Are you wondering what to substitute into your recipe to make it Vegan? #vegan #vegancooking #veganrecipes
If you’re new to vegan cooking you may be looking for substitutions you can use in your old non-vegan recipes. Thankfully, there are plenty of products vegans can use in place of animal ingredients that will make vegan cooking a breeze. Let’s cover how to replace animal ingredients with vegan ingredients.
Milk. It’s very easy to substitute for cow’s milk in a recipe. You can use soymilk, rice milk, oat milk, or nut milk measure for measure. To make buttermilk, put 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice in your measuring cup and then add your soymilk to the amount specified in the recipe.
Cheese. Be sure to read the label as some vegetarian cheeses contain casein, which is not vegan. If you can find a great vegan cheese that you like, use it in your recipes in the same manner that you would use dairy cheese.
In place of cottage or ricotta cheese, you can use crumbled tofu, but remember that it won’t melt or have the same creamy consistency you’d expect from cottage or ricotta cheese. You may need to spice it up with herbs and add some salt to make it work in your recipe.
Eggs. A great substitute for scrambled eggs is tofu scramble. You can either use a recipe from a cookbook or simply buy a box of Tofu Scrambler in the store that you then mix with crumbled tofu and heat in a frying pan. Kids generally like tofu scramble, especially kids who have been vegan their entire lives. You can spice it up with tomatoes, peppers, onions, or even potatoes and vegan bacon bits.
In baked goods, good substitutions for eggs include applesauce, pureed soft tofu, Ener-G egg replacer, a flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax seeds plus 3 tablespoons water or other liquid, blended), or mashed bananas. You’ll have to experiment with your recipe to see what works best for you.
In dishes where eggs are usually used for binding (such as meatloaf) you can use oat or soy flour, rolled oats, cooked oatmeal, bread crumbs, instant potato flakes, nut butters, tomato paste, or cornstarch. For glazing pie crust or phyllo dough with egg wash, just use soymilk instead.
Beef or chicken stock. Replace beef or chicken stock with water or vegetable broth. Or use vegetable bouillon cubes.
Butter. There are vegan margarines on the market that work well in substituting for butter. Be sure to read the labels because not all margarines are vegan. You may also want to consider using oils like canola, sunflower, olive or corn instead of butter or margarine. One of the best is Earth Balance.
Yogurt. Several companies make soy or coconut yogurts that will substitute well in your recipes. You can find them in fruit flavors and also plain for cooking and baking.
Sour Cream. Try plain soy yogurt, especially if used in making dips. There are also a few commercially available vegan sour creams on the market. In addition, there are several vegan cookbooks that have excellent recipes for vegan sour cream in them.
Mayonnaise. There are a few vegan mayonnaise products on the market. You can use vegan mayonnaise exactly the way you’d use the non-vegan mayonnaise. Vegan cookbooks often contain a recipe for vegan mayonnaise as well; I’ve made at least two recipes from cookbooks that came out better than the real thing!
Gelatin. If you need to substitute for gelatin in a recipe, use agar flakes or powder. It will thicken as it is heated. Also, there are a couple of companies that make a vegan fruit gelatin product that you should be able to find at your local health food market.
Honey. There are many liquid sweeteners on the market that you can use in your recipes instead of honey. However, they all vary in consistency and sweetness, making substitution a guessing game, at least initially. You may have to experiment with ratios until you figure out what works best in your recipes.
In general, however, maple syrup and liquid FruitSource can be substituted measure for measure in recipes. Other sweeteners that are less sweet than honey include agave syrup, corn syrup, malt syrup, light and dark molasses, and brown rice syrup. Frozen fruit-juice concentrates, sorghum syrup, and concentrated fruit syrups range from being half as sweet to just as sweet as honey.
Sugar. Many vegans do not eat sugar since some sugar is refined using bone char from animals. Others object to using sugar simply because it isn’t as healthy as other sweeteners, it’s often full of pesticides, and the sugar plantation workers aren’t always treated very well. If you want to replace crystalline sugar in a recipe, here are some alternatives: beet sugar, fructose, organic sugar, unbleached cane sugar, turbinado sugar, date sugar, maple crystals, and granulated FruitSource. Some of these sugars dissolve better than others, so again, you’ll have to experiment.
Chocolate. I’m sure there are many people who simply could not be vegan if it meant giving up chocolate, but luckily they don’t have to. There are non-dairy vegan chocolate chips, cocoa powders, and chocolate bars that are easily found in the health food store. Be warned that some brands of non-dairy chocolate chips don’t melt too well in a cookie. You can also switch to using carob (powder and chips) instead of chocolate in your recipes.
Meat. Look no further, Vegetarian Plus has the most exhaustive variety of Vegan proteins available in the marketplace. From meatballs to Whole Turkeys, products with or without sauce, Vegetarian Plus, looks, tastes, and feels like the real thing.
Ice Cream. Along with the proliferation of meat analogues, your health food store is now probably well stocked with vegan ice cream. This industry has grown tremendously from the day I first went vegan. There are vegan ice creams with a soy base, rice base, or nut base, and they’re all delicious. Some are high in fat and some are fat-free. Some are fruity like sorbet, while others are sinfully decadent like butter pecan, peanut butter zig-zag, or peanut caramel. You can also buy vegan ice cream sandwiches, mud pies, and ice cream bars. I’ve made some great shakes, floats, and malts using vegan ice cream products. Your kids will love them too!
Excerpted from Raising Vegan Children in a Non-Vegan World* by Erin Pavlina.