I am new to the vegetarian lifestyle ( about 2 months ) and I would like to make the transition to vegan. So right now I am trying to figure out what foods to eat and stuff like that. I would like to know of some "cheeses" I can eat ( the brand name ) and also "butter". If anyone can help me with that -- it would be great. Also if you have any else you want to add that too would be great. thank you.
Good for you! What a great choice! I haven't found any 'cheeses' that I can stomach-they are all really gross to me, ie vegan rella, etc. Also, I use Earth Balance. It's expensive, so I use a lot of olive and cocnut oils. You're gonna do great! Just remember to watch your soy products, if you're eating chik'n and that kind of thing. On the bottom of the ingredients list, it'll say "contains eggs," or milk, etc. Watch for those, if you have been enjoying most of the fake meats. Something that I make every weekend is vegan 'chili', super easy-crumble and brown a package of tempeh with onions and garlic, and chili spices. Toss in a package of SmartRound and a can of veggie broth. Add things like a can of tomatoes, beer, sherry, corn, 4 or 5 different types of beans, shitake, or any type really, mushrooms, a bay leaf, etc. Simmer and voila! Straight up vegan yumminess. I eat it with couscous or dark bread and a good dark beer-imperial stout. Good luck and enjoy your food!
Congratulations- I do not know what is available in your area, but regarding "butter" and "cheese"- Earth Balance is hands down the best vegan butter I have tried. Also, "Follow Your Heart" vegan cheeses are great. Watch out for "soy cheese" with caseinate in it. It comes from milk. Get vegan cookbooks! How it All Vegan, Garden of Vegan, 150 Vegan Favorites, and Complete Vegetarian Times Cookbook are all great yay for you! read up on animal literature and get your b-12
Have you heard of nutritional yeast? theres a few cook books out there that use this ingredient specificly its a really good cheese alternative! i have a killer mac and "cheese" recipe!!!! (i got this from vegweb.com) ill copy and paste if you like! also its really good sprinkled over popcorn with some salt! Best Vegan Mac and Cheese in the entire world...seriously Ingredients (use vegan versions): 1 1/2 cups of plain soymilk 1 cup of water 1/3 cup of tamari or soy sauce 1 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast 1 tablespoon paprika 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon vegesal or in lack of fancy product, just use salt 1/4 of a block of firm (not silken) tofu 1 cup of canola or vegetable oil 1 1/2 lbs of pasta of your choice preferably macaroni a relatively large baking pan (like a brownie pan) 1 dollop of mustard (optional) Directions: This is very simple and tastes amazing! Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Boil water in a big pot for the pasta. All of the ingredients sans pasta can easily go in a blender liquid and powdered this is by far the easiest way and the only was I do it. Once pasta is cooked drain I and put it in the baking pan pour the cheese sauce over the pasta. Bake until the top of the pasta looks slightly browned and crispy about 15 minutes but not too crispy because that is gross. I honestly do not know the serving information or nutritional content I can tell you it feeds a heck of a lot of people and if you are cooking for yourself it will last about 5 days if you eat it for all three meals of the day. I hope I have been clear please email meany questions and I do apologize for any grammatical errors. Serves: a lot Preparation time: about 8 min.
The (nearly) definitive best vegan vegetable margarine spread is called "Soy Garden" made by Earth Balance. It is entirely 100% substitutable for butter in *every* usage (or at least no cases have ever been found so far where it isn't). It tastes almost identical to butter, it melts like butter, it spreads like butter, it even gets hard/soft depending on the storage temperature, like butter (although it has one improvement: it doesn't get too hard to spread at very low temps). My almost entirely anti-vegan family including 2 hunters has actually made the switch from regular butter to this product, because it tastes more like butter than butter itself!™
Hikky, I can't recall why I put that one down after reading the label: sat. fats, maybe? I LOVElovelove Earth Balance yellow tub.
The Vegan Sourcebook by Joanne Stephanieak.....BEST vegan info book EVER, when i made the switch to vegan from veg this book had everything i needed to know and more.
I think all vegan cheeses are nasty except one I found in a vegan cookbook. It is cashew basted. 3 cups water 3/4 cup agar flakes (1 oz package) 2 cups raw unsalted cashews 1/2 cup lemon juice 2 tbsp tahini 2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion power put water and agar in a sausepan and bring to a boil. whisking occasionally. simmer for 5 min and whisk. grind cashews in a blender to form a powder then add lemon juice, tahini, salt garlic and onion powders. then pour in the agar/water and blend until smooth and cramy. Then pour it all into an oiled loaf pan and refrigerate. This recipie makes a ton, so you may want to cut it in half.
I'm definately on the Earth Balance bandwagon. I buy the Non-GMO kind that comes in a yellowish tub. It tastes very "buttery." It is a bit expensive, but I don't use a lot of it, so it lasts a while. As for the "cheeses." I don't eat them at all, because I think they are so gross. But, I also thought real cheese was pretty nasty too... Like others have posted, read all ingredients on the package before buying. There are some good websites that can serve as good resources... http://www.hotspotzone.com/Vegan/vegan_list.htm - Vegan prepared foods. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geraint.bevan/Vegetarian_beers.html - Vegan Beer http://www.veganwolf.com/animal_ingredients.htm - Non Vegan Ingredients
