Vegan food choices - how to get started - help please

[Healthyalltheway]

Hi
For a range of health related reasons I would like to start a vegan diet. If you have been a vegan for a while what are some good website or recipe sites that you would recommend to get me started. I am keen to learn basic good vegan recipes that ensure I am covering my nutrition bases. Any recommendations or hints and tips to get started and keep going are really welcome.

thank you

I want to try it too but I don't want processed foods fake meat etc so additives

I want to learn how to cook noodles properly to make them tasty and to substitute for meats in bolognese etc

Interested in any such info

I love Meera Sodha’s she has two vegetarian cookbooks (where most of the recipes either are vegan, or could be easily adapted). East is my favourite of the two. She also has a column in the Guardian called The New Vegan which has run since 2017 and has so many delicious vegan recipes, mostly from whole ingredients (she’ll call for plant butters/milks/creams every so often, but not vegan mince, cheese or chicken pieces) which are easily enough to pick up at a supermarket. Also in the Guardian, Felicity Cloake has excellent recipes for vegan ragù and chilli. Ottolenghi also has many vegan (or easily veganised) available for free on the Guardian and YouTube.

One other piece of advice which I learned way too late about making meat free chillis and bologneses is that beef has a huge amount of savoury flavour, so replacing beef with lentils will work texturally, but be fairly bland in a way where adding extra salt and acid won’t fix. Umani rich foods include porcini mushroom stock, mushrooms in the sauce, tomato puree, marmite, miso, soy sauce, nutritional yeast, kombu, or a straight up pinch of MSG if you’re happy to eat it will add a massive depth of flavour and make the dish so much better.

There's tonnes of fabulous websites out there. Vegan versions of pretty much anything. I come back to Hugh FWs more plants book pretty often... So much lovely stuff in there. My advice is to make the changes slowly at first and try to stick to cooking from scratch. I use lots of beans, lentils, tempeh, Tofu and I make my own Seitan, delicious!

https://thedoctorskitchen.com/recipes/ Rupy has lots of recipes, some are vegan.

Eating vegan without meat replacements will really up your fibre intake, go slowly to avoid tummy pain and wind. Remember 80% whole foods and 20% what you fancy is a sensible plan.

To get protein you need to eat a variety of : tofu, tempeh, beans, lentils, peas, nuts, seeds, grains (mainly whole). Also mushrooms and dark chocolate

Try veganuary.com

the whole thing is to encourage people to try going vegan for a month, so its explicitly designed to answer questions and get people started.

Some good recipes and ideas already here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4974222-anyone-else-doing-veganuary?reply=131847835

I would also recommend signing up to veganuary they give support as well.

What kind of food do you like? I generally find soups, chilli, stir fries, curries etc are good vegan options to use lots of veg and beans in, and in the summer salads as well.

I love rainbowplantlife and Sarah’s vegan kitchen recipes. Everything I’ve cooked from their sites has turned out really well. The spicy gochuang tofu from Sarah and 10 ingredient bolognese from rainbow plant life being particular faves!

it’s definitely a bit of a change at first but going vegan has made me a more adventurous cook.

Bosh have some amazing recipes, easy to follow. Plenty of tasty noodle recipes too.
Noodles are so easy if you have the right ingredients and some good sauce recipes. This is one of my favourite sauces - makes enough for 2. It's spicy!