To ask vegans....

[Blaaaaaaaaah]

What you use to cook?
For background my sister-in-law is coming to stay this weekend. She is recently vegan due to environmental factors, which I’m happy to cater for.
My issue is that for my own political opinion we only use British produce, we live in an agricultural gold mine so this is honestly pretty easy and most of our food has travelled less than 10miles.
However pretty much all the vegan recipes I’ve come across use substitutes made from coconut, almond and soy oil/milks, all of which are using tons of air miles to get here.

So, if you are vegan for similar reasons please can you guide me in what to use to avoid these ingredients?

Sorry I can't answer your question, but amen to this.

so true

I've often wondered this because I think it's not as black and white as vegan = eco / omnivore diet = ruining the earth.

We try to grow as much of our own food as possible. How about a curry, or risotto? Just the rice won’t be local... or a vegetable hotpot with local potatoes on top; I sometimes make a ‘pasta’ dish but use lovely new potatoes instead of pasta...

I’m not vegan myself but am trying to move to a more plant based diet.

You can make a lot of delicious vegan meals without using very processed vegan substitutes (which I agree are not great for the environmental and are often unhealthy). I would suggest dishes packed with beans (like a veggie chilli) or lentils (shepherds pie with lentils instead of mince). You could make a hearty soup for lunch with crusty bread. Some brands of oat milk are made from crops grown in the uk too.

But you don't need milks to cook lots of recipes? My partner is vegan and I almost never use these. If you mean what do I cook in, I use vegetable oil like most people. I think the soya argument is a little misleading in criticising vegan diets - I know you were referring to air miles but many people point to deforestation when actually the majority of soya beans are used as cattle feed. Our soya milk is actually produced in France, though I can't remember the name off the top of my head.

Oat milk and sunflower/rapeseed oil if needed.
Loads of vegan recipes don't need anything fancy.
Lentil Bolognese is one of my favourites.

I’m vegan ‘for the animals’. I also care about the environment and so use as many local products as possible but sometimes it’s not possible.

Is there any reason you don’t just ask your sister? She’ll know better what she’s comfortable with than people on mumsnet, especially the farmers who will use any opportunity to be anti vegan. 😉

Just don't use substitutes
Make a curry and rice with chick peas and vegetables or something like that
Presumably you use olive oil and don't only insist on locally produced lard to cook with you can use seasonal veg and then just content with imported rice and chick peas
Or have it with parathas made with locally ground flour if you object to the air miles involved with rice? I'm not sure how far you take it tbh
This is an issue with vegan food it's true but it's also because the nicest vegan food tends to be based on food from further parts of the world where they eat more veg and less meat, so it does tend to involve non local ingredients. You don't need all fake meat and cheese and whatnot though.

You could try making seitan from local flour, and use that as main source of protein. Also any locally sourced beans/pulses, if that's a possibility?

*Sister in law

You definitely don't have to use these ingredients. What do you usually cook for these kind of meals? Stuffed cabbage leaves or other stuffed peppers would be nice, that's what I fancy right now anyway! ☺️. If a recipe requires mince grated mushrooms or lentils can work as an alternative. Curry's work well for vegans, pasta with a nice sauce. My aunt made me a 'shepherd's pie' that was a vegetable casserole with potatoes on top.

@Plotato No criticism meant it just seems a lot of recipes use coconut oil and the likes instead of butters or oils?

Well are you asking for recipes or trying to make some kind of point? You might be eating a cow from down the road but they are probably fed soy products which has led to from deforestation and has many air miles, in the extremely unlikely event your cow has been eating nothing but organic certified grass it’s still producing a lot of methane.

You can easily go and get various oat based dairy alternatives. Make a locally sourced veg stir fry,look in the supermarket for vegan friendly U.K. produced alternatives jacket potatoes or wedges with veg chilli/bol. Bake some bread with local grains.

I only ever use vegetable oil.

[quote Blaaaaaaaaah]@Plotato No criticism meant it just seems a lot of recipes use coconut oil and the likes instead of butters or oils?[/quote]
Coconut oil is a bit of a fad, and olive oil can be used in almost any recipe instead.

Not all vegans rate coconut oil - just use whatever you've got available, I'm sure she won't mind.

There is a company called Hodmedods in the UK who produce beans etc. Broad beans, quinoa and so on, so that offers some options perhaps?

@GirlWithAGuitar She is happy with all substitutes whereas I am not, this is more about accommodating both.
There’s some good ideas already. Any ideas for the sweet stuff that don’t use substitutes?

How about making a pie?

The contents are ever flexible e.g.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/vegan-shepherds-pie
pieminister.co.uk/vegan-pie-recipe/ (swap chickpeas for a different type of bean if you're really going so far as to avoid them)
If you want a pastry crust, then Jus-Rol shortcrust is vegan.

Or alternatively Pieminister sell some vegan pies (+ meat ones) in some supermarkets (made in Bristol!). Mash (you could use Elmlea Plant if you want to add some creaminess - that's made in Essex) and M&S Plant Kitchen gravy is the nicest gravy I've ever had in my life.

I can pretty much guarantee, however, that you're not eating 100% British all year round - for veg, it's pretty much impossible in the 'hungry gap' months wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/local-sourcing-news-farm/what-hungry-gap

Most of my cakes are oil based. The UK produces rapeseed oil which is great in a sponge cake.

The British beef you're eating is very likely to have eaten as much imported food as your sil.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/vegan-shepherds-pie

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/stuffed-pumpkin

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beetroot-squash-wellingtons-kale-pesto

And either swap the odd exotic ingredient or leave them out

Glad that people are making the point that "British" chicken, pork and cows (for both beef and dairy) is a misnomer as they are all fed on soy that comes from Brazil and Argentina and is responsible for devastating devastation. We have to think about the feed when assessing the air miles or environmental damage linked to meat and dairy. Soy is way more of an issue than almond milk and so on.
Grass fed beef is possible to get but soy free chicken is really expensive and when it comes to dairy cows it's almost impossible to avoid the soy connection. M&S own brand of dairy is soy free but that's the only one.

*devastating deforestation

If you want to make her some oat milk from British oats, there are various recipes online and it's very easy to do. For sweet stuff, sponge recipes using oil, flour and sugar are pretty straightforward, plus the aforementioned oat milk if needed. Also, aquafaba as a binding agent usually comes from chickpea tins but you can use other, homegrown tinned beans too - try a few.