The L-Plate Vegan

So what do you eat?

The thought of cooking a vegan meal can be daunting – where do you start?! Luckily most vegetarian and even meat-based meals can be easily modified and turned into vegan delights. A very handy book for vegans is The Animal Free Shopper by the Vegan Society, as it lists thousands of products, all of which are cruelty-free. You can get your copy from Viva! for £4.99 (plus £1 p&p).

Most supermarkets now stock many vegan products (look especially in their ‘free-from’ section), but there are other shops that will broaden your horizons. Track down your local health food store, or save your strength and find a one-stop online shop. Log on to the Vegan Store which has a range of goodies (www.veganstore.co.uk) or Veggie Stuff – an online veggie supermarket (www.veggiestuff.com). The Essential Trading Co-op has a huge range of products and, as well as a cash and carry service in Bristol, will deliver to certain areas in the south (www.essential-trading.coop). If you’re in the Cambridge or Northampton areas go to the Daily Bread Co-operative (www.dailybread.co.uk). For vegan confectionery, wines and beers (and a wide range of books and merchandise), go to Viva!’s website www.viva.org.uk. For health and nutrition books and products go to the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation (www.vegetarian.org.uk).  

Milk

Soya milk is made from… wait for it… soya beans and is available from almost every supermarket and all health food shops. It comes in a variety of types: sweetened, unsweetened, calcium enriched, organic, with wheat syrup and as flavoured milkshakes. It can be drunk as it is, or used in hot drinks and cooking in the same way that you would use cow’s milk. They all taste different, so if you don’t like one, pick another brand or style until you find the ones that suit your taste. You can also find milk replacements made from rice, oats and peas. Plamil is a vegan company and their products are approved by the Vegan Society. Their dairy-free milks are available from health stores nationwide. If you’re a supermarket shopper, try Provamel sweetened soya milk or a supermarket brand such as Waitrose’s soya, rice and oat selections.

Butter

Butter is obviously made from milk so it is easiest to switch to margarine, many of which are vegan. Some margarines contain milk derivatives such as whey or E-numbers from an animal source, but most supermarkets stock at least one suitable own brand margarine or look for Pure’s Dairy Free Soya Spread or Dairy Free Sunflower Spread. Health food shops will also stock a selection of vegan margarines including: Granose’s Vegetable margarine; Suma’s Sunflower Spread, Organic Reduced Fat Sunflower Spread, or their Soya Spread; Biona Organic Vegetable Margarine and Organic Olive Extra Margarine – made with olive oil; Vitaquell Extra Dairy Free or Bio Organic margarine. If you like a block of ‘butter-style’ margarine for baking, try Rakusen’s Tomor, available from Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and many health food shops.

Cheese

Cheese is also made from milk, and in some cases uses an extract from calves’ stomachs, called rennet, to curdle the milk, so it isn’t even vegetarian. However, there are plenty of soft and hard vegan cheeses available these days which are made from soya beans instead of milk. For hard vegan cheeses try Redwood Wholefoods’ Cheddar Cheezly (red and white cheddar) or go for one of their new flavours such as Cheezly Nacho style, Garlic & Herb, with ‘Bacon-style’ Pieces or Mature Cheddar-style with Cranberries. Also try the range from Bute Island called Scheese – there’s a large selection including Mozzerella, ‘blue’ flavour, Hickory Smoked, Cheshire and Cheddar – but if you’re expecting it to melt, you might be in for a long wait! If you’re craving cheese on toast or pizza, then there are now several melty cheeses available. Redwood’s New Super Melting Cheezly range includes Cheddar slices, Gouda block, Edam block and Mozzarella block and slices (from health shops inc. Holland & Barrett or direct from www.redwoodfoods.co.uk). Vegerella is also for you – it comes in Cheddar, Mexican and Italian flavours and can be used just like dairy cheese! So you should find at least one to suit you in your health food shop. Tofutti produce meltable ‘cheese’ slices in Mozzarella flavour.

There are also plenty of soft cheeses on the market. Fromsoya make a range of flavours, including Horseradish, French Onion or Garlic & Herb. Redwood produce Sour Cream & Chive Flavour and Garlic & Herb Flavour Cream Cheezlys. Especially scrumptious are the Creamy Smooth Dairy Free Spread Range from Tofutti. Flavours include French Onion, Garlic & Herb, Herbs & Chives and Original and they taste identical to dairy cream cheeses but with no trace of cholesterol. The tubs are much bigger too!

