AIBU to ask what vegans actually eat?!

[Bearseatbeets]

A few of my friends have become vegan and keep evangelising to me about the health benefits. And I believe them. But whenever I ask what they actually eat for meals they get very defensive and won’t actually answer me. One of them answered with stir fry as an example and when I asked what protein they have in it, she told me ‘protein is a myth!’

I’m genuinely not trying to attack vegans, i’m interested and want to figure out what I could eat if I were to adopt it. I’m a bit of a foodie so I want exciting tasty food and it is just such a departure from how I eat now, I need some examples so I can work out if it’s feasible

Pickled - I’m genuinely not trying to be a smug cow. I did a month of being vegetarian and just ate a LOT of cheese. Im interested! If someone asked me what I eat, I’d just tell them without assuming they were being condescending!! It’s a very different way to the way I eat, I’m just asking so I can think it through.

Me and DH have been vegetarian for over 30 years. I would like to become vegan but like eggs too much. I buy my eggs from a neighbour though whose chickens have the run of her huge garden all day.

I don't really like cheese so quite easy to give up or use vegan cheese. I don't like milk and me and DH have been using oat milk and coconut milk for ages. We also use dairy free yoghurt (we both think it is much nicer than dairy yoghurt). Also vegan icecream is lovely.

We eat loads of vegetable curries, chickpea curries, dahl. Also loads of lentils, nuts and beans. We make lentil bolognaise, lentil and veg shepherds pie, beanburgers, nut burgers, nut roast, bean chilli, veg chilli, veggie sausage toad in the hole plus many other meals

I’ve switched to coconut milk for my lattes now and it’s so delicious (and I feel a million times better for it because milk doesn’t agree with me very well). There is also a place near me that does vegan sourdough cinnamon rolls which are basically the most delicious pastry I’ve ever eaten.

Wagamama do a vegan curry which has battered and fried sweet potato and aubergine and it is SO good!

I do accidentally vegan Mexican food a lot too - sweet potato and black bean tacos with guacamole 😍 and veggie chilli with lovely steaming rice. I use peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, aubergine and courgette in mine.

You can make vegan pesto by leaving out the Parmesan or replacing it with a vegan cheese substitute. Lovely on pasta (dried pasta is vegan!) or in sandwiches.

I make a gorgeous tomato dish where you fry bread in oil to make croutons then mix up tomatoes with a bit of sugar and vinegar and bake the tomatoes and bread together into a wonderful bubbling crust. Lovely with a rocket salad.

Sweet potatoes, white beans and cashews blended together then formed into burgers dipped in panko and fried make the best, most satisfying burgers - top with a beefy, juicy tomato slice and some avocado and you’ll never look back.

Talkwhilstyouwalk

Interesting thread. Lots of meat alternatives it seems. However do all those beans not make you a bit gassy?

Not if you eat them with vegetables for fiber.

Do vegans eat anything that contains yeast? Genuine question - this very thing came up in conversation with a colleague recently (her niece has turned vegan and apparently yeast is off the menu? First I had ever heard of this!)

www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/vegan-delight/ I love this Benjimin Zephaniah poem on the subject.

Do vegans eat anything that contains yeast?
Yes, it's a fungus, not an animal.

thank you for this thread op. dh and I were talking about what Vegans eat last night. i know a bit about vegetarians, but got stuck on vegans.

I can't work out vegan cheese.....(goes off to as ds's partner)

@mydogisthebest I don't think that you should not considering doing it just because of one product! One of my friends when she started veganism allowed herself to have free range eggs to make it a bit easier in the beginning, though she has since cut those out.

You could still be eating "mainly a vegan/plant based diet", and your eggs from your neighbours chickens sounds like still a more ethical choice than those in farms etc.

I think every small effort counts and if you still eat eggs the vegan police won't come and strip you of your membership although it does sound like you're practically almost there!

I'm not a vegan or vegetarian btw

Yeast isn’t an animal 😂 it’s a fungus!

You also now get ostrovegans who eat bivalves like mussels and oysters, because cultivated oysters are actually good for the environment (they clean up the sea) and they don’t have a central nervous system so they can’t feel pain or fear like an animal can. They wouldn’t strictly be called vegans any more, but it’s an interesting option for seafood lovers!

I also read this week that Vegans don’t eat figs because they have dead wasps inside.

Who knew?!?

My DH is vegan and so I eat vegan meals too. Good sources of protein include butter beans, lentils and chickpeas! We have curries, soup, stir fry...most just involve cooking from scratch which is longer of course but much cheaper plus you know exactly what goes in! We also use kidney beans and mushrooms for lots of meals! HTH x

I'm not vegan but have friends who are and find it pretty easy to cook for them. Had a vegan friend over for dinner on sunday. I cooked roast chicken and stuffing for the non vegans and a pepper stuffed with wild rice/beans/tomatoes/herbs for him. The rest of the meal was the same for everyone - roast potatoes, kale with garlic, broccolini/asparagus/green beans, peas, roasted tomatoes and basil. I love doing a lot of veg anyway.

The only thing I'd really miss if I were vegan is parmesan cheese.

@Twotailed do you have a recipe for your baked bread tomatoes thing? It sounds amazing.

