Making Recipes Vegan: Cooking Substitutions
The Best Replacements for Non-Vegan Ingredients: Milk, Butter, Eggs
Oct 10, 2008
“What can you eat?” is one of the most frequently asked questions any vegan hears on a day-to-day basis. The best response? “Anything!” And although vegan-friendly cookbooks are being published in greater numbers than ever before, there are always going to be a few recipes that you cannot track down when you need them. The following suggestions, however, will make converting any recipe an effortless (and delicious) task!
Milk
With the countless brands and flavours of soymilk available these days, the decision becomes what kind of flavour you are looking for, rather than how to replace milk. In desserts like cookies and cakes, using vanilla soymilk often enhances the overall flavour of the finished product. (A word of warning, though, that if a recipe is already inherently sweet, vanilla may push it over the edge.) In other recipes, like savoury sauces or breads, plain soymilk works best. Look into fortified soymilk to add an extra punch of nutrition to any meal.
Allergic to soy? Fear not – use one of the many brands of rice, almond, or other milk replacements available instead.
Eggs
As with milk, replacing eggs depends on your desired flavour or effect. There are a variety of options for desserts – you can use applesauce, silken tofu, and sometimes you can even get away with just a bit of extra soymilk. For each of these options, use approximately 1-1 ½ tablespoons of replacement for each egg the recipe requires. When you don’t want your egg substitute to add flavour to your meal, you can use a powdered egg replacement. These are usually made of starches, such as tapioca or potato starch, and simply need to be mixed with water before use.
Thinking of an egg-based dish? If you have the time to devote, there are delectable ways of creating vegan omelettes, but if you need something quicker, crumbled, firm tofu works well in scrambles. You can season these yourself, or use pre-mixed packages of spices.
Butter/Margarine
Margarine is one of the more difficult ingredients to replace in recipes. The options aren’t numerous, but they are out there. Earth Balance is one of the more flavourful and popular brands, though it is expensive when considering the amount you would need for baking. Many vegans opt to use vegetable shortening, as virtually all block margarine at grocery stores contains whey powder, a milk protein.
If you are having a hard time finding any of the ingredients at your local supermarket, Vegan Essentials is an online shop with anything and everything you could possibly need for your new vegan kitchen creations.
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