Q: A friend of mine recently eliminated dairy from his diet for health reasons. He's a novice cook, so I'd like to get him a cookbook with easy, non-vegan, dairy-free recipes. Any suggestions?
Sent by Caroline
Editor: The cookbook Japanese Farm Food is pretty light on the dairy and was one of my favorite cookbooks from this past year. It's also a nice introduction to Japanese cooking and good for someone learning to cook:
• Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Readers, what cookbooks do you recommend? Any specifically dairy-free cookbooks you know of? Or really good books for beginners?
Related: Move Over, Milk: 9 Dairy-Free Recipes with Calcium-Rich Vegetables
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any kosher cookbook will have lots of dairy free recipes.
Well Fed: Paleo Recipes For People Who Love To Eat is all dairy free -- plus gluten free, too! Lots of international recipes and yummy sauces.
This recipe book by Tal Ronnen (occasional chef to Oprah and Ellen) is dairy-free and delicious not to mention beautiful. http://www.amazon.com/The-Conscious-Cook-Delicious-Meatless/dp/0061874337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355860694&sr=8-1&keywords=tal+ronnen
The Spunky Coconut has a couple of good ones.
Go Dairy Free by Alisa Flemming is a great resource and has some great recipes in it also. http://www.amazon.com/Dairy-Free-Allergies-Intolerance-Casein-Free/dp/0979128625/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355861165&sr=8-1&keywords=go+dairy+free
Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge is more or less dairy free (I can't remember if there are any exceptions) and has a lot of helpful introductory information.
I've had the best luck with kosher recipes. The Milk Free Kitchen by Beth Kiddler is also a good one.
Any sort of Indian cookbook should be lighter on the dairy--just replace ghee/butter with olive oil. And tofu in place of paneer.
I wonder if it might be easier to get a regular cookbook, say from Cook's Illustrated, or How to Cook Everything, and then give your friend some substitution options. Coconut/Nut/Soy milk can replace milk, cheese and sour cream are often toppers that can be left off... Come to think of it, most of the recipes I know are dairy free.
However!, I'd second the Paleo book "Well Fed." Great stuff in there.
My dairy-free (non-vegetarian/vegan) sister-in-law really loves the Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan cookbooks by Sarah Kramer. Dairy turns out to be one of those tricky ingredients that's difficult to substitute a lot of the time, or really obviously "missing" if left out of a conventional dish, so she finds it easier to make a the vegan recipes, then supplement the menu with other dairy-free proteins, etc. if she wants to.
we're recently gone dairy free, so I have a dairy-free tag on my blog: foodforthoughtlinds.blogspot.com