Living a vegan lifestyle is multi-faceted and encompasses using vegan products (like beauty products) and wearing vegan clothing. The thing most people think of when contemplating veganism, however, is food.
Although through the years vegan food was mostly a joke to people — bad recipes tended to make people think that the only vegan dishes that existed had no flavor — good food that is legitimately vegan is becoming mainstream.
Beyond “real” meat
There’s “real” meat, and then there’s “fake” meat. For example, both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat produce a wide-ranging line of vegan “meats.” Both companies are well known for their vegan burger patties.
“Impossible meat patties are made from a blend of soy and potato protein, mixed with sunflower oil, yeast extract, salt, and a whole lot of other scientific-sounding ingredients,” Thrillist reported. “The most notable thing about Impossible patties is the inclusion of heme, an iron ion found in all living things that gives meat its inherently meaty flavor. The heme used in Impossible Foods is derived from fermented soybeans.”
“Like Impossible,” Thrillist continued, “Beyond Meat’s patty is also made from a blend of plant proteins — just different plants. Beyond contains a mixture of pea, mung bean, and rice proteins, canola and coconut oil instead of sunflower, potato starch, and beet juice extract to give the ‘meat’ its pink hue.”
I’ve been waiting to sink my teeth into an Impossible Burger for a long while, however, I recently had the pleasure of trying a Beyond Burger at a local movie theater. I thought it tasted great, and its texture was awesome.
Plant-based protein
Maintaining a “perfect diet” — whatever that even is — is challenging for just about everyone. For people considering a vegan diet, getting a balance of protein, vitamins and minerals may require some thought and planning. Things like calcium, iron and vitamin B-12 appear more frequently in omnivorous diets. When you are preparing vegan meals at home, this is something to think about.
Although more restaurants and take-out joints are offering enticing and flavorful vegan meals, cooking vegan at home is becoming a bit easier too. In recent years, brands such as Gardein, Quorn and others have started to sell vegetable meat substitutes. Also, other non-meat protein options like tempeh (contains about 15 grams of protein per half cup), jackfruit and seitan — which when combined with soy sauce becomes a complete protein source offering 21 grams per third a cup — are becoming better known.
Must-buy vegan staples
The real trick to cooking an incredible vegan meal is using good ingredients. Staple vegan ingredients that are full of flavor include:
Vegan Worcestershire sauce
Almond milk
Coconut milk
Nutritional yeast
Tomato paste
Spices, such as cumin and turmeric
Potatoes
Almonds
Pumpkin seeds
Cashews
Aquafaba
I recommend buying the cookbook Vegan For Everybody if you want to start cooking more vegan meals. American’s Test Kitchen created this cookbook to help “everyone” cook vegan meals easily. The book is full of “140-plus foolproof plant-based recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-between,” states the book’s site.
I’ve used recipes from this book countless times. It truly is worth buying.
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Abbie Stutzer is a writer and editor from Lawrence, Kansas. Find her on Twitter at @abbiestutzer and on Insta at @abbiestutzer. Email her at abbie@ynotcam.com.
