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New Vegan for Veganuary
I have been adding more vegan cooking into my routine for a couple months but this month I am trying to go all in. I have been a vegetarian since college but always struggled with veganism. I think oat milk has made it a lot easier as I like it more than regular milk. Also a food processor has helped a lot with cashew creams. Does anyone have any go to recipes or other suggestions for helping his diet stick?
Welcome! I don't know how long ago you were in college but new products are being added all the time. There's a whole new world of vegan "dairy" -- all the plant milks and vegan cheese you could possibly want!
As for recipes, I'd keep it simple to start with and stick with what you normally cook but make substitutions. As you're already vegetarian, it should be a straightforward case of swapping out the dairy for vegan alternatives. If you want some recipe inspo, have a gander at Indian dishes. A lot of them are vegan-friendly.
So true about the vegan dairy alternatives. I had a free sample of vegan cheese that I ignored because it was pepper jack which isn't my favorite flavor until I wanted a sandwich and it was sooooo good.
That's awesome! The switch from vegetarian to vegan is a pretty easy one from what I've heard. My personal method for becoming vegan was to binge watch vegan youtubers until I had a fuller sense of what a vegan diet looked like and what ingredients go with what. My favorites are Caitlin Shoemaker and Pick Up Limes because their recipes tend to focus on simple, whole foods without the sense that you're replacing or missing out on anything.
Well done! I’m a former vegetarian as well, made the switch fairly recently although have been tapering off dairy and eggs for a while. I’ve found that having physical vegan cookbooks in my life has helped me a lot with inspiration and made things feel more straightforward (I get quite overwhelmed by the amount of choice when I’m browsing recipes online!) I have the original Bosh! one and the Leon one and both are pretty no-frills and suit me. Also if you don’t care about having the actual books there’s a bunch of Bosh recipes online along with BBC Good Food, Minimalist Baker etc. Wish you luck finding what works for you!
Hell yes! Congrats on making this awesome choice.
What helped me was to find good replacements to dairy. I was obsessed with cheese my whole life, so one of the biggest keys was to find a great vegan cheese. (I highly recommend Follow Your Heart mozzarella slices.)
I also love Amy’s brand meals, either frozen meals or soups. It’s easy and they take a lot of the hassle away from worrying about cooking a meal and such.
Vegan butter helps a lot with cooking! I use Earth Balance brand. Vegan mayo is awesome — Follow Your Heart makes an delicious veganaise! There are soooo many options now. :) New products are popping up all the time!
What are your fave vegetarian foods, & what do you think would be hardest to replace? I would love to help brainstorm some ideas.
Thanks again for having immense compassion & deciding to fully go vegan 🌱🙏 ☺️😇🥺💕
Edit: Noticed that someone downvoted every comment in this thread. That’s the downside of having this sub on the regular feed. So stupid that someone felt the need to spite someone for making a beautiful, moral & compassionate lifestyle choice. Omnis are pathetic sometimes.
I have a feeling sweets will be the harder part. I made a peanut butter pie recently that's great but will definitely need more recipes. I have oat milk and egg replacer so could probably make some interesting cookies.
I will have to try that vegan mayo because I do love mayo.
Vegan Peanut butter Pie
Honestly, all the dessert recipes seemed too complicated for me, and I rarely have the energy/time to make something from scratch like that. Plus, there are like 20 ingredients to buy. So I started just buying pre-made cookie & cake mix!! Betty Crocker cookie mix is legit, I get the double chocolate kind & mix my own peppermint extract in there, so they’re basically like homemade Thin Mints. Highly recommend! I also make vegan cupcakes with pre-made mix and they’re amaaaazing! Just gotta watch out because some will still have milk in the ingredients.
I love cooking from scratch so will probably experiment. I made vegan waffles using home made apple sauce and my sourdough starter and they were good. I have noticed a lot if recipes are insane so I tend to improvise a lot.
Sweets were hard for me too because I refuse to learn how to bake. I ate sooo much vegan ice cream in the first 6 or so months before I stopped craving sweets very much at all. What really made a difference though was always making sure I had something sweet on hand for when that craving struck so that I wouldn't feel tempted to cheat.