These non-vegan celebrity chefs now a thing or two about food. But do their plant-based recipes also pass the taste test? (Spoiler alert: They do!)
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Can non-vegan celebrity chefs actually create great vegan recipes?
I tested plant-based dishes by Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, Yotam Ottolenghi, Nadiya Hussain, and Rachel Khoo to find out.
From rich chocolate cakes to hearty chilies and spice-packed stews, I cooked their most popular vegan recipes and judged them on flavor, texture, and ease.
Here are the best vegan recipes by celebrity chefs ... and my honest verdict.
Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lawson is known for indulgent, butter-rich cooking and her sensual, story-driven food writing. Vegan food isn't her signature style ... which made it all the more interesting to test her plant-based recipes.
Her dark & sumptuous chocolate cake immediately caught my attention. It's fully vegan and visually gorgeous. I wanted to see whether it delivered beyond the aesthetics.
Verdict: It does.
The texture is rich and velvety, with a deep cocoa flavor and just the right level of sweetness. It doesn't feel like a compromise cake. Even my non-vegan family went back for seconds.
If chocolate isn't your thing, what about her luscious vegan gingerbread? Or the zesty lemon polenta cake?
And then there's the banana peel curry (yes, that's right, banana peel). A surprising and creative zero-waste dish that actually works.
On Nigella Lawson's website you'll find more than 80 vegan recipes. Many are clearly marked and easy to navigate.
Her latest cookbook, Cook, Eat, Repeat, isn't plant-based , but it includes a good number of vegan and vegetarian recipes, clearly identified in the index. It's better suited for confident home cooks who enjoy story-driven cooking rather than strict meal planning.
Jamie Oliver
Jamie Oliver has been vocal about the future of food and the importance of eating more plants. Unlike some chefs on this list, he has made plant-forward cooking a visible part of his brand. His website currently features more than a whoopping 170 vegan recipes.
What stands out is accessibility. Many of his vegan recipes use familiar ingredients and easy techniques. They're designed for everyday home cooks.
After testing several of them, a few clear favorites emerged:
I'm looking forward to also trying his dessert recipes, like toffee apple upside-down cake, mini vegan doughnuts, and choc Easter eggs. They look indulgent yet still approachable.
Jamie Oliver's cookbook Veg: Easy & Delicious Meals for Everyone is technically vegetarian, but many recipes are either fully vegan or easy to adapt. Its focus is on celebrating vegetables as they are, rather than on implementing meat substitutes.
![Ultimate Veg: Easy & Delicious Meals for Everyone [American Measurements]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41idZUMPHWL._SL160_.jpg)
Overall, Jamie Oliver's vegan recipes are practical and especially strong for beginners or families transitioning toward more plant-based meals.
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart has built her reputation on technique and teaching home cooks how to master the basics. From pie crusts to preserving and baking (speedy sauerkraut, or lemon zest turned into sweet candy, for example), her recipes are methodical and well-structured.
While she isn't known for vegan cooking, her website includes a solid selection of plant-based recipes. Some are intentionally vegan, others can be easily adapted.
A few standouts:
- Vegan banana bread
- Vegan meatballs
- Vegetarian chili (naturally vegan and speedy without the traditional long simmer)
Her vegan wedding cakes and wedding menus are particularly useful for couples planning mixed-diet celebrations.
In terms of cookbooks, Martha Stewart is soon to hit the 100th milestone. Her prolific productivity is incredible! For plant-based cooking, Meatless remains the most relevant title. Published well before the recent surge in vegan popularity, it contains more than 200 vegetarian recipes, many clearly marked as vegan. The book leans on whole ingredients (including protein-rich sources like pulses and seitan) and balanced meals.
Rachel Khoo
I genuinely enjoyed watching Rachel Khoo's TV shows, especially "The Little Paris Kitchen" and "My Swedish Kitchen". She has a calm presence on screen, and her recipes feel thoughtful. You can sense her interest in culinary traditions and regional details.
Her background shows up clearly in her food. She's British with Malaysian Chinese roots, trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, and later lived in Sweden. There's always a gorgeous mix of influences in her cooking and baking.
Most of her cookbooks aren't plant-based, but she does include vegan recipes, and quite a few dishes can be adapted without much effort.
