How to Buy Vegan Food

Name any recipe and chances are you can create a vegan version without any animal products. All you need are the right ingredients. Whether you’re a new vegan looking for answers, a seasoned vegan digging deeper or a vegan-friendly person who wants everyone to be able to eat all that you make, this guide to buying vegan food can help.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Basic Vegan Substitutes

1. Eggs. Replace with egg replacer, made from potato starch and tapioca flour. It’s a powder that comes in a box and is available at most health food stores, though some grocery stores may carry it in their health food section. You can also replace eggs with bananas, silken tofu, applesauce or mashed potatoes, depending on the recipe and what you think would taste best.
2. Milk. Replace milk with soy, rice or almond milk. Soy milk is easiest to find, as most grocery stores now carry it in the cold section beside the regular milk.
3. Butter or margarine. Replace with soy margarine. It can be hard to find in a regular grocery store, as most contain whey. You’ll have no trouble finding a soy margarine, though, in your local health food store.
4. Meats. Replace with soy meat alternatives. You’ll find them in the cold or frozen section of your health food store, including both ground and prepared vegan versions of beef, chicken and pork. Just be sure you read the ingredients before you buy as many of these vegan meat substitutes do contain eggs. Most regular grocery stores have a frozen vegetarian section, especially vegan burgers. Again, just be sure to check the ingredients for eggs.
5. Cheese. Replace with vegan cheese alternatives. This is a bit trickier, as many vegan cheeses are quite lacking in taste and texture. You’ll probably only find them in a health food store and you’ll need to do some taste-testing to find a brand you like. However, the Parmesan vegan cheese is usually a safe bet.
6. Mayonnaise. Replace with a vegan version. Like cheese, it can be hard to find a brand of vegan mayonnaise that you like, but they are out there. Again, you’ll probably only find them in a health food store.

Ingredients to Avoid

7. Know what ingredients to avoid in the foods you buy. You may be surprised at what’s in foods you’d think were vegan anyway, like honey in bread or eggs in pasta.
8. Check to be sure you’re not buying foods with these common ingredients:
   1) Whey, a by-product of cheese-making, 2) Gelatin, made from boiled bones, skins and tendons, 3) Casein, a milk protein, 4) Rennet, from stomachs of calves and lambs, 5) Cochineal, a food dye made from ground beetles, 6)Shellac, an insect secretion used to coat fruit to make it shinier. Of course, always avoid the obvious: meat, dairy products, eggs and honey.

Try Something New

9. Nutritional yeast. A nutty, cheesy flavor that contains B-12, a vitamin that all vegans need to supplement into their diets. Try sprinkling it on soups, pastas, salads or anything else that you might normally top with cheese.
10. Apple cider vinegar. A healthier alternative to regular vinegar. Mixed with olive or canola oil, it makes a great substitute for dressings in salads, vegetables and sandwiches.
11. Tahini. A sesame seed paste that you can use as a base for sauces, creams, dressings and dips. It’s traditionally used in Middle Eastern cooking.
12. Miso. A soybean paste that you can use as a base for sauces, dressings and marinades. It’s traditionally used in Japanese cooking.
13. Hummus. A dip made from chickpeas in all sorts of flavors. It’s a great party or snack food with crackers, chips and vegetables.

Get Creative

14. If a dish calls for an ingredient that you cannot find a vegan version of in the stores--like cream soups--search for a vegan recipe online and make it from scratch.
15. Try a new combination of ingredients. For instance, you might be surprised at how good potato salad can be when you substitute the mayonnaise for apple cider vinegar and canola or extra virgin light olive oil, especially if you kick it up a notch with dijon mustard, fresh garlic and dill.

Tips & Warnings

• Always, always, always check the ingredients, even in foods you’d think would be vegan anyway. For instance, most canned vegetable soups have beef stock in them, as do some canned beans.
• Vegetarian does not mean vegan. There could be dairy in there in the form of milk, cheese or whey.
• Be sure you’re supplementing your vegan diet with the vitamins and minerals you would normally get from meat and dairy, specifically protein, iron, B12, zinc and calcium. Get all that you can from foods. (For details check out the recommendations for a healthy vegan diet linked to below). Vitamin supplements are also helpful, especially for B-12. Just be sure to check the ingredients, as some vitamins contain animal ingredients, such as fish oil.
• Look for The Vegan Society’s trademark sunflower logo on vegan products. It’s not widespread, but growing.
• When using egg replacer, you may want to try doubling the amount it says is necessary to replace one egg, especially in your baking.