12 Essential Vegan Food Substitutes For Cooking Your Favorite Dishes

by Laine Rudolfa www.thethrivingvegan.com 12 Essental Vegan Food Substtutes For Cooking Your Favorite Dishes

When switching to a VEGAN DIET, almost everyone thinks that their favorite foods will be taken away. You've probably thought that it's impossible to bake a cake or muffins without using eggs. Or that's unreal to make a tasty ice cream without any dairy products. And how about cheese? Will you have to say goodbye forever to the taste of cheese when switching to a vegan diet?

The truth is – you can make all your favorite foods vegan. There are simple substtutes that you need to know to bake muffins without using eggs, make delicious vegan ice cream and even make a vegan mac & cheese which tastes exactly like cheese! Here is a list of 12 essental vegan food substtutes for cooking your favorite dishes.

1. Use NUTRITIONAL YEAST to make your vegan food taste like cheese.

When transitoning to a vegan diet, one of the foods that people find hard to give up is cheese. However, there's a real vegan magic ingredient called nutritonal yeast. Basically, it's a deactvated yeast and the magical part is that it tastes like cheese. No kidding. Use it to make vegan "cheese" sauces, mac & cheese and vegan Parmesan. You can find it in most health food stores or on Amazon.com.

2. When baking, replace eggs with FLAX EGGS.

This is absolutely essental when baking vegan muffins, bread or cookies. To make a flax egg that'll replace one chicken egg, mix 1 tbsp of ground flaxseeds with 3 tablespoons of water. Let is sit for 10 minutes. When it's gelled up, add the mixture to the dough you're preparing.

3. When cooking, replace dairy milk with PLANT MILK.

There are different kinds of plant milks to choose from, for example, almond, rice, soy, hempseed milk and more. My favorite is soy and rice milk. Enjoy plant milk on your cereal, when cooking pancakes or muffins!

4. Replace dairy buter with COCONUT OIL.

Coconut oil has a similar texture as buter so it's perfect for baking pies and tarts. Add coconut oil at the same temperature as the buter.

In your local supermarket, there are usually two different versions: refined coconut oil is odorless and tasteless, whereas unrefined (or extra virgin) has a strong scent and a distnctve coconut flavor. For baking, it’s a personal preference whether you prefer to have natural coconut flavor in your food or not.

www.thethrivingvegan.com 12 Essental Vegan Food Substtutes For Cooking Your Favorite Dishes

5. Crave some ice cream? Use FROZEN BANANAS to make one!

Just freeze some bananas overnight and blend them in a high-speed blender the next day. Frozen bananas create a texture that is almost identcal to a dairy ice cream (banana magic?).

You can go the authentc way and blend only bananas or you can create something fancier, for example, vegan chocolate-mint ice cream.

6. Replace heavy dairy cream with full-fat COCONUT MILK.

Coconut milk works perfectly when making creamy soups or sauces. But that’s not it! If you want to create something very creamy and thick, leave your coconut milk can in the fridge overnight.

The next morning you’ll see that a thich white cream has formed on the top. Scoop off the cream and use it in raw desserts, vegan ice creams or make a whipped coconut cream!

7. Use NUT BUTTER as a rich salad dressing or spread on a toast.

Nut buters taste great, they're versatle, healthy and super easy to make. Use them in desserts, add them to your smoothies or even make salad dressings.

No need for Nutella or sugary sauces to top on your pancakes or waffles. Use nut buter instead! There are many kind of nut buters, for example, almond, hazelnut or penut. Just choose your favorite one.

8. When making pates, replace meat with BEANS.

Beans are filling and nutritous (+ without any cholesterol or saturated fat). And they make perfect burger pates! Choose your favorite beans, mix them with some shredded veggies, add cooked onion and garlic, form a pate and cook untl golden!

9. Always keep some CASHEWS in your pantry.

They're incredibly versatle and a MUST HAVE for every vegan out there! When soaked, you can blend them in creamy sauces, use in desserts and even make a vegan cream cheese.

But when dry, you can blend them together with nutritonal yeast and some other spices to make a vegan Parmesan.

www.thethrivingvegan.com 12 Essental Vegan Food Substtutes For Cooking Your Favorite Dishes

10. Replace gelatn with AGAR-AGAR.

It turns out that gelatne is not irreplaceable! To make desserts like puddings, Panna Cota, jellies, jams and even hard cheese, use agar-agar.

Agar-agar is made from seaweed and works as a thickener when dissolved in liquid. It’s sold in a form of powder and flakes. Agar-agar has no flavor, odor or color and it sets more firmly than gelatn, so recipes will be less jiggly and less creamy.

11. Replace dairy butermilk with easy homemade VEGAN BUTTERMILK.

In baking, butermilk is used for many reasons. It adds a tangy flavor that pairs well with certain baked goods like biscuits and muffins. Also, butermilk allows the baked good to rise beter and it tenderizes the gluten in flour, giving it more body and a sofer texture.

Traditonally, butermilk is made from dairy and so far there are no good vegan optons that you can buy. Fortunately, it’s very easy to make vegan butermilk at home!

All you have to do is use 1 cup of soy or almond milk for every cup of butermilk that the recipe asks for. Str in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar per cup of plant milk. Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, and use it in place of the butermilk.

12. Use KALA NAMAK SALT for adding egg flavor to your vegan dishes.

To make vegan omeletes, eggless egg salads, fritatas or to add egg flavor to any dish, use kala namak salt. It’s also known as Indian black salt and it works like real magic!

Due to the sulfur compounds found in this salt, it has a distnct smell and taste of eggs. If you’re not a fan of egg flavor, you can use kala namak salt to impress your non-vegan friends! You can find this salt in most health food stores and Indian stores.

So these are the 12 essental vegan food substtutes for cooking your favorite dishes. As you can see, you won't have to sacrifice your favorite foods when switching to a vegan diet. You can make everything – from vegan ice cream and creamy vegan sauces to rich and tasty vegan cakes.

HAPPY COOKING!

Laine

www.thethrivingvegan.com