No matter what's fueling your choice to go dairy-free, know that passion, flavour, and nutrition doesn't have to go out the door with it — and these five authors are all the proof you need.
From vegan to Whole30 to dairy simply not fitting in their lifestyles, the following cookbook authors are sharing all the fulfiling ways they've healthily removed dairy from their kitchens.
And don't be intimidated by these Caribbean-inspired bites, southern-comfort treats, and West-African plates — each author is dedicated to making their recipes tasty and manageable. Here's hoping (but, really, it's kind of a given!) that a few of these reads become regulars in your home.
Rachel Ama's Vegan Eats
You won't find any bland dishes in Rachel Ama's vegan cookbook Rachel Ama's Vegan Eats: Tasty Plant-Based Recipes For Every Day [1] ($24). Her straightforward, flavourful, and often one-pot recipes — inspired in part by her Caribbean and West-African roots — feature short ingredient lists that are supermarket friendly.
What really sets the cookbook apart, though, is how Ama pairs each dish with a song, so you have a playlist to enjoy while cooking up cinnamon french toast with strawberries, plantain burgers, chickpea sweet potato falafel, and Caribbean fritters.
Living Lively
At just 16 years old, Haile Thomas became the youngest person to graduate from the Institute For Integrative Nutrition as a certified integrative nutrition health coach. Now, at 19, Thomas is a social entrepreneur, speaker, and activist who teaches young people the importance of living a healthy, nourishing lifestyle.
In Thomas's book, Living Lively: 80 Plant-Based Recipes to Activate Your Power and Feed Your Potential [2] ($22), Thomas shares brain-boosting vegan recipes like golden dream turmeric berry chia pudding, fruity Jamaican cornmeal porridge, and a Korean jackfruit sloppy Jill that proves nutrition-packed meals can taste oh-so good.
True Roots
Reality TV star Kristin Cavallari [3] is all about eating organic as much as possible. Cavallari prefers wild-caught fish and grass-fed beef, skips the dairy, shops for fresh fruits and vegetables, and removes anything white from her diet — that means flour, sugar, and salt. Basically, Cavallari's dishes are super clean and fresh. After taking a bite out of the flax banana quinoa muffins, veggie kabob, or courgette almond-butter blondies, you'll have a deeper appreciation for dairy-free cooking.
Explore Cavallari's cookbook True Roots: A Mindful Kitchen with More Than 100 Recipes Free of Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar: A Cookbook [4] ($24). and let the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon's 1,200 reviews speak for its success.
The Defined Dish
If you're looking to reintroduce healthful ingredients into your diet after completing Whole30, The Defined Dish: Whole30 Endorsed, Healthy and Wholesome Weeknight Recipes [5] ($18) is a great place to start. This Amazon No. 1 bestseller will guide you through incorporating ingredients like tortillas, beans, and legumes back into your diet, or you can opt for the delicious Whole30, paleo, gluten-free, or dairy-free recipe variations, too. At least sixty of these dishes are 100-percent Whole30 compliant.
Danielle Walker's Eat What You Love
Food blogger and New York Times bestselling author Danielle Walker is offering up 125 comforting weeknight meals in the cookbook Danielle Walker's Eat What You Love: Everyday Comfort Food You Crave; Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Paleo Recipes [6] ($24). The mother of three aims to make your life easier with four weeks of meal plans, make-ahead meals (including freezer and leftover options!), sheet-pan suppers, and one-pot dishes. With over 1,000 ratings and five stars on Amazon, it's clear Walker's comfort-food classics like fried chicken, sloppy Joes, shrimp and grits, chicken pot pie, and lasagna deliver flavour that doesn't disappoint.
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