What does vegan mean?
“A person who does not eat or use animal products”
This definition was taken from www.dictionary.com
What you avoid as a vegan: Meat, eggs, dairy, honey, milk and also animal products including clothes such as leather.
Although you cannot have any of these products, there are vegan based businesses out there that provide products that are vegan friendly such as almond milk, tofu etc.
A vegan mainly gets their energy sources from plant based foods. For example, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fruit.
If you are thinking about going vegan you may be startled with the amount of foods you cannot eat, but over the past few years in particular there has been more and more vegan foods and food variations coming out.
Check out the table below to see what you can have as a replacement when being vegan!
| Milk | Soya milk |
| Chicken | Tofu |
| Cheese | Almond or cashew cheese |
| Honey | Maple syrup |
Check out this list of businesses that are vegan friendly!
Websites with resources for being vegan:
Veganeire.com
Ilovevegan.com
Vegansociety.com
Vegan.com
Vegan Recipes
These recipes are taken from bbcgoodfood.com!
Satay sweet potato curry
Prep: 15 mins Serves: 4
Cook: 45 mins
Ingredients:
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated
Thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
3 tbsp Thai red curry paste (check the label to make sure it is vegan)
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
500g sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
400ml can coconut milk
200g bag spinach
1 lime, juiced
Cooked rice, to serve (optional)
Dry roasted peanuts, to serve (optional)
Method:
- Melt 1 tbsp coconut oil in a saucepan over a medium heat and soften 1 chopped onion for 5 mins. Add 2 grated garlic cloves and a grated thumb-sized piece of ginger, and cook for 1 min until fragrant.
- Stir in 3 tbsp Thai red curry paste, 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter and 500g sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks, then add 400ml coconut milk and 200ml water.
- Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 25-30 mins or until the sweet potato is soft.
- Stir through 200g spinach and the juice of 1 lime, and season well. Serve with cooked rice, and if you want some crunch, sprinkle over a few dry roasted peanuts.
Vegan sausage rolls
Prep: 20 mins Serves: 10
Cook: 50 mins
Ingredients:
250g chestnut mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil
2 leeks, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped sage leaves
1 tbsp brown rice miso
2 tsp Dijon mustard
30g chestnuts, very finely chopped
70g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 x 320g sheet ready-rolled puff pastry (not the all butter version)
Plain flour for dusting
Dairy-free milk (like soya milk), to glaze
Method:
- Tip the mushrooms into a food processor and pulse until they are very finely chopped. Put half the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the leeks along with a pinch of salt and fry gently for 15 mins or until softened and golden brown. Scrape the leeks out of the pan, into a bowl and set aside to cool a little.
- Heat the remaining oil in the pan and fry the mushrooms for 10 mins over a medium heat. Add the garlic, sage, miso and mustard, and fry for a further minute. Leave to cool slightly.
- Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Tip the mushroom mixture into the bowl with the leeks, then add the chestnuts and breadcrumbs. Season, then mix everything together until you have a slightly stiff mixture.
- Unravel the pastry on a floured surface, then roll the pastry out so that one side measures 43 cm. Mould the mushroom and leek mixture into a sausage shape down the centre of the pastry, then bring the pastry up around the filling and seal along the seam with a fork. Cut into ten pieces. Lay on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush each piece with milk. Bake for 25 mins or until deep, golden brown. Leave to cool a little and sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving.
A very big problem when people go vegan, is the limited protein they intake. Although a lot of animal based products contain protein, so do a lot of vegan friendly foods.
Vegan friendly protein sources:
- Tofu
- Green peas
- Seitan
- Lentils
- Quinoa
- Soy milk
- Seeds
People often go vegan to reduce the number of animals killed, not necessarily a nutritional diet. Keep this into consideration!
If you are vegan, you will still need to exercise and stay active, check out ways you can get started with exercising!
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