Reddit mentions of Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking from London's Ottolenghi [A Cookbook]

Plenty and Plenty More are the absolute best cookbooks I've ever owned of any kind.

Yotam Ottolenghi came out with a followup on his Plenty cookbook a few months ago, its called Plenty More. Used to see vegetables as only a side dish but he really changed my mind and enabled me to see that they can really be the star of the table. There are many interesting combinations. And as a man who is an omnivore himself, he often makes his dishes hearty enough that many of us wont even miss the meat.

Another book which you should look into is Thug Kitchen. If you haven't seen their blog, you should really check it out.

You should also look into Deborah Madison's books. This one is practically the Bible among vegetarians due to how comprehensive it is. Ironically, she also is an omnivore.

Theres also the Moosewood Cookbook which is great for weeknight meals as many of the recipes are simple and quick.

If you like Indian, I would really recommend 660 Curries which has some of the best Indian food I've ever tasted. I often compare food I get in Indian restaurants to what I've cooked from this book. Yes, its not completely vegetarian but the vast majority of Indian cuisine is vegetarian so it should still be a valuable resource for you.

Speaking of Indian food, Madhur Jaffrey (who is known for her Indian cookbooks) has a great cookbook dedicated to vegetarian cooking.

I'm a vegetarian and I cook a lot. The best books i've used are:

America's Test Kitchen Vegetarian Cookbook (If you get one book, get this one, all the recipes are relatively foolproof)

Lucky Peach Power Vegetables

Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty and Plenty More

Food 52's Genius recipes (not vegetarian but some really excellent vegetable preparations)

You might want to look into cuisines that have a more integrated take on dishes than the western style of star ingredient + sides.

For instance, there are a lot of great Indian vegetarian dishes where you'd never feel like you're missing meat, because curries are about a whole integrated dish of ingredients in a delicious spicy gravy.

Personally, I'm a big fan of Levantine (Lebanese, Palestinian, Israeli) cooking, and there are a lot of great vegetarian dishes there. /u/greypillar already recommended Ottolenghi's Plenty and I seconded and added Plenty More, which have clear influences from this region (Ottolenghi is Israeli). There are also a lot of good recipe's in Michael Solomonov's Zahav. I've heard good things about Bethany Kehdy's Pomegranates & Pine Nuts, but I don't own it myself. Check out the recipes on her blog and see if anything piques your interest.

I'm a vegetarian that is always craving variety too! Some of my favorite websites for inspiration are:

https://smittenkitchen.com/ (one of the originals, she is GREAT)

http://www.101cookbooks.com/

http://www.veganricha.com/ (a lot of Indian and international cuisine)

http://www.isachandra.com/recipes/

http://cookieandkate.com/

Finally, I recommend Plenty and Plenty More - two cookbooks celebrating vegetables from the famed Ottolenghi. His cooking is fantastic (ignore the pomegranate seeds on the front cover, I promise it's so much more than that, he just happens to be middle eastern!)

https://smile.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=J1TA1NT14PVDZVX7G173

https://smile.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1607746212&pd_rd_r=J63PHF1F8H0ZEMPVJTSR&pd_rd_w=PCmMs&pd_rd_wg=dsz8A&psc=1&refRID=J63PHF1F8H0ZEMPVJTSR

One of the first veg. cookbooks I got when I was just starting out was Linda McCartney's World of Vegetarian Cooking (also known as "On Tour"): https://www.amazon.com/Linda-McCartney-Tour-Meat-Free-Dishes/dp/0821224875/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386369&sr=1-5&keywords=linda+mccartney

It has recipes from all over the world, from North Africa to Asia, Europe to North America and everywhere in between. They're great starter recipes in that the ingredients are simple (and easy to substitute if necessary), and the instructions are clear. They're great to build on - I've adapted quite a few recipes to my own tastes over the years.

A much more recent couple of books are Ottolenghi's Plenty and Plenty More:

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-Vibrant-Vegetable-Recipes-Ottolenghi/dp/1452101248/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386476&sr=1-1&keywords=ottolenghi+plenty

https://www.amazon.com/Plenty-More-Vibrant-Vegetable-Ottolenghi/dp/1607746212/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3YR260YE36YRJAQVCP9G

These are books that celebrate plant-based cooking which is of course inspired by many cuisines, but is itself a wholly original cuisine. Many of the recipes are not knock-offs of popular meat dishes (e.g. lentil bolognese) or existing dishes that happen to be vegetarian (caprese salad) but rather truly original compositions. It's really refreshing for simple but beautiful meals made of creative (but not pretentious) dishes.

I bought Martha Stewart's "Meatless" cookbook last year and it has great recipes too. https://www.amazon.com/Meatless-More-Than-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0307954560/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386647&sr=1-6&keywords=vegetarian+cookbook

It's Martha Stewart, so it's not going to blow your socks off with complex spices and heat, but the recipes are again a wonderful place to start. Well-balanced, visually appealing and reasonably priced to make, you can always jazz them up yourself.

Finally, one of my favourite cookbooks, vegetarian or otherwise, is Anna Thomas' Love Soup: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Soup-All-New-Vegetarian-Recipes/dp/0393332578/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482386804&sr=1-1&keywords=Love+SOup

The recipes are heavenly (and as they're soup, you can always tweak to your taste - it's the ideas that are important). But what's really special is the narrative. She really engages you with lots of personal anecdotes and context for the ingredients, recipes and meals in general. I sat down and read it like a novel when I was given it for Christmas one year! It's really lovely.

luckily my mom is a part-time caterer so i'm able to borrow scores of cookbooks from her collection spanning 3 decades of culinary history. The main problem i have with a lot of chef-driven cookbooks is that they suffer from bad editing, inaccurate down-sized proportions, or flavors that sound interesting on paper, but clash on the plate.

Which reminds me that I need to pick up a copy of Ottolenghi's newest cookbook for a stocking stuffer.