What's with Vegan Subs when we can go Old Style?

dogstarheaven

I am planning to go vegan soon but am astounded how much vegan must-have ingredients cost these days ie., Yeast Flakes, Buillon Powder, Egg Replacer, Shcheese, Nuts, Agave Syrup, Flax Seeds, Spelt Flour...

Is this how vegans eat normally having their veggies and pulses flavoured with manufactured products or seeds/nuts that cost the earth? I want to do this MSE-style but a lot of recipes I've seen so far have got a zillion load of ingredients I don't have (I have 2 cupboards stocked with herbs, spices and jars so I'd say I've got most of everything I need to cook gourmet foods)

I wanted to make a vegan carrot cake and found I needed to buy a vegan soft cheese substitute (£3 a tub x 2!) If I wanted to make a vegan mayo, I needed to buy cashews at £4 for a small bag!

So, I'm wondering how MSE vegan lovers get around this w/out spending too much money? Is there a decent blog/book that doesn't go overboard on the ingredients or are vegans generally rich and usually spend more on their food than the average person (I spend £15-20pw for myself but much less in summer as I have allotment) ? I'm also curious about juicing as well with the idea of green smoothies. Do most vegans do this as part of their daily diet? It must work out so expensive buying in all that fruit and veg, wouldn't you say?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I suspect this is why vegans tend to be slimmer than the rest of us, they don't eat so much in the way of direct meat/dairy replacements.

So fruit, not cake that needs a binding agent plus pointless icing, little in the way of imitation foods, courgette ribbons instead of pasta, pulses not pretend meat burgers...


http://www.cookingforvegans.co.uk/

aimme13

I'm vegan......and poor.....and not so slim LOL

everyone is always shocked when I say I'm vegan as they always assume I should look pastey and skinny LOL

I have never bought any of the above ingredients if that helps!

My favourite site is https://www.parsleysoup.co.uk it uses the kind of ingredients that you would normally have at home. I have bought many cook books and to be honest some of them I look at and would work out so expensive if I searched for all the ingredients in the shop!

Mayo is a treat (mainly because I would eat it so fast! and I buy it when Holland and Barrat have there penny sale on.....the brand is plamil and I think about £1.69 for a jar, so £1.70 for 2.
Parsley soup website is where I use cake recipes too, just to help you normal recipes can be adapted......

Pure margarine or vitalite are vegan
half a banana = 1 egg
60ml soya milk = 1 egg

so easy to adapt some recipes.

happy for you to inbox me if you have any questions

amiaspden

750g bag of Asani brand cashews is about £5 in Tesco (World Foods aisle). They do big bags of almonds too.

I buy nutritional yeast (a tub goes a long way), Marigold buillon powder, Plamil mayonnaise, a few cheese replacements and the occasional pack of ground flax seeds (for a specific and very good muffin recipe). Never used egg replacer, and my cheese replacement use is minimal - I like the individual slices for an emergency sandwich when I've nothing else in, and the scheese-type blocks are nice grated on top of baked beans, with vegan worcestershire sauce sprinkled over, and on pizza. I don't see the need for Agave syrup or Spelt flour (though spelt pasta is very nice ...) and I've never made a smoothie in my life. I make a lot of vegetable soups which are cheap, filling and nutritious.

Another vote for Vitalite and Pure here!

Rowan9

There are some good vegan threads on here somewhere I think. I remember looking at them when my (grown up) DD became vegan months ago. Someone techie will be able to link some or maybe you can have a look about. I think there's an OS one.
W

RevolvingDoor

I buy the mild cheese from Tesco, soya milk and Pure spread a lot and some of the own brand bean burgers and stuff are vegan and not too expensive. There are cereals, breads, pasta, rice that are all vegan, buy a bag of frozen veggies and some value brand beans and tomatoes with stock cubes and dried herbs you can make a range of cheap easy meals.

aimme13 wrote: »

I'm vegan......and poor.....and not so slim LOL

everyone is always shocked when I say I'm vegan as they always assume I should look pastey and skinny LOL


Mayo is a treat (mainly because I would eat it so fast! and I buy it when Holland and Barrat have there penny sale on.....the brand is plamil and I think about £1.69 for a jar, so £1.70 for 2.

Haha, same here. :DI like the H&B sales too.:)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

RevolvingDoor wrote: »

I buy the mild cheese from Tesco, soya milk and Pure spread a lot and some of the own brand bean burgers and stuff are vegan and not too expensive. There are cereals, breads, pasta, rice that are all vegan, buy a bag of frozen veggies and some value brand beans and tomatoes with stock cubes and dried herbs you can make a range of cheap easy meals.