Also that’s very interesting about the bivalve thing!

then a load of pills and supplements to make up for their diets which lack in basic nutrients

Utter rubbish.

@serbska here you go!

smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/scalloped-tomatoes-with-croutons/

The recipe calls for a cup of Parmesan which I leave out (I’m not a vegan but melted cheese upsets my stomach). I still find it really tasty without the Parmesan though! I usually serve it with a nice crunchy salad.

Enjoy!

I know a few vegan people and their diets mostly seem very carb heavy, aside from one or two who put in effort to make creative food and eat a lot of vegetables.

Lots of the food posted on this thread seems to bear this out - like sandwiches with hummus, carby curries with rice as well and burgers made with potato and beans. And endless bloody chickpeas.

All credit to those of you who manage to eat nice food on a vegan diet. I think I'd just end up eating a lot of salad tbh.

Cooking for my DD who eats mainly vegan based, has opened up a new world in cooking. My cupboards are filled with seeds, beans and pulses. Herbs and spices are used more and lots of experimental homemade humous and falafels. Sweet potato and butternut squash are big favourites with the meat eaters in the family who probably only get meat based dishes twice a week and usually served alongside DD vegan meal.

Like most groups of people, there are a section of vegans who are just utter morons.

I’ve been vegan nearly a decade and protein is not a bloody myth.

I eat what I ate before I was vegan but just without the meat, eggs and dairy.

Most vegans just get on with life without making a song and dance about their dietary lifestyle and when vegans preach to others it gives me the rage.

This week we’ve got Linda McCartney ‘duck’ with pancakes and hoisin sauce.
Sausage and mash with veg, gravy and homemade Yorkshire puddings.
Vegetable stew with dumplings
Chicken Caesar salad with homemade garlic bread sticks.
Ham and cheese toasties with cream of tomato soup.
Carbonara and salad
Chana Masala with Naan bread, onion bhajis and pilau rice.

Lunches are pesto pasta salad, leftovers or sandwiches - I’m on a sundried tomato, basil and avocado hype atm like the one from Sainsbury’s.

For breakfast, we’re eating leftover shitty cereal because we’re trying to get rid of the lot and this weekend we’ll have a cooked breakfast.

DH eats the above but sometimes substitutes the vegan equivalent with meat and DS eats what I eat.

I polish the lot off with a healthy helping of vegan chocolate, cheese and biscuits or ice cream with a good gin once terror tot is in bed.

Vegan is only as artsy fartsy as you make it.

**also stir fries make me nauseous

Every person, bar me, in my office is a carnivore. I could say "I know a few carnivores and their diets are very carb heavy". Bacon butties every morning, filled rolls for lunch, noodle/rice pots for quick lunches, crisps and biscuits being munched at every coffee break. It wouldn't be representative of every carnivore, and the same applies to the few vegans who eat a lot of chips.

A well rounded vegan diet can be just as beneficial as a well rounded ‘normal diet’ pre DS I could do a 100g protein day and then some!

I've been vegan for about tenish years.

In that time I've eaten healthily, very unhealthily, been very over weight, been a healthy weight. Currently I'm healthier than I've ever been. Being vegan is not a weight loss diet I hate it when people think that.

I don't usually take supplements (I have during pregnancy and breastfeeding, iron and b12) all my nutrient levels are perfect (I have regular blood tests because I have a hereditary condition which is actually massively benefitted by eating a plant based diet) because I eat a variety of foods fortified with the nutrients we need. My macro intake could probably best be described as moderate carb, low to moderate fat, moderate to high protein (used my fitness Pal so often it's basically built into my brain!)

On a day to day basis I eat things like tofu (in various forms, it's a wonderful versatile food when you know how to use it) tempeh, mushrooms, chickpeas and other beans and pulses, all kinds of veg (especially broccoli spinach kale carrots peas) salads, not very much fruit, brown rice, pasta, peanut butter, chocolate, Marmite, plant milks, occasionally meat and cheese substitutes, avocados, nuts. My meals are not dissimilar to anyone elses really, roasts, sandwiches, curries, chilli, pasta dishes, stir fries, cooked breakfasts, pizza, burgers, chips (rarely these days)

Tonight I'm having fajitas. I had salad with fried mushrooms and green beans with home made houmous for lunch and peanut butter toast and coffee for breakfast. Oh I also had a milkshake. And an orange. It's not really a big deal.

No I don't really talk about it. No I don't care if you don't want to be vegan, you do you.

For breakfast I had a smoothie bowl (frozen fruit blended with a little almond milk and Aldi's green superblend powder added, topped with nuts, seeds and granola).

Lunch was an avocado and chickpea sandwich (mash together avocado and chickpeas with some salt, pepper, garlic and paprika and spread into a sandwich with some tomato and onion).

Dinner will be a lentil Shepherd's pie.

I've been vegan since January (though gave up all dairy other than cheese and ate eggs v irregularly for years before) and a vegetarian since birth. Not died of a protein deficiency yet and never had any issues with iron or B12, even in pregnancy. The last time I saw a doctor for myself was for my childhood immunisations.

Also most people don't realise I'm vegan until we go out for a meal together or they have to cook for me! I don't see why else it would come up in discussion??? One of my friends will still offer me meat for dinner when I go around. 😂