The Student Vegan Cookbook: 85 Incredible Plant-Based Recipes That Are Cheap, Fast, Easy, and Super-Healthy

by Hannah Kaminsky

Even if you are a student who has a tight budget, a crazy-busy schedule, and limited kitchen equipment, you still can make amazing vegan snacks, treats, and meals for yourself and your friends.  

The Student Vegan Cookbook shows you how, with tips, tricks, and hacks for dormitory-room and small-kitchen cooking and with lots of creative, nutritious, and delectable recipes — each one with its own photograph, something other college vegan cookbooks do not have —covering the whole day, from rushing-off-to-class quick-fix breakfasts to midnight (or later) treats for chilling and unwinding.

Award-winning vegan blogger Hannah Kaminsky has walked the walk, cooking delicious meals for herself and her roommates in her own college years. Fast-forward a few years and Hannah is now a professional food writer and photographer who has created a stunning book full of truly scrumptious, yet easy-to-make, vegan recipes . It
 
Whether you are a vegan, a vegetarian, or simply an omnivore who wants to eat healthier, and whether you live at home, in your own apartment, or in a dorm, you’ll kick your cooking and eating game up to the next level with this inventive and incredibly useful book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food

176 pages, Paperback

Published August 31, 2021

About the author

Hannah Kaminsky's love of desserts compelled her to start experimenting in the kitchen at a young age to create incredible, cruelty-free treats. Her blog, BitterSweetBlog.com, features creative crafts, delicious treats, and mouth-watering photography. She is currently working towards her BFA in photography.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this cover and was excited about there being 85 fast and easy plant based recipes. 8 chapters of yummy! Included is breakfast, dips, spreads, snacks, noodles, soup, sandwich and bowl-in-one meals.
There are helpful basic staples “ideas”with a ingredients glossary. I found this part super helpful. It’s a lot to take in when starting this plant based journey and this part is essential. Furthermore are all the kitchen essentials you’ll need and a quick “how to do stuff” intro before starting this and conversion and equivalent tables.
Everything looked easy enough and I especially loved the breakfast and soup recipes. I would not only recommend this for college students but also anyone getting into plant based eating. Very helpful. The only thing this doesn’t have is calories per serving which to me isn’t a big of deal. I hope this was helpful.
Thanks Harvard Common Press via Netgalley.

[The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full Review on The Candid Cover

The Student Vegan Cookbook by Hannah Kaminsky is a fun and upbeat recipe book that will inspire anyone to try vegan cooking. The book has lots of useful information and many different recipes. It is perfect for anyone wanting to eat healthy on a budget.

I am not vegan or a student, but I really appreciate any book that will save me time and give healthy options for meals. This cookbook is perfect for anyone new to veganism and cooking. Also, the ingredients are ones that are easy to find and inexpensive.

❀ EXTENSIVE INGREDIENT GLOSSARY

The book has an extensive ingredient glossary and a great list of kitchen tools to have on hand. The recipes are easy to follow with lots of great images to accompany each one. Many of the recipes are fun and interesting so they will definitely appeal to college students.

❀ CONTENTS: THE STUDENT VEGAN COOKBOOK BY HANNAH KAMINSKY

Breakfast All Day
Incredible Dips, Spreads, and Sprinkles
Snack Attack
Eat Your Vegetables! Super Side Dishes
Noodling Around
Soup’s On
Hearty Handheld Meals
Bowl In One

The recipes range from ranging snacks to dinner and many of the recipes use one pan. This is a timesaver for students and anyone who has little time to spend in the kitchen. The Student Vegan Cookbook by Hannah Kaminsky is the perfect addition to a college student’s kitchen.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being vegan and being a student can both be hard. With potential expensive recipes, complicated instructions and wierd ingredients, it can be difficult to balance a healthy lifestyle whilst on a tight budget. And this is where a book like this becomes you’re best friend and a great cookery companion to college and university students who live a plant based or vegan lifestyle.

It’s filled with loads of fantastic, simple, cheap and easy recipes whilst both being delicious and very appetising. I love the layout of the recipes, they’re so easy to follow and read which is great when you’re surrounded by cooking ingredients and utensils! The pictures really do the food justice too and I could eat everything in here!

The book included breakfasts, tasty sides and snacks, soups, one bowl meals and plenty of noodle dishes which I have my eyes on. I can’t wait to start cooking and I also loved the addition of protein boosting snacks too.

