How many vegans on board?

paulwf

Hi Pinkclouds,

http://www.happycow.net is a good listing for veggie restaurants, wholefood shops and similar. I couldn't see much around your way but it'll come in very handy for holidays.

There are various vegan festivals throughout the year which are a great chance to sample products without having to buy them, however I think you've just missed the main bunch of festivals, the next large one is in London at the beginning of December. Certainly something the bear in mind for the long term though.

The Vegan Society vegansociety.com , Viva viva.org.uk and Animal Aid are great resources for finding out about vegan products and recipes, plus they all have online shops to order products you might not find elsewhere. Viva do a vegan starter pack for a mere £3 which would be worth ordering.

It is amazing how the food industry manages to dump unwanted milk products in the most unlikely of foods (all the leftovers from low fat versions of dairy products has to go somewhere). It gets much easier over time though, you'll soon get to know what is and what isn't ok and i can go round the supermarket getting our weekly basics in 5 minutes now.

Just like we get into a routine with our shopping we also have a dozen or so dishes that form the core of our weekly menu, just as I'd imagine most organised meat eaters have a few basic dishes they rely on. Lasagne, wedges & beans & burgers, thai curry, cheezey pasta, sausage pasta, "beef" strips in soy and chilli sauce with rice, leek & potato soup, chilli non carne...all fairly quick to make and not too expensive.

My cookbook recommendations are probably a bit out of date but a lot of veggie or meat dishes can easily be adapted with substitutes (heck I've even been known to use Delia recipes as a starting point and adapt them). My only cookbook advice would be to be wary of American cookbooks at first...they can use some weird and wonderful ingredients not easily found in the UK and they use cups not weight to measure ingredients.

Perhaps try a 3 month subscription to Cook Vegetarian for £3... cookveg.co.uk/trial

pinkclouds

paulwf wrote: »

It is amazing how the food industry manages to dump unwanted milk products in the most unlikely of foods (all the leftovers from low fat versions of dairy products has to go somewhere). It gets much easier over time though, you'll soon get to know what is and what isn't ok and i can go round the supermarket getting our weekly basics in 5 minutes now.

Thank you for all your help. I have already sent off for a few things and have acquired a couple of shiny new cookbooks (Amazon Prime is sooo fast) - Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and Vegan Yum Yum. The Vegan Cookie book has a photo of what looks like a stack of oreos on the back cover - hope they are similar because oreos have milk in them! Frankly, my diet to date has been mostly junk food so I hope I manage to improve on it (although a cookie book doesn't seem like the best start lol).

I'm so glad I posted here. It's been really useful to me.

paulwf

pinkclouds wrote: »

Thank you for all your help. I have already sent off for a few things and have acquired a couple of shiny new cookbooks (Amazon Prime is sooo fast) - Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and Vegan Yum Yum. The Vegan Cookie book has a photo of what looks like a stack of oreos on the back cover - hope they are similar because oreos have milk in them! Frankly, my diet to date has been mostly junk food so I hope I manage to improve on it (although a cookie book doesn't seem like the best start lol).

I'm so glad I posted here. It's been really useful to me.

I got the cookie book for Christmas! I haven't dared to open it yet as we're still working our way through their first book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I've just finished making a dozen lemon & ginger and a dozen chocolate ones for the gf to take to work. Everyone says they taste better than dairy based cupcakes. The gf wants a dozen peanut butter and a dozen espresso ones for her birthday at the weekend.

If the cookie book is anywhere near as good you're in for a treat

savvy

pinkclouds wrote: »

Apologies if this is an inappropriate place to ask but could anyone please suggest/recommend nice non-dairy cheeses? I am quite keen to try some.

If it makes any difference to your recommendations: I like rather boring cheeses (cheddar, gouda, occasionally philly), am indifferent as to whether my yoghurt is dairy or non-dairy (will eat either so long as it's not plain), drink soya milk sometimes (but never cow milk) and dislike cream. Essentially, I hate really "milky" tasting food.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Ohhh if only we could get Daiya cheese over here, hey ho!!

In the meantime I would also agree that the Bute Island is the better, and the mozzarella one is quite good (don't expect it to melt like the dairy version), they are generally best grated. I was told by one of the demonstrators at the Vegan Show that if you add their cream cheese to a pizza then grate on the mozzarella one it should 'bubble' up more like the dairy cheeses - haven't tried it yet though

The nutritional yeast flakes are really useful for making a cheese flavoured white sauce for things like cauliflower cheese - which has been really great for our family as my lads still have dairy. Here's a recipe that uses it for a raw based ricotta.

I thought it would just be eliminating and substituting a handful of items but the more I google, the more shocked I get. Cereals, pop tarts, crisps - even my Quorn!! I thought I was semi vegetarian already. Why would you put gelatin in cereal?? I'm slightly mortified that I never noticed these things before.

Arg tell me about it, I had to elimnate quite a few foods for a time, mainly sugar and wheat........jesus I couldn't believe the products that are laden with these things and half the time I can't see the point! But now I'm like you and seeing milk in everything too

_Andy_

My pet hate at the moment - 'free from' ranges that have egg in them - since they've gone to the bother of making them wheat/milk free why not make them vegan? aggh

savvy

Totally with you on that one Andy :T:T:T:T

_Andy_

I forget the brand, but I did write to one of them asking why they didn't just make them vegan. Their response was it would make the product too specialised. Eh? By increasing your customer base? Duh.

Also hating products that used to be vegan and now have milk in them even though they don't need to.

Actually my biggest pet hate being vegan is when people, finding out you're vegan, always always always respond by going "why?" as if I should be justifying such a choice. I find it offensive as I would never ask why someone chooses to eat meat/dairy etc as it's a personal choice.
That and having everything you eat open to scrutiny!

Rant over!

savvy

_Andy_ wrote: »

I forget the brand, but I did write to one of them asking why they didn't just make them vegan. Their response was it would make the product too specialised. Eh? By increasing your customer base? Duh.

Oh wow that's unbelievably stupid :T:T

_Andy_ wrote: »

Also hating products that used to be vegan and now have milk in them even though they don't need to.

LOL and that's even more stupid :eek:

_Andy_ wrote: »

Actually my biggest pet hate being vegan is when people, finding out you're vegan, always always always respond by going "why?" as if I should be justifying such a choice. I find it offensive as I would never ask why someone chooses to eat meat/dairy etc as it's a personal choice.
That and having everything you eat open to scrutiny!

Rant over!

LOL I'm used to my food being under scrutiny, mainly because people haven't heard of half the stuff I eat on my varied diet :rotfl:

LOL Andy, you may appreciate this btw :rotfl:

_Andy_

That link is genius! cheers

savvy

Has anyone made seitan at all??? There's a link here where some have but was wondering if any of you guys had and how easy/hard it was.........and of course where you get your gluten flour from??