Two savory highlights worth trying:
- Swedish-style falafels with red cabbage (so fresh & fun)
- Swedish meatballs with cauliflower mash (hearty & all-round satisfying)
Her chocolate mud cake deserves a mention because it's not just vegan, it's also gluten-free and refined sugar-free. The avocado-based frosting sounds unusual, but it creates a smooth, creamy texture. The cake is dense and rich, closer to a brownie-style dessert than a light sponge.
The cookbook The Little Swedish Kitchen itself isn't vegan-focused, but it's a strong source of inspiration if you're curious about Scandinavian flavors. With small swaps like vegan butter (try the 5-ingredient banana oat cookies), several recipes can be easily made vegan.
Rachel Khoo's plant-based dishes feel slightly more experimental than some of the others on this list. They suit cooks who enjoy trying something a bit different while still staying approachable.
Nadiya Hussain
Nadiya Hussain has a presence that feels both joyful and grounded. Whenever I watch her cooking shows, I'm struck by how colorful and vivid her food is. Her recipes don't feel fussy, they feel welcoming.
She's spoken openly about her struggles with anxiety (see her website and memoir), and knowing that adds another layer to watching her succeed so visibly. There's warmth and resilience in her work that carries into her cooking.
Over at The Happy Foodie, you'll find a treasure trove of Nadiya Hussain's recipes. While most of her recipes aren't labeled as vegan, many are already or easy to adapt.
A few plant-forward highlights:
- Sweet turmeric & ginger diamonds
- Ginger rice with spiced chickpeas
- Apple & olive cake
- Pasta with peas & mint
- Peanut & black sesame brittle
One of the strengths of Nadiya's cooking is adaptability. Her beet pasta, for example, becomes fully vegan with an easy feta swap (homemade or storebought - in Germany already widely available).
The same applies to dishes like Bombay potatoes, whole roasted onion curry, or tomato galette. Replacing ghee or butter with vegan butter or neutral oil works perfectly.
For her Piccalilli Macaroni Cheese I replaced the dairy cheese with vegan (cream) cheese, used vegan butter, and omitted the egg. It worked beautifully. My non-vegan family loved it, the dish quickly became a family favorite.
Her cookbooks aren't vegan-focused, but they offer strong inspiration for bold flavors, especially if you're comfortable making small substitutions. Also, she has other books I can recommend, like her children's book My Monster and Me (which really hits home when it comes to anxiety).
Overall, Nadiya Hussain's recipes feel vibrant and comforting. They are ideal for cooks who enjoy color, spice, and a bit of creative flexibility.
Yotam Ottolenghi
Yotam Ottolenghi has long been associated with vegetable-driven cooking, even though he isn't strictly vegan. His recipes are heavily influenced by Middle Eastern and Mediterranean traditions. They are bold and spice-forward.
What makes his vegan recipes stand out is intentionality. They feel built around vegetables from the start.
A few particularly strong dishes are his Ultimate Traybake Ragù and the Bkeila, Potato, and Butter Bean Stew.
Ottolenghi especially excels at dishes centered around eggplant (aubergine in British English). He beautifully brings out its smoky depth and creamy texture. Notable examples include:
- Aubergine with black garlic
- Burnt aubergine with tahini
- Soba noodles with aubergine and mango
- Stuffed aubergines in a curry & coconut dal
- Roasted aubergine with curried yogurt (just sub in Greek-style vegan yogurt)
For starters, try his warm spinach & artichoke dip, sticky rice balls in tamarind rasam broth, or one of these 3 flavor-rich soups.
If you want to see him in action, binge-watch his TV show Jerusalem On a Plate. It'll have you craving all those Arabic-inspired and Jewish delicacies.
He has also published two highly regarded vegetarian cookbooks: Plenty and Flavor. Both focus heavily on plant-based cooking, though neither is exclusively vegan. Flavor in particular includes many recipes that are either fully vegan or easy to adapt. At The Happy Foodie you can get a taste of some of the vegan dishes from Flavor.
Ottolenghi's vegan-friendly recipes are ideal for confident home cooks who enjoy bold spices and slightly more ambitious kitchen projects.
Over to you: What are your favorite vegan recipes by celebrity chefs?
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Enjoy,
Ramona
♥
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