A must have for all the vegan students out there, or just anyone who wants to eat well on a budget.

Thank you to the author and publishers via NetGalley for the chance to review this book. All thoughts are my own and I am to provide an honest review for everything I read :)

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This person fundamentally has no clue what a student is or how students live.

If you buy this thinking it'll be simple and quick recipes that don't require too many weird, vegan-specific ingredients...this is literally the opposite. I'm 26, used to cook for a vegetarian family of five for years, and I'm routinely coming upon ingredients I've never used and often never even heard of.

Perhaps some of these recipes are very nice. I don't know. I've done one, but I don't think it worked because, unsurprisingly, I didn't have all the specific ingredients so I made substitutions. I can't be bothered to do more. The idea that any 19-year-old fresh out of school is going to go to the effort most these recipes look to involve is sheer fantasy.

[Tove R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book! If you're not a student, don't worry, I'm not either, but I feel like this is a great book for anyone interested in eating yummy, healthy, and filling vegan food. The recipes are perfect for good everyday meals. I love the pictures, and that there's a picture attached to every recipe. I enjoy the easiness of many of the recipes, because sometimes you just need tasty food, and fast. I will make spring pea toast, good morning mango lassi, almond parmesan, peanut sadeko, and protein bark right after my next trip to the store. I have already made the deli-cious eggless salad sandwiches, because I kept drooling over the picture. Also, it's great that the ingredients are mostly simply to find, and it does not take a chef to make this delicious meals Highly recommended book!

[Sonja ❤︎ (sunnydeelights) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick disclaimer: I am not a vegan (yet!) but that doesn’t mean I am not tempted, especially after perusing this beautifully compiled book. With stunning photos of bright, colorful, mouthwatering delicious foods, this book offers an approachable way to adopt healthy vegan recipes into one’s life.

I’m always a little skeptical when I see cookbooks. Am I going to be able to complete the recipes successfully? Will I actually use the ingredients more than just for the recipes? Luckily, this book offers me a resounding yes and offers helpful tips and suggestions throughout. So not only can I enjoy these scrumptious foods but I can also boost my cooking skills. Sounds like a win to me!

[Bookgrrl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a student, however I do enjoy student cookbooks as they are generally filled with very simple & cheap recipes (the subtitle for this cookbook even states that these recipes are cheap, fast, easy, and super healthy). This book has a lot of very tasty sounding recipes, and I love the fact that there are photos for every single recipe as I think that is so important for a cookbook. I even love that there are a couple recipes the author flat out calls ugly (basically a plate of brown food) - she acknowledges that home cooking might not always be pretty but it’s still going to taste good.

Unfortunately, I feel that this cookbook is a bit misleading. If you’re a college student living in a dorm I simply don’t see the vast majority of these recipes being feasible; you really need to have your own dedicated kitchen space. In addition, at least half of the recipes I would not classify as “cheap“. There are a lot of spices used, and specialty ingredients such as cassava & almond flours, buckwheat groats, carrot top fronds, sunflower and daikon radish sprouts, etc. So either a poor college student would have to skip quite a few recipes, or drastically alter them. I feel this cookbook would be more appropriate for an older adult cook, not a student, but that’s just my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley & Quarto Publishing Group for this advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fun book with great ideas. There are some dishes I'll definitely try, like the Sri Lankan Cashew Curry, the Tom Yam Noodle Soup or the Creamy Green Pesto. Others were a bit "out there" for me, but that's just personal preference, and I know there are people who'd buy this book for exactly those kinds of recipes -- e.g. the Funfetti Dunkaroo Dip sugar-fest, Peach Wasabi Salad, Strawberry Gazpacho or No-Mato Meatless Bolognese (which gets its color from red beets, which I'm not a fan of, and looks positively technocolor-ish), to give you an idea. Don't take this as negative critique, I'm admittedly not the most adventurous eater and these are exactly the kinds of dishes that make this book stand out and also make you look like kitchen royalty when you serve them up. At any rate, there are lots of other, less outré (but by no means plain) options to choose from. A lot of the dishes also look simply terrific -- I mean, just take a look at the Purple Rainy Day Soup!!! --, so if you need to impress someone with your vegan cooking skills, this book has you covered. There were some dishes that were a tad too "meat"-centric for me, such as the Sweet Tea Pulled Jackfruit Sandwich or the Cheesesteak Sandwich, but this is mainly due to the fact that I've never liked meat and haven't eaten it in decades, so the thought of eating even fake "pork" turns me off; then again, if you are looking to cut back on animal products and/or are cooking for a sceptical carnivore, this kind of thing would probably be really helpful.
What was especially cool was that ingredient-wise, a lot of the time the author includes a "lazy" option for those of us who don't feel like chopping up 5 cups of leafy greens or whatever. I also liked that there was a lot of variety when it came to serving sizes; I was especially happy about the "breakfast for one" options, because let's face it, I'm never going to prepare breakfast for ten people (sorry), but I do like a pancake or five.
I was very happy with the variety, this book shows you how to prepare all kinds of vegan foods from breakfast to entrées to dessert to salads to noodle/pasta dishes and beverages; it even has recipes for sweet snacks such as truffles or pumpkin gummies (which would also make a fantastic gift) or a molten lava cake you simply zap in the microwave, as well as some staples like almond parmesan or vegan mac & cheese. This is pretty much a perfect little all-rounder that should be especially helpful if you're new to vegan cooking, or cooking in general. There's a nice introduction to ingredients, nutrients and the like as well, which is in-depth enough to be of help to the newbie but doesn't go on long enough to exasperate the seasoned vegan.
If I have one small complaint, it's that I would have liked a bit more tofu dishes; there's only six recipes involving tofu (although depending on your prefereces this might even be an added bonus to you).

