Eating vegan doesn’t have to be so hard.

Backstory

Mid-last year, I became serious about cooking. I began working with just about every kind of recipe imaginable: pastas, steaks, fish, fried foods, baked goods, and so forth. It was delicious. It was also terribly bad for me and everyone I cooked for.

Eventually, I got into cooking based on specific diets. I felt I ate too much meat (due to my historically Cuban diet). So, I became a pescatarian: a vegetarian that eats seafood. It was quite a fun challenge to look for compliant recipes. It was so much fun, I wondered how else I could challenge myself. I decided to choose one of the most difficult and infamous diets of all: vegan.

Now, veganism tends to have a perception of being bland. But, after finding a lovely list of recipes, I knew it was anything but. After one week of living solely off of a vegan diet, I was hooked. It was amazing to feel satisfied with just plants. I never felt like I overate. I never felt hungry.

Of course, it was not easy. The hardest part was not eliminating meat, but eliminating animal products: cheese, milk, honey, eggs, etc. That was beyond tough.

I found a way, however. As it turns out, there are plenty of very nice alternatives for the typical animal products we eat on a daily basis. They are all quite good.

You can find them listed below.

Keep in mind, these offer a different flavor than what we usually eat. It is meant to be good in it’s own right. These are not meant to be copy, but an alternative.

List of animal product alternatives

Cheese — nutritional yeast & cashews

The hardest thing to do without is cheese, a vegetarian’s best friend. There are various methods to make cheese alternatives but the most common is blending nutritional yeast with softened cashews. This combination is unfortunately named “vegan cheese.”

Here are a set of steps on how to make the cheese alternative:

Soak cashews in water over night or 3–4 hours prior to meal preparation. Drain cashews and rinse once more. Put inside of blender with nutritional yeast (and other spices). Blend!

You may be wondering what exactly nutritional yeast is. It is quite literally a deactivated yeast often sold in the form of little yellow flakes. Where to find nutritional yeast is tricky. Typically, it can be found in organic markets. So, pay attention to where the hipsters shop.

Milk — soy or almond milk

Milk is easy to do without. The healthiest alternative is almond milk. You can go with soy milk, but that is more fatty and contains a high amount of hormone (mimics).

Honey — maple syrup

If you have never experienced the pleasure of organic, crystallized honey, then this should be easy too. You know where to find maple syrup (or syrup of any kind, really). It does have the problem of not being too healthy, however. As with all foods, eat it in moderation.

Ground Beef — beans

Mashed up black beans are great to use. The one downside is that texture is hard to manage. Add flour in order to keep it consistent.

Meat in general — tofu

In our society, we tend to think a main course requires some kind of meat to be filling. Tofu can be thought of as your main course, it’s a matter of how you cook it. Never eat plain tofu, that is just too bland.

Eggs — flax meal

Flax meal is another product you’re going to find mainly in organic markets. It is just ground flax seeds. This product mixed with water creates a fine alternative to eggs in baking recipes.

Butter — margarine, canola oil

You’ve done this at least once in your life. Just make it a regular option and it will come naturally as long as you’re not too used to southern comfort food.

Sour cream — plain soy yogurt or coconut yogurt

Yogurts in general can be substituted by soy or coconut yogurt. These alternatives can also be used in place of sour cream.

Sugar — brown sugar, cane sugar

Sugar may be an odd thing to see on this list, but it does need to be taken into account. Turns out that processed, white sugars often have ground up bone in them.

You read that right.

Keep to natural, unprocessed sugars and you will be fine.

Chocolate — dark chocolate

Milk chocolate is dairy chocolate. Almost all chocolates sold are milk chocolate. Stick to dark chocolate. It doesn’t have dairy added. It is also healthier.

Conclusion

Cooking is easy. Cooking with restrictions is tough. Cooking with vegan restrictions is even tougher. Hopefully this list will make your veggie-filled life a little easier.

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