Best keto cookbooks
If you’re new to a keto diet or just looking for more recipe inspiration, here are some of the best keto cookbooks to try
Starting a strict keto diet may feel daunting, due the amount of foods that are excluded. Keto cookbooks can help provide new recipe inspiration that will ensure you stick to your diet goals and still have plenty of nutritious, delicious meals to cook for breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus snacks to keep you going too.
If you’re new to the world of keto, our full guide explaining What is a keto diet? is a brilliant starting point to see if it might be for you. A ketogenic diet is essentially a very low-carb diet that can encompass several familiar diet plans, such as the Atkins diet. Keto diets aim to trigger your body into ‘ketosis’ – due to the low-carb intake, your body can’t utilise the glucose from carbohydrates to burn fat, so it burns fat as its main fuel source instead.
The keto cookbooks below take different approaches to keto recipes: from easy 5-ingredient ideas perfect for midweek cooking, to slow-cooker recipes or even vegan approaches to keto cooking. One keto bible has a whopping 1,000 dishes. We’ve also got plenty of keto recipes here on BBC Good Food, from frittatas and salmon to steak salads and fish curries.
For more cookbook inspiration, check out our guides to the best healthy cookbooks and best gluten-free cookbooks, or head to our reviews section for over 400 reviews, including our ultimate best vegan foods taste test, best slow cookers and best soup makers, all tried and tested by experts.
Best keto cookbooks at a glance
- Best overall keto cookbook: Keto Kitchen by Monya Kilian Palmer, £8.32
- Best for a soft approach to keto cooking: Essential Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Molly Devine, £17.04
- Best for midweek cooking: The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet by Jen Fisch, £5.57
- Best keto bible: Keto Cookbook for Beginners by Gerald Hubbell, £12.49
- Best for vegans: The Essential Vegan Keto Cookbook, £10.65
- Best for slow cooker fans: Keto Slow Cooker & One-Pot Meals by Martina Slajerova, £12.15
- Best for information: Ketotarian by Dr Will Cole, £9.92
Best keto cookbooks to buy 2023
Keto Kitchen by Monya Kilian Palmer
- Available from Amazon (£8.32)
Best overall keto cookbook
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Author Monya Kilian Palmer is a chef who has worked at Le Cordon Bleu and Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck. She has been following a keto diet since 2018. She has written three keto cookbooks (two follow-ups to this original: Lazy Keto Cooking and Budget Keto Cooking) with a real focus on flavour and lots of tempting photography. Recipes include Thai prawn curry, brown butter scrambled eggs and an idea for ‘mug breads’ for homemade bread at a moment’s notice.
Available from:
Amazon (£8.32)
Essential Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Molly Devine
- Available from Amazon (£17.04)
Best for a soft approach to keto cooking
Registered dietician Molly Devine lived in Madrid as a student and has combined principles from classic Mediterranean diets with keto – using the heart-healthy fats of Mediterranean cooking with low-carb keto guidelines. There are 100 recipes, including Greek egg and tomato scramble or braised short ribs in red wine. It’s not super-strict keto (and lacks recipe pictures), but it has interesting inspiration for those who wish to try it out. This is an American cookbook.
Available from:
Amazon (£17.04)
The Easy 5-Ingredient Ketogenic Diet by Jen Fisch
- Available from Amazon (£5.57)
Best for midweek cooking
This American cookbook has 130 5-ingredient keto recipes, perfect for midweek cooking – plus over half the recipes take less than 30 minutes to make. Jen Fisch is an American keto blogger and YouTuber. We like that this book has a helpful list at the beginning of ‘foods to enjoy’ and ‘foods to avoid’ on the keto diet, which is a useful and thorough reference point, highlighting the variety of keto ingredients that are still possible to eat. Recipes include a salmon caesar salad, bacon and egg cauliflower hash and slow-cooker barbecue ribs.
Available from:
Amazon (£5.57)
Keto Cookbook for Beginners by Gerald Hubbell
- Available from Amazon (£12.49), Waterstones (£12.49)
Best keto bible
You won’t be short of ideas with this book. Bursting with 1,000 recipes, it will keep you going for a while! There’s a recipe index at the beginning to save you flicking through the whole book, with recipes divided into clear chapters including Breakfast & Eggs, Salad & Soups, Poultry and Desserts. There’s also a section at the end dedicated to slow cooker, air fryer and instant pot recipes. Recipes are in American measurements and are presented in a simple textbook format. There are recipes for every need: think everything from Greek sea bass with olive sauce to cheesy courgette muffins, barbecued pork chops and coconut panna cotta with caramel.
Available from:
Amazon (£12.49), Waterstones (£12.49)
The Essential Vegan Keto Cookbook
Best for vegans
If doing keto at all seems like a challenge, then doing keto as a vegan is surely even more so. While many of the other books on this list rely on meat and dairy for fat levels, even more imagination is required for vegans to stick to the high-fat, moderate-protein goals of the keto diet. The 65 recipes include sunflower seed waffles, veggie pot pie and peanut butter truffles.
Available from:
Waterstones (£12.99)
Amazon (£10.65)
Keto Slow Cooker & One-Pot Meals by Martina Slajerova
- Available from Waterstones (£16.99), Amazon (£12.15)
Best for slow cooker fans
If you’re a slow cooker devotee, this is the book for you. There’s loads of advice, including a comprehensive list of do’s and dont’s on slow cooking, plus a useful table of suggested portion size (and carb levels) for vegetables on the keto diet. It’s not all soups and stews either; the 100 recipes include Italian sausage frittata, pork lo mein and even a spiced chocolate cake.
Available from:
Waterstones (£16.99)
Amazon (£12.15)
Ketotarian by Dr Will Cole
- Available from Amazon (£9.92), Waterstones (£22)
Best for information
Dr Will Cole argues that while there are clear benefits to the keto diet, the heavy proportion of meat and dairy might lead to certain dietary problems. This is a good book for those wishing to understand the science behind the keto diet – there’s a generous amount of information to read, aside from the recipes, as well as solid nutrition advice. Dr Cole’s interpretation of keto focuses on a primarily plant-based plate with 75 veggie, vegan and pescatarian dishes. Recipes include chia seed breakfast bowls, cauliflower with romesco sauce, Mexican kale enchiladas and spicy frittata pizza.
Available from:
Amazon (£9.92)
Waterstones (£22)
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