[Tacabo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being fairly new (3 years) vegan myself, I'm always looking for tasty yet manageable recipes to prepare. This book succeeds in sharing such recipes with much of its content.

It begins with a lengthy introduction containing pantry staples, common vegan ingredients, and essential cooking utensils. If you are new to vegan cooking, this section is essential; otherwise, it can safely be bypassed. The introduction closes with a variety of "how-to" instructions (e.g., how to bake a potato) and a very helpful conversions and equivalents page.

Once you arrive at the recipes, you won't be disappointed. Predictably, the breakfast chapter is first and contains a variety of sweet and even a few savoury choices, which are often hard to find in the world of vegan breakfasts. The Freaky Good French Toast looks particularly intriguing; I am anxious to give it a try. The book continues with chapters on dips, snacks, sides, and main dishes, which are organized by chapter into types (e.g., pastas, soups).

Overall, The Student Vegan Cookbook consists of a good variety of vegan recipes. Many recipes are inspired by popular ethnic dishes, while others are plant-based takes on North American favourites. There truly is something for everyone! As for sending your college-bound student off with this cookbook, I think some of the recipes are rather ambitious for a beginning cook and may be difficult to create successfully without the proper tools, such as a high-speed blender. However, a young chef who creates these tasty recipes just might inspire fellow students to take up vegan cooking as well!

Thank you to the publisher for supplying me with an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Oliwier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for a review

This is a great book for people who want to try vegan recipes.
There's a big section on basic ingredients, which is useful for people who don't have a lot of experience with cooking. It also contains useful information about vegan alternatives to things like mayonnaise or butter.
There's also a nice part on basic kitchen equipment, again useful for young people / students who have small kitchens.

The recipes look delicious, the instructions are simple and I like the fact that they can be made with simple equipment (there's no need to have an oven or fancy blenders). However, some recipes include ingredients that are delicious but expensive (different types of nuts, coconut, avocado...), so some recipes can end up being rather pricey. There's still a lot of good recipes with cheap, easily available products, but unfortunately as a broke student, there are some that I won't be able to try now.

Bonus point for the conversion tables (us measurements to metric), as well as the fact that the recipes use the US system AND metric system, so everyone can use this without having to double check the amount needed for each ingredient!

[Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a student or a vegan, but I always try to find easy simple ways to make healthy meals. I found the Ingredient glossary information in this book to be extremely helpful. I liked all the tips given, especially for multiple uses for items; an example being a vanilla bean. Uses were given for the inside of the vanilla bean as well as the outside, eliminating waste and getting your full money's worth. I had no idea that sprinkles were coated in confectioner's glaze (aka mashed up insects)!

Tips were given on what kitchen tools work best for a college student living in a dorm in the Essential School Supplies section. The Life Lessons section was great too. I loved the simple stuff like how to bake a potato, cook pasta, and melt chocolate. I think college students would find these sections very helpful.