Haha, same here. :DI like the H&B sales too.:)

My mother used to say that about me when I was vegetarian as a teenager. Repeatedly. To random people in the street, people in the supermarket, anybody who expressed support for me.

But she wouldn't allow pulses in the house. Or funny vegetables. Or soya products. So I had to get by on cheese and potatoes.


Her idea of me being fat was about nine stone eight.


Oh, for the days of being that dumpy vegetarian teenager again..............


Just think how you would look if you were eating everything. Cheese, mayo, burgers - you wouldn't be so slim as you are now with them, would you?

RevolvingDoor

I meant to say to the OP if you want to buy any of the more unusual vegan foods try to find a way of tasting them before you buy. Nutritional yeast tastes very weird in my opinion and I ended up having to sprinkle it on my cat's food to get rid of the whole jar! There are various vegan fayres throughout the country during the year and they give away free samples of food so it's a cheap way of sampling vegan food without buying it.:)

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Just think how you would look if you were eating everything. Cheese, mayo, burgers - you wouldn't be so slim as you are now with them, would you?

I was actually quite slim when I was omni but I have been relatively slim as a vegan but not for quite a good few years now.:eek::D

dogstarheaven

thanks for all your replies, peeps. the reason why i'm interested in following a vegan diet is primarily for animal welfare reasons, secondly, for health (to be slim, improve my adult acne and have more energy) and thirdly for environmental reasons. atm, i have far too many animal products that i have accumlated in the freezer (butter, fish, meat, cheese) and cupboards (fish sauce, shrimp paste, dried fish, Worcs. sauce)* and living on my own, I've slowly been eating my way through these (since the NY when I made this decision). i'm also really keen on nice tasty food and having explained previously that i have cupboards full of jars, spices, herbs etc., The main dishes I've made so far are veg and lentil soup, veg and lentil stew, chickpea/cauli+pot curries, dhal, beany stew, salads with avocado, pulses, HM dressing, seeds, pasta with herby salsa verde, tomatoey veg w/basmati rice and radish salad (middle eastern dishes are regulars), i do have a large repertoire of dishes but still, i want something that is really zingy, different and that the veggies/pulses speak for themselves without any meat/dairy subs. There's a cookbook called Veganomicon that's been highly recommended but I don't really know any recipes in there that wouldn't contain expensive ingreds. that I don't want to rely on when cheaper alts. can be found eg., I don't see what the point in agave syrup when maple will do, or rice/spelt flour v. plain/wholemeal. I don't really like cous cous unless it's in small quantities and but i've yet to find a recipe that makes it super-delicious. I don't think I will resort to buying soya mince tho'. I've a recipe for a vegetable burger that I'd like to make (apparently dead tasty but expensive ingreds. again!)

I have a soya milk-maker so I won't have problems wasting money on buying cartons. I'd like to work out how to make a soya yoghurt tho' but I'm not sure how that will work...

what's the point in nutritional yeast? is it an additional flavouring like bonita flakes in Jap. food, or parmesan on pasta?

oh, and btw, I have a food dehydrator so I might (fingers crossed for a proper summer this year as last year was appalling for growing veg at the allotment!!) make my own vegetable bouillon powder. previously, i've dehydrated gluts of whatever I had like garlic (to make powder) tomato, courgette, herbs, fruit leather, mushroom, leek, parsnip, kale).

where's best to buy vegan wine in terms of supermarkets? or will i have to pay over the odds for this from a specialist?

I've found that Ecover washing up liquid isn't v. good (suds doesn't last long in order for greasy dishes/pans to be cleaned properly), do people agree?

*I don't believe in throwing any of this out until it's used and then slowly, these products will diminish and I will be able to eat vegan food 100% (atm, still 50%) Do you think it's justifiable in using this up, or shall I donate it to whoever might want my ingred (meat/fish/butter, yes but doubtful if anyone would want half-full jars/bottles) I do feel guilty for eating this but equally would feel guilty for chucking it all out esp. when money's so tight (living on own is v. difficult for me).

Shovel_Lad

Have you had a look at the Vegan Society's website?

http://www.vegansociety.com/

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

I'm omni, but use Ecover in preference to the usual stuff.

You don't get the great useless clouds of bubbles with it but the actual cleaning is just as good. It's the expectation that high foam = cleaner that's the main problem, IMO.