Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes

by Bryant Terry

More than 100 beautifully simple recipes that teach you the basics of a great vegan meal centered on real food, not powders or meat substitutes--from the James Beard Award-winning chef and author of Afro-Vegan

Food justice activist and author Bryant Terry breaks down the fundamentals of plant-based cooking in Vegetable Kingdom, showing you how to make delicious meals from popular vegetables, grains, and legumes. Recipes like Dirty Cauliflower, Barbecued Carrots with Slow-Cooked White Beans, Millet Roux Mushroom Gumbo, and Citrus & Garlic-Herb-Braised Fennel are enticing enough without meat substitutes, instead relying on fresh ingredients, vibrant spices, and clever techniques to build flavor and texture.

The book is organized by ingredient, making it easy to create simple dishes or showstopping meals based on what's fresh at the market. Bryant also covers the basics of vegan cooking, explaining the fundamentals of assembling flavorful salads, cooking filling soups and stews, and making tasty grains and legumes. With beautiful imagery and classic design, Vegetable Kingdom is an invaluable tool for plant-based cooking today.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Vegan, Food and Drink, Culinary

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 11, 2020

About the author

bryant terry is a multidisciplinary artist, chef, publisher, and author. His studio practice bridges cooking, sculpture, sound, video, and social practice to explore resilience, cultural memory, and liberation. From 2015 to 2022, he served as the inaugural Chef-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, curating dynamic programming connecting food, health, farming, art, and activism.

His art and ideas have been featured at leading institutions including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The Underground Museum, The Birmingham Museum of Art, Worth Ryder Art Gallery, and The Hammer Museum at UCLA.

As founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books (an imprint of Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House), he collaborates with visionary creatives of color to produce visually stunning nonfiction books. Notable 4 Color titles include The Scarr’s Pizza Cookbook by Scarr Pimentel, My Cambodia by Nite Yun with Tien Nguyen, The Black Yearbook by Adraint Khadafhi Bereal, and The Memory of Taste by Tu David Phu and Soleil Ho. Forthcoming works include cookbooks by Carla Hall, Nasim Lahbichi, Rashad Frazier, and Amethyst Ganaway.

terry’s achievements in the publishing world include authoring five highly acclaimed cookbooks, editing and curating an anthology, Black Food, and serving as the editor of The Best American Food and Travel Writing 2025. His work has earned him prestigious honors, including a James Beard Award, an NAACP Image Award, and an Art of Eating Prize. His book Black Food received widespread praise and was hailed as the most critically acclaimed American cookbook of 2021.

terry is the recipient of numerous grants and residencies, including those from the Headlands Center for the Arts (Graduate Fellowship), Open Society Foundations (Community Fellowship), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Food and Society Fellowship), UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory (Artist Fellowship), and the East Bay Fund for Artists.

terry completed an MFA in Art Practice at UC Berkeley in 2025. He holds an MA in History from NYU and received his culinary training at the Natural Gourmet Institute. He presents frequently around the country as a keynote speaker at community events, conferences, and colleges.