As far as the actual recipes go, not many appealed to me visually. None of them left me feeling like I couldn't wait to make them. I didn't feel the recipes were cheap, fast, and easy as the title claims. I felt there were a few too many ingredients for student living and they seemed a little complicated to me and I'm not sure how many students would have the time to make many of these recipes.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers up 85 plant based recipes with the vegan student in mind, covering breakfasts, dips and spreads, snacks, side dishes, noodles, sounds, main meals and more.

The recipes in this book call for quite a wide array of ingredients which I’m not convinced are entirely budget-friendly, but even in an era of increased plant-based choice, this does seem to be one of the key disadvantages of the vegan diet. There is at least an index at the back of the book listing all of the recipes that feature each ingredient.

My student days are long behind me, but I’m always on the lookout for cookbooks geared towards the somewhat more reluctant and inexperienced cook (i.e. me) and this meets that brief nicely. The recipes are all clearly written with plenty of hints and tips throughout around timings, etc, and each requires only a limited amount of kitchen equipment to prepare. I also liked that each page includes a photograph of the desired outcome! There is also a really useful glossary of the more unusual ingredients found within the recipes.

Recommended for anyone, not only students, wanting an entry point into plant-based cooking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
This book is geared towards the college student/older beginner cook. It starts with a list of basic pantry goods that you should have on hand, especially as a vegan. This is then followed by an ingredient glossary that defines the more uncommon ingredients, their uses, and where to get them or how to make them. After this is a list of supplies and tools that are good to have on hand while in a school environment. Finally, the book tells the reader some of the basic cooking skills they will need, for any dishes, and measurement conversion charts.
The book is divided into breakfast, dips and spreads and sprinkles, snacks, side dishes, noodles, soup, handheld meals, and bowl meals. Some of the dishes have basic ingredients, while others have more specialty vegan ingredients. The preparation seems fairly easy.
I think this is a good book for college students to introduce them to cooking and the variety of ingredients available to vegans.

[Jason Frasca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this book, a refreshing reminder of the basics of vegan cooking, from common ingredient and uses, common tools and steps used, and a great review of recipes for new and experienced vegans to reflect on! I appreciate all the recommendations and alternative thoughts that are sprinkled throughout.

The book also focuses a bit at the beginning regarding steps of preparing vegan food while a college student. This is very apparent up front, seems forgotten towards the middle and end. I don't think this detracts from the read, as I am more interested in the vegan discussion and recipes. However, if the sole intent was to focus on students or these with liked cooking space, I believe this could have been more incorporated into the recipes and the discussions with each.

Thank you Net Galley for my free copy. The comments above are my own without influence.

[Lucía ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this bopk from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The book idea was good, because many students don't really know how to cook and this is a great way to introduce them to cooking. I liked the recipes and I think they are varied, but I honestly don’t see myself reaching for most of them. Also, my copy had an upside down page, which I am guessing was not made on purpose.

I liked that there were little post-it notes with further explanations, and I think the list of essential supplies and ingredient glossary from the beginning of the book can be very useful, as well as the conversion tables.

Also, the author has a food blog and you can find her at bittersweetblog.com

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever lived with me for a longer period of time, you know that I never know what to cook. Literally ever. I'm not vegan nor vegetarian but I would like to try to decrease my meat consumption. This cookbook feels like the perfect solution. Not only does it have loads of fairly easy recipes, but also the list of essential cooking supplies, an ingredient glossary, life lessons regarding cooking, and most importantly (and most usefully in my opinion) a couple of tables of measurement conversations: US to metric and vice-versa but also others.

However, this truly is a student's cookbook so don't go looking for a recipe for a big Sunday lunch.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I'm planning to use it for a long time.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cookbook had some fun recipes for 1-2 people and then some for like a group. There are quite a few that I want to try and a lot that I have to avoid for my sons food allergies. Towards the back of the book there was a two page spread that was upside down. Not sure if it was my download or its in all of them and needs to be corrected. I liked that there were pictures for a lot of the recipes and a large variety/sections listed in the cookbook. The citrus spice truffles, creamy chicken ramen, and taco stuffed sweet potatoes are high on my list of recipes to try from this.

