Replacing Dairy products
It is surprisingly easy to replace dairy products and eggs, and there is an ever growing variety of foods on the market to enable you to do the transition from an animal based diet to a vegan diet without any difficulty. Basically, everything can be replaced with a vegan substitute.You can make pies using tofu, ice cream using soy milk, jellies using agar flakes. You can even have a cooked breakfast using soya or wheat "sausages" or scrambled tofu on toast, etc. Very often, non-vegans will not notice the difference. Plant-based milk
Many vegan options replace milk taken from nonhuman animals:
All these products are available at any health food store and supermarkets, although you can easily make your own. Read the labels and compare brands to see which ones best suit your personal tastes and needs. Some are thicker than others and come optionally as unsweetened, sweetened, plain or flavoured. These vegan versions will provide a thick, creamy texture to beverages, smoothies, light sauces, curries, desserts, etc. Vegan Cheese
Hard and soft vegan cheeses are made of soya milk and are now available at any health food store.
Note that they can be a bit expensive.
If you do not have access to a health food store in your area, or are on a tight budget, you can make your own cheese, using yeast flakes. It is pretty easy and you can control what you put in your vegan cheese! You can also buy the cookbook: "The ultimate Uncheese Cookbook". Vegan Creams and yogurts:
Most commercial brands will use soya. If allergic to soya products, you can make your own products using other ingredients. Experiment with our recipes! Vegan Chocolate
Wondering if chocolate is vegan and if you can still eat chocolate while being a vegan? Of course you can!
Chocolate comes from the pod of the cocoa tree, making it, of course, vegan. When processed into chocolate bars, the final product contains a variety of additives, sugar, milk or milkfat. The content of cocoa in bars containing dairy can be pretty low. Dark chocolate will have a higher content of cocoa and most of the time no additives. The ingredients are cocoa, cocoa butter, sugar and an emulsifier such as soy lecithin to preserve texture. So while some chocolate bars might not be vegan due to the addition of dairy products, there are a number of vegan chocolates available at health food stores and supermarkets. Many brands will not label their products as vegan, but it doesn't mean it's not. Read the ingredients and look out for words such as Whey, butter, lactose, butterfat. For a selection of the best brands of chocolate suitable for vegans, please read Chocolate brands for vegans. Vegan Margarine
Most margarines contain animal ingredients even if they state “sunflower or olive margarine.”
A few brands are available for vegans and carry the Vegan Society logo. These brands can be used for baking and as a spread, or for any recipe that calls for butter. They also taste the same as non-vegan margarine. Just substitute the same amount of vegan margarine for the butter. These brands do not contain hydrogenated oils and are cholesterol-free. Check out your local health food store to find out about these brands. Best buy: Biona which offers 2 types of margarine: Olive Extra Spread and sunflower margarine. |
Make your own plant-based milk!
If you do not have access to a health food store in your area, or are on a tight budget, you can
easily make your own milk.
Note: Making soya milk takes a bit more time. See the recipe.
Coffee with soy milkSoy milk makes great capuccinos, or soya latte. Many coffee shops will serve capuccinos and coffee with soy milk. Soya milk is great in tea but some brands can separate when used in coffee. Although you won't have this problem in coffee shops, you might find that the soy milk curdles when you are making a soya latte at home. 
This can be avoided by putting the soya milk in the cup and then adding the coffee to it (do not use just-boiled water, let it cool for a min before pouring it to the cup).
Make your own cream!MarshmallowsMarshmallows are not suitable for vegans since they contain gelatin. Gelatin is derived from the bones, cartilage, organs and skins of animals and is used in many confections and desserts. You can find vegan marshmallow on the net. Sometimes health food stores will store a brand of vegan marshmallows.
 Still not weaned?!"People are the only animals that drink the milk of the mother of another species. All other animals stop drinking milk altogether after weaning. It is unnatural for a dog to nurse from a mother giraffe; it is just as unnatural for a human being to drink the milk of a cow."
|
Top of page 
Vegan Ireland looks better with
