When selecting gifts for my loved ones, I often decide on things that I personally would enjoy and use, but that I might not actually buy for myself. So I guess in a way this is a little window into my soul. 🙂 Not a comprehensive gift guide of course, just a few ideas from me!
Vegan Foodstuffs
As you will see, I’m especially fond of giving/receiving sampler packs of various gourmet items!
Endangered Species dark chocolate sampler – a selection of 6 types of chocolates from Endangered Species, which makes ethically-sourced chocolate bars and donates 10% of profits to charity. All of the dark chocolate flavors in this variety pack are vegan.
Charm School Chocolate – a vegan artisan chocolate company local to Baltimore (check out my Charm School Chocolate review from last year) – but they ship everywhere. I absolutely love their vegan white chocolate and vegan milk chocolate bars, which are made with coconut milk and none of the strange additives found in many commercial vegan white/milk chocolate bars!
The Flavory sea salt sampler – My stock salt collection is pretty much limited to regular salt, sea salt, and kala namak black salt for use in Indian recipes. But I’ve received fancy salts as a gift before and absolutely loved them. They’re perfect for putting gourmet finishing touches on humble preparations (for example, I adore a sprinkle of black salt on my avocado toast). Or for a DIY gift, make homemade herb salts or citrus salts and gift them in cute jars.
Stoeger cold-pressed chili seed oil – a unique and interesting gift for the creative cook in your life. I gifted this to my chef brother a couple of years back. Stoeger also makes cold-pressed tomato seed oil and cherry seed oil. Or a variety pack of pumpkin seed oil, chili seed oil, and hazelnut oil.
Amish popcorn sampler – I know more than a couple of vegans who like to snack on popcorn with nutritional yeast. For your giftee who pops their own, a gourmet popcorn sampler. For someone who likes popcorn but makes it by some other method, a stovetop popper also makes a great gift (that’s how I ended up with mine and it now has years of use!).
Miyoko’s Kitchen cheese – The best gourmet vegan cheese on the market. Made with authentic culturing methods and none of the junk found in commercial vegan cheese. Aside from Kite Hill, this is the only vegan cheese that I truly enjoy and would serve to omnivores. Miyoko’s ships to all 50 states, and gift cards are also available.
Cocomels vegan caramels – these are my favorite vegan caramels. Based with coconut milk and brown rice syrup, Cocomels are absolutely mouthwatering (just be sure your giftee is a fan of coconut flavor because it does come through. For those of you in the northern hemisphere, winter is the best time to purchase/gift Cocomels because I have found that in the summer, after partially melting in the heat in transit, they are difficult to get out of the wrapper.
Vegan beauty products
Meow Meow Tweet bar soaps – I adore these all-natural, delicious-smelling, cruelty-free bar soaps from Meow Meow Tweet. The packaging is unique and appealing which makes them especially gift-worthy. This particular variety is tea tree, eucalyptus and characoal; other soap choices include tangerine basil and grapefruit mint. Meow Meow Tweet also makes lip balm and a few other products.
Dr. Bronner’s soap – if your giftee enjoys natural products, then Dr. Bronner’s is pretty much perfect. I use Dr. Bronner’s in my own home as an all-purpose hand soap and occasional body wash. I especially like the lavender scent.
LA Fresh Eco-Beauty night cream – I am a huge fan of LA Fresh products and this moisturizing night cream is one of their highest-rated offerings. My skin gets insanely dry from bicycling and running in harsh winter weather and this nighttime moisturizer works wonders for me. I also purchase their biodegradable cleansing wipes on a regular basis to use for traveling.
Alaffia moisturizing shea butter bubble bath – All of Alaffia’s ingredients are fair trade, and their shea butter in particular comes from a co-op in Togo that employs over 500 women. Other highly rated Alaffia products include the African black soap in tangerine citrus scent and the coconut shampoo.
Kitchen gear
Instant Pot programmable pressure cooker – The Instant Pot is on sale for just over $75 today, while often retailing for $100+. Nice Black Friday deal on an item that can be amazingly useful for vegans who cook grains, dried beans, and more.
Cuisinart 2-speed immersion blender – a highly-rated immersion blender that is normally priced at $65. When I was putting together this guide it was marked down to only $35. I might pick one up for myself… perfect for making smooth sauces, blended (or partially-blended) soups, and more.
Kitchenaid mini 3.5 cup food processor – when my ex moved out, the food processor went with him :(. Gone were the days of having 2 cups of diced onion ready in a matter of seconds. I eventually saved up to buy myself a refurbished ninja blender (which I absolutely adore), but while it makes amazing smoothies and creamy cashew based things, it doesn’t excel as much at the task of chopping.
Stackable Mason jar measuring cups – something adorable and practical to keep on the shelf.
Vegan Cookbooks
Some wonderful new vegan cookbooks arrived in stores in 2015! For gifts, I favor cookbooks that are visually stunning, with quality crafting and lots of full-color, professional photos.
Crossroads by Tal Ronnen – an absolutely gorgeous book that will enable you to make restaurant-quality vegan dishes at home. (See my full Crossroads cookbook review.)
Food52 Vegan by Gena Hamshaw – Gena of the Full Helping wrote Food52’s vegan tome that came out this year, which features Food52’s trademark photography style.
The Rawsome Vegan Cookbook by Emily von Euw (of This Rawsome Vegan Life) – this book arrives in stores on December 8th, and like Emily’s other cookbooks, is sure to be beautifully styled and full of appealing and nourishing recipes.
The Homemade Vegan Pantry by Miyoko Schinner – vegan celebrity Miyoko Schinner (of Artisan Vegan Cheese fame) put out a broader volume this year on making various vegan staples at home (like vegan butter, pancake mix, sour cream, and more). The book is both attractive and functional.
For more cookbook ideas check out my vegan cookbook collection!
(P.S. This post contains affiliate links. See my privacy policy for more information.)
Michelle says
Thanks for this great list! Especially for letting me know about the instapot sale on Amazon today. It was one of the items on my Christmas list.
Shannon @ Yup, it's Vegan says
Glad you found the list helpful, Michelle! I put the Instapot in my cart, and then changed my mind and didn’t buy it… kicking myself now!!