A slower and more sustainable life
Chips (or crisps as they say here in Britain) used to be a staple at my house. The pre-packaged kind and not very good for you. A few years ago I looked for alternatives and stumbled upon delicious kale chips. I was not convinced it …
For my birthday, I really wanted to make something with chocolate so I tried this vegan chocolate brownies recipe. It has taken me some time to explore baked treats on my journey to eat more vegan foods. I used to bake all the time and …
When you are starting out on your vegan journey you will ask youself what you should eat. I want to help you on this journey, so here you can find my vegan food list for beginners.
Confession time, I am not a full vegan yet. My transition began about two years ago when I met my current partner. He has been vegan for several years and before that a vegetarian for over ten years. He has inspired me to give the vegan diet a try and it is of course much easier to cook one meal than two every time we eat. With this transition, I noticed that I started buying completely different items in my weekly food shop so I understand the stage that you are at right now.
It can be confusing and items are not always clearly labelled in the supermarket. I found I am cooking more meals from scratch which has also helped us to save money on this journey. So although sometimes it appears that a plant-based diet is more expensive it doesn’t have to be!
To eat a balanced vegan diet you will need to consume fruit, vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts and grains. And don’t forget your B12 supplements as you cannot get from any plant-based sources.
Below I will break down the individual groups and how to use them in your diet. Head over to my recipe section if you are keen to try out a few new recipes.
Variety is key here and try to stick to fruits that are grown locally where you can. Ideally you don’t want to consume fruits that have travelled more than you have yourself. Keep it local and check what is in season in the area you live in.
Of course, you can buy your fruit from supermarkets but if you can afford it and have some closeby out your local farmer’s markets. The fruits there will be much fresher and are more sustainably sourced. They will not have been transported from other countries but may be grown just where you live.
If you have a garden, consider growing some fruit yourself. Here in the UK, that would be apples, pears and cherries. Plums are great too. The easiest to grow are probably blackberries which are also easy to forage in the UK as they grow in most parks. Other fruits that should be in your vegan food list are red currants, gooseberries, peaches, grapes and strawberries.
Same as with fruits try and purchase vegetables that are grown locally and in season. If you want to try and grow vegetables yourself but don’t have a green finger I recommend to start with easy to grow vegetables like potatoes, spring onions, salad, kale and courgettes.
Other tasty vegetables include cucumber, tomatoes, squash, celery, beetroot, leeks, mushrooms, radish, sweetcorn and carrots. I also love kale and they make a great snack as kale chips.
The most common legumes you will come across are lentils, peas, chickpeas, kidney beans and soybeans. They are high in fibre and protein so are a great replacement for meat. Which explains the various meat replacement dishes that they are used in.
You can make hummus from chickpeas, vegan butter from aquafaba, lentil roasts or patties from lentils, soya milk and tofu from soybeans.
Nuts are great for healthy vegan snacks and should be on your vegan food list for beginners if you are not allergic to them. We always keep pecan nuts, walnuts, cashews and sometimes almonds and hazelnuts. We also always have seeds which are useful in many recipes. I’ve even made roasted pumpkin seeds before as it was such a shame to throw them away. It was easier than I thought. So consider making your own on Halloween. Besides the pumpkin seeds we also usually have sunflower seeds which I use in my granola recipe.
Staple items are oats, quinoa, rice, white flour, wholemeal flour and spelt flour. With oats, you can bake, make snacks or porridge or oat milk. White flour is the base for cakes, bread or pasta and pizza dough. Spelt flour is great for baking bread.
What are your suggestions for a vegan food list for beginners? Did I miss anything that you feel is a staple item in your household?
Find more delicious recipes in my recipe section and join my Facebook Group which focuses on homemade vegan recipes that are affordable and healthy.
Recently I had lots of overripe tomatoes from a neighbour and wanted to try something new with them. I settled on vegan roasted tomato soup and it was delicious! The tomatoes I got from an app called Olio where I started collecting leftover food which …
Banana bread is one of my favourite sweet treats. It is not too sweet and can easily be mixed with other ingredients like chocolate or blueberries. This recipe shows you step by step how to make a wonderfully moist vegan banana bread. It is so …
Have you ever wondered if you could make your own pizza from scratch? The answer is yes and it is so easy! The ingredients are probably already in your pantry so why not give making your own vegan pizza dough at home a try?
