Being Vegan guide

How healthy is a vegan diet?

A well balanced wholefood vegan diet is up there with the healthiest of diets. It can improve your quality of life and decrease your chances of succumbing to many significant diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers.

If you want a diet that is not just good, but super-healthy, ensure it is varied. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, especially those with strong colours, as they tend to have more nutritional benefits. Also include plenty of wholegrains and cut down on processed foods, especially hydrogenated fats. Generally, the more processed a food is, the less nutrients it contains. Ensure you have a reliable source of B12, iodine, selenium, omega 3 and vitamin D2. You may find our multivitamin Veg1 useful. It has been designed specifically for vegans, though it is suitable for everyone.

These are sound guidelines for any diet, whether meat-based, vegetarian or vegan. They are only intended as a brief summary, for more details see our booklet ‘Plant Based Nutrition: Healthy Eating Without Animal Products’.

Is it expensive to eat vegan?

That all depends on you. If you go for pricey convenience foods every day it might be costly, but then that would be expensive on any diet. Some products like vegan cheese are more expensive than their animal-derived equivalent but others are cheaper so overall there is no reason why you should have to spend more money. If you prepare most of your meals from basic ingredients and only use pre-packaged convenience foods some of the time, you can eat very cheaply.

What about when I eat out with my friends who eat meat?

Many omnivorous restaurants now cater for vegans, just ask. If they don’t, tell them to contact us and we’ll vegducate them!

Alternatively, take your friends to a veggie café or restaurant. To find your nearest, check the Vegetarian Britain guidebook, an extensive guide to vegetarian and vegan eating across Britain, or have a look at our travel and eating out page for guides to vegan-friendly restaurants all over the world.

For a vegan sandwich or snack, go to a health food store. Supermarkets and coffee shop chains are now beginning to cater for vegans as well so are worth checking out.

Make sure you take one of our feedback cards so you can congratulate each food outlet (or not!) on the vegan food they provide.

How do I know a food is vegan?

These days more and more products are marked as vegan which makes life much easier when you are out shopping. To be in the know about the items that aren’t marked vegan, equip yourself with a copy of our Animal Free Shopper. This is a pocket-sized guide to all things vegan, from ready meals to suntan lotion, so when you’re faced with a huge list of E-numbers or six syllable phenyletho-whatsits, you can just skip to the relevant page, find your product and you’re sorted. It costs just £4.99 plus p&p from The Vegan Society.  Alternatively, search the online version.

How can I replace my favourite foods?

You can replace animal products very easily. From vegan ice-cream to cream cheese and cheatin’ meats, there is quite literally nothing that you can’t find a vegan replacement for – including those sponge cakes! The section below explains in detail how to go about using the kinder alternatives to animal products.

Not everyone likes the idea of ‘substitutes’ for animal products – and it’s true that they are completely unnecessary in terms of providing all the nutrients your body needs – but they do taste good, and can be especially helpful for new vegans with old cravings.

Chocolate     Look out for Organica, who produce a delicious ‘milk’ chocolate, and a vegan white chocolate. Plamil’s range of chocolate, meanwhile, is entirely vegan and available from some supermarkets and most health food shops. There are also chocolate truffles, cakes and sweets available, mainly from health food shops. You can even get a vegan chocolate easter egg!

Cheese         Vegan cheese is now widely available in health food shops. Some of the hard ones do not melt but can be used in sauces, pies, and sandwiches. Recently Redwoods rushed to the rescue of all the die-hard fans of melting cheese and produced several different varieties that don’t just melt, they super-melt. They are perfect on pizza and for that old favourite cheese on toast. There are other brands of melting cheese, just check the packet for details.

Vegan cream cheese is also available, while nutritional yeast flakes give a fantastic cheesy flavour and can be used in sauces, lasagne and pizza. Both are available from health food shops.

Milk              Soya milk and a whole host of other milks like oat and rice milk can be used to replace cow’s milk. Soya milk is the most popular and can be bought from most supermarkets and health food shops. A great introduction to soya milk is the soya milk shakes that are available in several flavours including chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and banana.

Soya milk also makes excellent cappuccinos and is perfect for making custard, rice puddings and sauces.

Pouring and whipped soya cream is also available, and delicious vegan yogurts and soya desserts. Try soya yoghurt on top of cereals.