For Parmesan to sprinkle over your spaghetti bolognese, you can buy Parmazano (in tubs in the Italian section) from Tesco, Waitrose or health food shops – it tastes identical and can be used to make great cheese-style sauces as well.

Eggs

How do you replace eggs? Well if you’re hoping for a vegan hard-boiled egg you really are out of luck. No one has invented the ‘soya egg’ yet (thankfully!), but the good news is that you can buy egg replacers from most health food shops. These are really only useful as a binding agent in baking, but it does mean you need not go without your cakes (you can even use them to make meringue!). We’ve made some darn good cakes using No Egg from Orgran (incidently their Chocolate Sponge Pudding Mix is rather tasty too). However, there are many ways to bake fantastic cakes without using eggs – Rose Elliot, the renowned vegetarian and vegan cook, suggests mixing in orange juice to give a light sponge, very similar in texture to one that is made with eggs. Other people use bananas or other fruit to bind their cakes, and these work just as well. Strange as it may sound, others use vinegar and it really does the trick! If you miss your morning scrambled egg on toast, try scrambling tofu instead – see tofu section for recipe on page 16.

Yoghurt

As with most things, there are vegan alternatives available to the usually milk-based yoghurts. Again, some are better than others, but there’s nothing wrong with trying them all, just to be on the safe side! Provamel, for example, make the yummy Yofu Exotic Dessert range, the delicious children’s Strawberry and Banana Yofu (recommended for adults too!), as well as plain Yofu. Although they are widely available in health food shops, some supermarkets are catching on, and they can be found in Tesco and Asda. 

Ice Cream

Dairy ice cream obviously contains dairy products, usually in the form of milk or milk derivatives. If the label on your icecream, however, reads ‘non-dairy’ or uses the phrase ‘non-milk fats’, don’t assume that this makes it vegan. The chances are that these may be pork or other animal fats. That’s the bad news. 

The good news is there are loads of scrumptious vegan ice creams (most made from soya) widely available out there! If you want to treat yourself, try the range from Tofutti. They’re available from health food shops and are delicious, scoring an all time record 11 out of 10 from Viva! taste-testers! Choose from Better Pecan, Madagascan Vanilla, Strawberry Supreme, Chocolate Cookies and Vanilla Chocolate Fudge – mmm! Another great ice cream product to look out for made by Toffuti is called Rock ‘n’ Roll; it’s a bit like Vienetta and you should be able to find it in larger Sainsbury’s or Tesco stores. What’s more, they’ve recently added to the range and you can now find individual cones and bars that really get those taste buds tingling.

More excellent vegan ice cream to look out for is First Glacé Oat Supreme, an oat-based range that includes the amazing Strawberry Sensation and Vanilla Chocolate Fudge Swirl. They also make a Classic Vanilla that’s rich and creamy enough to eat on its own and wonderful with hot and cold puddings for when you really want to indulge yourself.

Swedish Glacé make a whole range of ice creams; Raspberry, Strawberry, Chocolate, Mocha & Chocolate, and Vanilla. They’re all vegan and can be bought from health food shops and from some supermarkets, including Waitrose, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. It’s hard to recommend one as they are all great, but we keep on coming back to the chocolate time and time again!!

Mother Hemp has also come up with a delicious dairy free range of Vanilla, Strawberry and Mint Choc Chip made using the creamy milk extracted from crushed organic hemp seeds.

If you find it difficult to get hold of vegan ice cream or fancy something fruity (!) you could try sorbets and fruit lollies instead. Check out: Asda Ice Snaps in Orange and Lemon flavours or their Really Fruity Tropical Sorbet; Iceland Strawberry & Banana Ice Breakers; Bird’s Eye Wall’s Calippo fruit ices in Strawberry or Tropical and their Fruit Fives (lollies); Marks & Spencer Orange Juice Bars or their Mini Lemon & Lime Bars andTesco Slimey Limey lollies... get licking!

Cream

From health food shops and some supermarkets you can buy soya cream (Granose Soya Creem and Provamel’s Soya Dream are both great), but although you can use it in cooking, it is a pour-it-on type of single cream, not a whip-it-and-heap-it-on type. Still, it means your apple pie need never go naked. 

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