I rated the cookbook based on how it works for my family, not the recipes themselves. The book for me doesn't work 100% but for others it will be five stars for sure.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another vegan cookbook, this time The Student Vegan Cookbook by blogger Hannah Kaminsky with its budget conscious focus. With a colourful layout, photos of each recipe and tasty student lifestyle meals, including rushed breakfasts, handy lunches, quick dinners or even late-night snacks, it provides for good nutritional balance and the standard student basics of noodles and smoothies. It is also conscious of small kitchens and has one pan and one bowl meals. This cookbook is a handy investment, especially for all students whether health conscious, environmentally concerned or even just wanting alternative meal choices. A most useful aid for students with its five-star rating. With much thanks to Harvard Common Press and the author for an uncorrected proof copy for review purposes.

[Joni Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start out by saying, I am not a vegan. I do try to incorporate meatless meals into my family’s diet. Also my kids have friends that are vegan. This cookbook has a lot of positives.

1- The author includes helpful notes with a lot of the recipes. Terrific for people just learning to cook.
2- The pictures, with all the recipes, are gorgeous (well the guacamole isn’t a stunner but the author acknowledges that. It’s a taster not a looker)
3- The recipes are not complicated.
4- The book is playful and not intimidating at all.

My only negative is for this being a student cookbook, the ingredients may not be easily accessible.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of great recipes in here, but I don’t think a lot of these recipes are feasible for students. I was expecting glammed-up dorm-room hot-plate cooking, but there are a lot of ingredients I think would be hard for the average college student to access/store. The recipes are really good, though. Everything I tried was delicious, the pictures are gorgeous and the recipes would be easy for the average chef to recreate. I’d definitely recommend this cookbook, just with the caveat that it may not be exactly what the blurb promises.

I’m grateful to Quarto Publishing Group/Harvard Common Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Student Vegan Cookbook.

[M A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for a college student or anyone new to cooking &/or on a budget!

The book is well laid out, easy to use & includes lots of bright pictures.

Some of my favorite things about this cookbook:
- Lots of pictures
- Concise table of contents
- Includes a pantry staple list
- Ingredient glossary (no more wondering or needing to google stuff, it takes the guesswork out!)
- Conversions & Equivalents
- Tells how many servings for each recipe
- Fun notes peppered around
- Economical recipes!!
- Author info
- Index of recipes

I look forward to making more recipes! Yum!

(I was able to preview this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.)

[Mirto · Rating 3 out of 5]

The recipes in here are pretty lovely. I was very happy with the introduction, with very basic tips for people who are cooking for themselves for the first time. The recipes are usually easy and quick, but at times not inexpensive. It's a book that would work fine for an American student, I presume, but not so much for an international audience who doesn't find some of the ingredients that easily or that cheap. Having said that, I took some very nice recipes from here and I'm very excited to try them out.

[Shivali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing cookbook! As a Vegan student myself, I found these recipes very doable. However, I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone and everyone, non-vegans and non-students included. I am an avid cook, and I liked how these recipes are unique and have their own spin, it's not the same as recipes you could access for free on the internet. I also particularly enjoyed the ingredient glossary and basic how-tos. Even someone like me who enjoys cooking and learning more about it didn't know some of this information. For example, I now know a lot more about how to ensure my sugar is vegan.

[Leilany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quite interesting for someone that is trying to look into eating vegan or for someone that is trying to incorporate a meatless Monday into their diet. There are breakfast, dips, salads, noodles, etc, with all of them including a picture (which I love!). The book also has a recipe for green curry and yellow curry, the later one which I am looking forward to try. All in all, this book should not be expected to be your full source of vegan recipes, but it does make a fun addition to the cookbook library.

[Laura Duffy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect gift for the vegan student in your life as they head off to uni or college. It is the perfect for the beginner as it has also the intro information you would need such as in relation to the terminology and equipment required. Following this there is a wealth of recipes for all meals, tastes and dietary requirements.

[Chel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great cookbook, with recipes that are easy to add to a rotatable menu plan. This is definitely one I'd recommend - mostly accessible ingredients, affordable, and with pictures - that's what I want in a cookbook! Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Alfi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do like reading vegan books. This one is refreshing. I am a no longer student, but I do like to cook simple dishes. This book doesn't have difficult ingredients, everything is easy to make. If you can't cook, this won't be too difficult for you. And also very economic.

[OjoAusana · Rating 3 out of 5]

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* wouldn't make all the recipes in here but there were a fair few that looked good still and id like to try lol

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vibrant collection of recipes - perfect for anyone looking to ease into vegan cooking.

[Arlene Mullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good vegan cookbook. It had recipes that were easy to understand and prepare in a small space. Even though I am an adult, I still enjoyed using these recipes to make some yummy meals.