Ice Cream     Dairy-free ice cream (made from oats or soya) is so good many people will not notice the difference. Just try it and you won't need any further convincing! This is available in some supermarkets like Sainsbury, and practically all health food stores stock it.

Alternatively try luscious light sorbets, these are available in all supermarkets and many are vegan.

Honey           There’s a whole range of sugars and syrups that can be used as sweeteners. Give maple syrup, agave syrup, date syrup, molasses, dried fruit or fruit jams a try.

Eggs             Without eggs, most people want to know how to make a cake. Great cakes can be made without eggs. Some like to use a tablespoon of soya flour in place of each egg or use egg­-replacer products (found in most wholefood shops). Try our sumptuous chocolate blueberry cake for an example of a delicious vegan cake, or have a look at our egg-free cooking and baking and cake recipes pages for more ideas and tips.

Even mayonnaise is available without eggs, and it is easy to make vegan quiche and mousse. To replace scrambled egg, try scrambled tofu. 

Butter            The easy availability of vegan margarines means that butter is easily replaced. In place of animal fats you can use vegetable oil, solid vegetable fat or vegetable suet; and in place of animal stock use vegetable stock or yeast extract. There are also alternatives to gelatine, and vegan jelly crystals can be found in your local health food shop and some supermarkets.

Meat             In place of meat there are many cheatin’ meats available in health food shops and some supermarkets.

Hamburger    There are many different varieties of vegan burgers and sausages available. To accompany them choose from vegan mayo, ketchup, HP sauce, mustard, sauerkraut, gherkins, red onions and of course salad.

Mince            Use soya mince. Most frozen soya mince is vegan and tastes great in dishes like chilli and shepherd’s pie. If you use dried soya mince try soaking it in vegetable stock first. Alternatively try marinated tofu for a more healthy option.

Bacon           Vegan Rashers are now available from health food shops.

Treat yourself! As you can see there are a huge variety of vegan treats out there but you may find that you need to slightly change your shopping routine. As well as a few treats in the supermarket you will find many of the compassionate alternatives outlined above in your local health food shop. If you don't have a health food shop nearby it is well worth making a special trip once a week to stock up on foods that are not available in your local shops.

The Vegan Society has a great range of vegan recipe books available in our online shop.

There is also a host of recipes on the web including a good selection on this website www.vegansociety.com/food/recipes. Another good recipe selection can be found on www.veganvillage.co.uk, which also includes links to yet more good vegan recipe sites. In the meantime here are a couple of recipes to start you off.

Quiche Lorraine

pastry

9oz (250g) plain wholemeal flour

4½ ozs (125g) very cold margarine

filling

10 oz (280g) block of tofu

a little soya milk

1 onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp rapeseed or other vegetable oil

½ packet Redwood rashers, chopped small

¾ packet Redwood Cheezly, grated

1 tomato, sliced

1. First make the pastry by rubbing the margarine into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add enough water to make a dough which is soft, but not sticky.

2. Roll out and place into a large quiche dish. Bake for 10 minutes at 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 to set the pastry.

3. Now make the filling: mash the tofu with either a blender or a fork, adding a little soya milk for moisture.

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan or saucepan and add the onion, red pepper and garlic. Once it is slightly cooked add the rashers and cook for a minute or two.

5. Add to the tofu mixture along with half of the packet of grated cheezly.

6. Place the mixture into the pastry. Top the mixture with the rest of the grated cheezly and the sliced tomato. Place in the oven and cook for 30-40 mins.

Chocolate Blueberry Cake

8 oz (225g) caster sugar

4 dssps cocoa powder

pinch salt

9 oz (255g) plain white flour

3 oz (85g) plain wholemeal flour

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

6 fl oz (170 ml) vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla essence

4 tsp vinegar

12 fl oz (340ml) cold water

4 oz (115g) fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Place the sugar, cocoa, salt, flours and bicarbonate of soda in bowl and mix well. Add the oil, vanilla essence, vinegar and water and mix thoroughly, but do not beat.

2. Gently stir in the blueberries and pour into two greased sandwich tins. Cook at 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 for 30 minutes or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

3. Once cool sandwich the two halves together with vegan chocolate spread. Sprinkle some cocoa powder over the top and serve.

4. If blueberries aren’t your thing leave them out and turn your cake into chocolate orange cake simply by using Plamil’s delightful chocolate orange spread in the middle.