When it comes to compassionate eating, a vegan diet is the only way to go. Animals raised for food tend to live miserable lives in close confinement, seeing the light of day only when they’re sent to an inhumane slaughter. This is not to mention the scary effects meat and dairy products can have on your health, increasing your risk of developing diseases and cancer.

Being vegan means rejecting the exploitation of animals and helping to stop animal suffering by not eating any product that comes from an animal. Don’t worry, it doesn't mean you’ll be eating nothing but sprouts. There is a wide variety of hearty vegan foods and products available to build your meals on and experiment with. Make a stop at our recipes  page for vegan meal, snack, and dessert ideas. If you don’t have a lot of time to cook, you’ll also find that many vegan foods are sold ready to eat in health food stores.

What to Eat Instead of Meat

Sayin Goodbye to Dairy

Eggless Cooking and Baking

Lesser-known Killers

What to Eat Instead of Meat

One of the biggest challenges for first-time vegans is figuring out what to eat instead of meat. For some people, going vegan can be a fairly easy and gradual process of eating some foods more often while phasing out others. But if you are used to building most meals around meat and dairy, you will suddenly be left with a hole on your plate. 

If its familiarity you seek, you will find that many grocery and health food stores sell plant-based imitations of just about every meat you can think of, from breakfast sausage to bologna. Many vegans love imitation meats, but don't think you need a meat wannabe to make a complete and delicious meal. Expand your horizons and you'll find there's no shortage of soy and wheat-based foods to work with. Here are a few to look for in the grocery store:

Tofu - Tofu is an extremely versatile food. It has very little taste but soaks up the flavour of whatever you cook it in. Usually found near the produce, tofu is high in protein, vitamins, calcium, and other minerals, and is cholesterol-free. Firm tofu can be used the way meat is: marinated, grilled, fried, or baked. If you want an even chewier, meat-like texture, freeze the tofu then drain it. The softer silken tofu is best blended in sauces, desserts, and dips.

Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) - When you extract all the oil from soy beans, TVP is what’s left over. TVP is used to make all sorts of faux meat products, from veggie burgers to “chicken” nuggets that you can buy ready to heat and eat. But you can buy TVP in a variety of raw forms to add to anything you like. People add it to spaghetti sauce, tacos, chili, stews, and casseroles, among other things. TVP cooks quickly, is fat-free, and is actually higher in protein than most meat.

Tempeh - Fermented soybeans are used to make this chewy, meatlike food. It has a nutty, tangy taste and can be used in almost any recipe that calls for meat.

Seitan - Seitan is made from wheat gluten, the protein part of flour that, believe it or not, tastes a lot like meat. Naturally low in fat, seitan can be roasted, baked, or broiled like meat or sliced thinly to make super healthy sandwiches.

Saying Goodbye to Dairy

When you’re out grocery shopping and planning meals, remember that the dairy industry is a cruel one. Dairy cows usually live indoors in stalls where they are forced to be constantly pregnant and give endless supplies of milk. The baby calves are taken away from their mothers shortly after birth and the unwanted males are sold to the veal industry and kept in tiny, dark pens until slaughtered.

You can oppose the treatment of dairy cows by not drinking milk or eating any dairy products. Read on to see what non-dairy “dairy” products vegans eat and drink instead.

Milk – No species naturally drinks milk past infancy nor would any species naturally drink the milk of another. Cow’s milk is designed for calves and humans certainly don’t need it to live a healthy life. Cow’s milk has been linked to incidence of a number of diseases in humans, such as heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, and osteoporosis. Calves have four stomachs and gain hundreds of pounds in just a few months while fed on their mother’s milk. It’s no wonder that most of the World’s people actually have trouble digesting the stuff!

There is a wide variety of soy, rice and almond “milks” sold in supermarkets and health food stores. All are available plain and some come in flavoured versions like vanilla, chocolate, and mocha. The tastes of these beverages vary a lot, so if you don’t like one brand, don’t give up; just try another. There’s really a lot to choose from!

A plain soy or rice milk can be used to replace milk on cereal, in coffee, and in any recipe. Does your recipe call for buttermilk? Just add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to your “milk” and let it sit a couple of minutes before using.

