There are many reasons to switch to a vegan diet, including concerns about animal welfare, health and the environment. No matter what the reason someone chooses to become vegan, figuring out what to eat every day can be daunting at first. The strategies below make it easier, and quickly these ideas will become habit, making veganism an easy lifestyle decision.
Start With Familiar Vegan Food
Milk, eggs, meat and fish are not included in a vegan diet. Many people ask, “ What DOES a vegan eat?” Salads are easy to prepare, but don’t provide much variety, and a vegan diet can be much tastier and more substantial than a salad bar, too.
Most people who aren’t vegan regularly eat vegan meals without thinking of them that way. Here are some common vegan meals and snacks:
- Minestrone soup
- Pasta primavera
- Hummus and pita
One easy way to make the transition into a vegan diet is to recognize familiar vegan foods, and count on them as staples until new meals are part of the regular rotation.
Change Up Almost-Vegan Meals
In addition to counting on familiar vegan food, a lot of common meals can be easily made vegan just by leaving out one ingredient, or substituting another. Here are some ideas.
- Stir-fry with nuts or tofu instead of meat
- Chili with an extra can of beans instead of ground beef
- Spaghetti sauce with ground round instead of ground beef
- Pad thai, eggless and without chicken, and with extra peanuts and tofu
Eating a combination of familiar meals and barely-changed recipes can make settling into vegan meal planning quite easy.
Add New Vegan Recipes
In a one-week meal rotation, most people can fill at least four or five dinners with ideas from the suggestions above, or similar foods they already make that can easily be made vegan. With five nights a week of familiar recipes, only two dinners made up of completely new recipes seems pretty easy.
There are many vegan cookbooks, blogs and recipe websites that can provide a new vegan with recipe ideas to last months. Here are some tips when choosing new recipes.
- Cutting out meat can leave a new vegan feeling hungry while their body adjusts to the change in diet. Look for recipes with beans or tofu, as these ingredients are filling as well as versatile.
- Look for recipe websites that include forums and ratings for each recipe. Read through others’ comments to see whether a recipe is tasty. Plus, sometimes past readers suggest changes to the recipe to improve it. Vegweb.com is a good place to start.
- A new vegan should keep track of which recipes they’ve tried. Favorites can be added into the regular meal rotation, and soon they’ll have enough meal ideas to vary their dinners each week.
Starting a vegan diet doesn’t have to be difficult. Use the basic plan of eating familiar vegan foods, customizing almost-vegan meals, and trying out only one or two new recipes a week can make the transition easier. Of course, the occasional meal of store-bought tofu dogs or veggie burgers can be helpful, too!
New vegans should also do some reading in vegan nutrition books to ensure they’re getting enough iron, protein, and calcium.
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