Never has there been such a wide field of plant-based titles by so many chefs and cookbook authors. From Aussie kitchen talent to the likes of Jamie Oliver, there’s really no excuse not to have at least a few meat-free days a week. Jamie Oliver’s new juggernaut Veg (Penguin Australia, $49.99) is what we’ve come to expect from a Jamie title: easy, delicious and eclectic. Appealing as always to those short on time and in need of inspiration.

Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast (HarperCollins Australia, $45) books – spring, summer and autumn, winter – are joyful, seasonal titles. As with anything by Slater it will become a constant companion through not just the months, but also the years.

Matt Preston brings us More (Plum, $39.99) a supremely usable book. Preston tackles vegetarian lunchboxes, meat-free mapo dofu and the aptly titled, heretics golden cassoulet. It surely takes the award for recipe name of the year with Dadaist sausage rolls for Barry Humphries. While its veg-centric there’s a meat appendix, for flexitarian use. A book destined to be well thumbed from day one.

Staying on a flexitarian tip, The Edible Garden Cookbook & Growing Guide (Plum, $39.99), could be titled “Life After River Cottage”. Paul West’s journey from TV farmer to suburban grower is documented in this practical guide. Get started on a backyard vegie patch, keeping chooks and composting; a great step-by-step guide for the garden and the kitchen.

From Hetty McKinnon’s initial start, delivering vegetarian salads to her Surry Hills community and telling the tales of Arthur Street Kitchen devotees, this new edition of Community (Plum, $39.99) has gone global. McKinnon is now Brooklyn-based and while the new version retains its Australian stories, it gains new recipes and some stateside stories.

I struggle with purely vegan titles but Eat More Vegan! (Pan Macmillan, $39.99) by Luke Hines heroes vegies without resorting to faux meat and replacements high in soy and seed oils. Proudly proclaimed as: plant based, packet free, real food, really delicious. We tend to agree.

Matthew Evans made us stop and think this year with On Eating Meat (Murdoch Books, $32.99). Billed as the truth and ethics of meat production, it comes at a time when more and more of us are thinking about meat consumption from an environmental and animal welfare slant. It’s at times uncomfortable but essential reading.

In Eat Like A Fish (Murdoch Books, $26.95) Bren Smith casts a gaze towards the ocean. His journey from hard-boiled commercial fisherman to restorative ocean farmer is a personal and compelling story. It will make you think again, or probably for the first time, about the potential of seaweed.

The Wooleen Way (Scribe, $35) from West Australian pastorlist David Pollock could have been the story of life at Wooleen Station: an outback tale of love and determination. But Pollock wanted it to be more a cautionary tale. He outlines the degradation of pastoral lands through “ecological illiteracy,” and efforts to restore 153000 hectares.

Charlotte Ree is a self-confessed “no-fuss baker”. Just Desserts ($29.99) is perfect for the novice or those looking for quick but delicious baking, with many recipes under 30 minutes.

For leftfield inspiration and a notch up on technique, Katherine Sabbath’s Bake Australia Great (Murdoch Books, $39.99) is a joy. I’m the most basic of bakers, yet Mad Max Road Warrior Cake and The Tim Tam Triple could all soon be splashed across my kitchen. Goonbag Jelly anyone?