Cheese – Cheese is one milk product that’s hard to mimic but many food companies have come up with good substitutes. You can buy vegan faux cheese to put on your sandwiches, pizzas, and salads. Tofutti even makes a non-dairy cream cheese. Nutritional yeast also has a bit of a “cheesy” flavour. You can add this dry, flaky, non-active yeast to many dishes, including soups and casseroles. When it comes to replacing cheese in something like a sandwich you might want to try something completely new, like a vegan lentil spread or some guacamole.

Butter – Whether it’s for your bread, for cooking, or for baking, vegan margarine is the obvious choice as a dairy butter replacement. For baking you can also use canola or vegetable oil but in decreased amounts. If a recipe calls for ½ cup, use only 1/3 cup of oil.

Yogurt – A variety of tasty soy yogurts and puddings are available in health food and grocery stores. You can get soy yogurt in many flavours to eat as a snack, or on cereal or fruit.

Ice Cream – There are all kinds of delicious non-dairy frozen treats you can choose from like Tofutti cuties, Rice Dream, and Soy Delicious. Just check the frozen food section of any health food or grocery store. And don't forget that many sorbets and popsicles are vegan, just check the ingredient list! 

Eggless Cooking and Baking

Hens that are farmed for their eggs usually spend their lives indoors, crammed into wire cages. Eggs are also high in cholesterol and very unhealthy. Humans do not need to eat eggs as part of a healthy diet so hens should not have to suffer to provide them. While it’s simple enough to stop eating eggs for breakfast, you will still find that many recipes call for them. Don’t fret; here are some non-animal foods that have similar properties and can replace eggs in any dish.

• If a recipe calls for just one or two eggs, you can often skip them. Add a couple of extra tablespoons of water for each egg eliminated to balance out the moisture content of the product.
• Vegan Egg Replacer can be found in many supermarkets and health food stores. Use it according to the directions on the package.
• A ¼ cup of blended silken tofu can replace eggs meant to bind. It leaves no taste and is especially great for dense cakes and brownies.
• Mashed banana is an excellent binder for baking. That’s why banana bread recipes often don’t call for eggs at all. Half a mashed banana can replace one egg, but only when you think the banana flavour will taste good in your recipe.
• Flax seeds mixed with water can also work well for binding but it does have a strong, earthy taste that some people might not like. Flax works best in oatmeal cookies, pancakes, and other grainy things. One Tbsp. of ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbsp. of water can replace one egg.
• One heaping tablespoon of soy flour, potato flour, or cornstarch plus 2 tablespoons of water can be used to replace each egg in a baked product.
• Soy yogurt is another good stand-in for an egg in quick breads and muffins.
• If you want to make a vegan loaf or burger, use any of the following to bind the ingredients together: tomato paste, mashed potato, moistened bread crumbs, or rolled oats.

Lesser-known Killers

It’s easy to tell where the carcasses in the supermarket came from, but it can be shocking to find out how many other food products contain ingredients from animals. For example, a brightly coloured and cheerful-looking jelly bean usually contains gelatin derived from boiled bones, tendons, and ligaments! Here’s a list of some of the less obvious animal ingredients you can check for while shopping:

Casein – A lot like whey, this stuff is made from curdled milk.

Gelatin - Used to firm up or add some jiggle to fruity candies and snacks, you may have thought gelatin was related to jelly. But unlike the fruit pectin that holds jellies and jams together, gelatin is made by boiling animals’ skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones.

Honey - Honey is sweet, but the bees that make it often die when it is harvested. When a bee stings, the entrails attached to its stinger are pulled out, which kills the bee. So when bees try to attack the intruder who takes their combs, they die. Beekeepers are able to take the honeycombs anyway by wearing protective clothing and by “calming” the bees with smoke from a smouldering fire.

Lard - Lard is just another word for the fat that comes from pigs’ bellies.

Pepsin – No, it’s not made of Pepsi. This is a clotting agent that’s collected from pigs’ stomachs and used to make some cheeses and vitamins.

Rennet - This is an enzyme taken from the stomachs of calves (baby cows) and used to help make cheese clot.

Stearic Acid - Often added to chocolate and vitamins, this fatty substance is collected from the stomachs of slaughtered pigs or from cows, sheep, or dogs and cats euthanized in animal shelters.

Cetyl Palmitate - Look out for this additive in margarine, which you probably assumed was just made of vegetable oil. Cetyl palmitate refers to the waxy oil that comes from sperm whales’ heads or from dolphins.

Urea - Urea comes from urine and other bodily fluids and, though it seems unlikely, it’s often used to "brown" baked goods, like pretzels.