Pizza is a go-to quick meal fix for us. We love choosing our own toppings. Preferably simple and just a few toppings to really taste them. Nothing is stopping you though if you want more elaborate pizza topping.
You could even get your family involved. It is so much fun making the dough together. In my family, it was a tradition that we kids would prepare the dough. This gave our parents a break and we kids loooved preparing pizza. After we made the dough, we could always use our favourite topping for our part of the pizza.
Making pizza dough at home is so easy you can even get your kids involved. It’s a lot of fun mixing the dough and then spreading it on a pizza baking sheet (or if you are like me any big baking sheet you have – I love a good thin pizza base).
Now, what do you need to make this vegan pizza dough recipe? Not much actually. Just flour, yeast (or sourdough starter), water, olive oil and a pinch of salt.
I added some pictures so you can see what the dough consistency should look like.
Here are the ingredients you will need to make pizza at home.
Take a bowl and add the yeast to the water. Wait for the bubbles to form so you know that your yeast is active.
Mix all the remaining dry ingredients in another bowl and make a well. In this well, you can now add some olive oil and water/yeast mixture and knead until the dough is just a little sticky which should take about 5 minutes. If you are unsure how much oil you will need I suggest to add it at the end. Just a little bit so your dough forms a ball.
Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and let it sit for about 30 minutes.
Now you can roll the dough out or if you are like me just wing it and try your hand at stretching it by hand. Then just push it in the corners of your baking sheet.
Add the toppings of your choice. Get your family involved in this stage. It’s fun if everyone adds their own toppings.
Bake in the oven for about 12-14 minutes at 180ºC.
This recipe is fun to make. Get your kids involved to make the dough and everyone can add their favourite toppings!
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
My recommendation for pizza dough is to pre-bake the pizza dough. This will ensure your toppings will not get burned while baking. Recommended baking time is about 12 – 14 minutes and I sometimes find that is not enough for the dough to be crusty. Another trick is to sprinkle some olive oil over the pizza and that will ensure your pizza to be extra crispy.
This vegan pizza dough recipe can be made ahead of time if needed. Just prepare the dough per instructions and then freeze for when you need it. I like to keep my dough either in a ball or already prepared and pre-baked. This way only the toppings have to add.
What are your favourite pizza toppings? Any crazy combinations that your family loves? Share them with us in the comments.
If you enjoyed the recipe and want to find more head over to my recipe section and join my Facebook Group which focuses on homemade vegan recipes that are affordable and healthy.
Times are a bit strange for many of us. We spend much more time indoors and have more time on our hands to prepare food from scratch. Many people struggle with what kind of recipes they should try and how they can make the most …
For a while, I wanted to make my own homemade pasta. I don’t have a pasta maker but I figured you don’t need and I can tell you, no, you don’t need one. You may need a bit more time but I found it was …
Last week, I found I still had some potatoes that needed to be used up. I used to make soups all the time but recently not so much so I pulled out my immersion stick blender for this oldie but goldie of recipes. This easy vegan leek and potato soup was quick to make and perfect for these chillier spring days in the UK.
Soups with some freshly baked sourdough bread just make me feel happy and relaxed. It can still be chilly here in the UK so they are just perfect for those colder days.
This easy vegan leek and potato soup is quick to make and does not need too many ingredients.
What I like about this recipe is that I can use my homemade vegan butter to make it. Soups are great to be enjoyed with some freshly baked bread and I always have sourdough bread. It may not always be baked the same day but I keep it in the freezer, in slices so it is easy to be taken out and defrosted when needed.
Many people ask how to prepare leeks and I added the below picture of my preparations below. First, you cut off the top and the bottom and then you cut them in half. This way it is much easier to clean them properly under running water.
Once you have washed your leeks you can then start cutting them in smaller slices. Don’t worry too much about this stage as they will be blended until smooth in the end.
These were the potatoes I used. I had collected them from Olio along with the leeks. This is a great way to reduce waste and get a very wholesome and free meal.
Delicious soup for colder days. Perfect with a slice of sourdough bread.
If you enjoyed the recipe and want to find more head over to my recipe section and join my Facebook Group which focuses on homemade vegan recipes that are affordable and healthy.
Currently, I’m trying to find simple recipes that I can use for a variety of dishes. I used to love pesto for pasta or as a mixture with cheese in my pre-vegan days. So I have been on the lookout for some nice option to …