Let’s Talk Vegan, Gluten-Free, and Allergen Friendly Food Alternatives

The Vanderbilt Initiative for Veg. Awareness often hosts cooking events.  As our name might suggest, all the food we cook is vegan (no meat, eggs, or dairy).  For the first time, we had some non-vegan/vegetarian guests at our cooking night and they had a lot of questions about how it’s even possible to make cake without milk and eggs.  And cooking vegetables without butter in a southern town like Nashville? Unfathomable! 

Despite popular opinion, there are TONS of ways to substitute traditional recipes with vegan ingredients.  The dish doesn’t have to be ‘designed’ for vegans to become animal and planet-friendly!  Here’s just a few of the many options:

Milk — Possibly the easiest to replace since you can use soymilk, rice milk, oat milk, or nut milk measure for measure. 

Cheese — There are plenty of vegan cheeses out there, and most can be found in the dairy-free section at chain grocery stores like Kroger and Publix.  Look for Daiya soy cheese, Dr. Cow tree nut cheese, Go Veggie!, and my personal fave…Nacheez Vegan Nacho Cheese.

Eggs — Scrambled? I’ll take tofu instead! You can easily scramble tofu crumbles and add in tomatoes, peppers, onions, and the classics: salt and pepper. 

Baked goods?  No worries, eggs are replaced by applesauce, mashed bananas, pureed soft tofu, or the flax mix (1 tablespoon ground flax seeds with 3 tablespoons water).

Beef or chicken stock — Vegetable broth. Done.

Butter — Vegan margarine is easy to find, right next to your regular butter. Try Earth Balance.

Yogurt — Silk and Stonybrook both make soy yogurt that are perfect additions to smoothies or baked goods, or taste perfect with just some granola added in. 

Sour Cream — Try plain soy yogurt for making dips. There are also a few vegan sour creams on the market like Tofutti and Vegan Gourmet. Might have to make a trip to Whole Foods for this one. 

Mayonnaise — Try Just Mayo! It’s vegan and you won’t even be able to taste the difference.  If you’re into making things from scratch, mayo is also really easy to whip up in your kitchen as a vegan recipe!

Honey — Heard of Agave?  You can also use another sugary syrup like corn, molasses, or fruit syrups!

Chocolate — The darker the better. Look for 70% cocoa or more and check for Milk Powder…but the Ghiradelli chocolate semi-sweet chips are perfect for baking!

Meat — There are more substitutes for meat than ever before! Nearly every grocery store and many restaurants are now offering: veggie deli slices, veggie burgers, veggie meatballs, veggie sausage links and patties, veggie bacon, veggie ground “beef,” soy chicken patties and nuggets, veggie meatloaf, veggie jerky, and there’s always ToFurky for the holiday coming up!

Ice Cream — Ben and Jerry’s to the rescue! This year they came out with a few vegan flavors in pint size! They’re AMAZING, but if you’re allergic to soy or almonds…try coconut ice cream or Tofutti ice cream sandwiches. 

Now get baking, savory flavors await you!

• cooking
• food
• health
• vegan
• vegetarian