis, MN, don’t worry. With this cookbook, you can recreate Aubry and Kale Walch’s recipes from scratch in your own kitchen. The siblings put the book together during the pandemic while their shop was temporarily closed. “My greatest hope is that readers can feel the joy that I first felt when I realized the unlimited possibilities seitan had to offer,” Kale Walch previously told VegNews. “To me, it was a puzzle: how to use different juices, herbs, spices, binders, and cooking methods to turn a high-protein flour into everything from a steak to a sausage.”
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4BOSH! Meat

BOSH! founders Henry Firth and Ian Theasby have several cookbooks under their belt, but if you’re a meat lover, this is the one to reach for. It features over 100 vegan recipes for dishes like duck pancakes, pork gyozas, chicken wings, and more. Still need convincing? The Times once dubbed Firth and Theasby the ”vegan Jamie Olivers.”
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5 The Vegan Butcher

If you need proof of how impressive Zacchary Bird’s food is, start with his recipe for Vegan Beer-Battered Banana Blossom Fish Fillets—one bite, and you’ll be hooked. The good news? The Vegan Butcher cookbook is packed with even more bold, creative recipes, from watermelon ham to mushroom steaks. “If you like a kitchen project, this book is definitely for you,” reads a review from British chef Nigella Lawson. 
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6Field Roast

Founded in 1997, Field Roast has become a fan-favorite vegan meat brand over the last 29 years. So, when Field Roast resident chef Tommy McDonald penned a cookbook filled with 101 plant-based meat recipes, it quickly became a part of our kitchen library. Nearly 10 years later, the Field Roast cookbook is still a go-to for everyday meats like burgers and meatloaf to special occasion stuffed roasts.
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7 Making Vegan Meat

If you’re intrigued by the science behind plant-based cooking, you’ll love this inventive cookbook by Mark Thompson. He breaks down how to transform simple, everyday ingredients into incredibly realistic meaty textures—think barbecue ribs, fried chicken, and juicy beef burgers. As recipe developer Rose Lee of Cheap Lazy Vegan puts it: “Mark is an absolute wizard—he can turn the most unexpected ingredients into vegan meat! You will not be disappointed.”
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8 Vegan Soul Food Cookbook

Traditionally, soul food is rich in meat-centric dishes like fried chicken and gumbo. But with Nadira Jenkins-El’s Vegan Soul Food Cookbook, you can recreate all the bold flavors and comforting textures you love—using only plant-based ingredients.
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9Plant-Based Vegan Meat Cookbook

You don’t need to hunt down expensive, niche ingredients to make tasty vegan meats at home. In this cookbook, author and recipe developer Holly Gray helps readers transform everyday kitchen ingredients into juicy burgers, hearty chili, crispy fried chicken, pulled pork hash, and so much more. 
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10Crafting Seitan

Seitan is the backbone of vegan meat alternatives, so mastering this meat substitute is key for any aspiring plant butcher. Chef Skye Michael Conroy’s Crafting Seitan is the perfect introduction to seitan and its near-magical versatility. From bacon to pot roast, ribs, and tandoori chicken, everything is possible with seitan.
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