BEGINNER VEGAN

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Amortentiax
Amortentiax Posts: 27 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi all!

I have recently decided to jump into veganism. My outlook on life has changed a lot of the last week, and I am ready to fully commit. Today is my third day, and I need recipes! I need book recommendations, recipe recommendations, I need everything.

I am looking for any kind of advice from the vegan/vegetarian community.

Thanks in advance!

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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    "Vegan for Life" by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina is a great introduction to vegan nutrition.

    Online, I've found many great recipes on Pinterest. You can't go wrong with a cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Terry Hope Romero, Donna Klein, and Bryant Terry are other favorite cookbook authors of mine.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »

    You'll need to look at food labels very closely for animal products. Same for cosmetics and soaps and whatnot.

    I haven't used it, but have heard other vegans say the "Is It Vegan?" barcode scanner app works pretty well for this. Newer vegans may find it especially useful while they learn all the different things on ingredient lists that are sourced from animal products.
  • olyamhc
    olyamhc Posts: 60 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Yay on going vegan! If you have a Barnes & Noble around you, they have so many cookbooks on sale. I don't have any particular ones to recommend as I like a recipe from here and there. Allrecipes is a great website, where you can find Vegan things to cook. I think MFP here also has a Vegan group that you can join. If you have Instagram, look for "vegan nutrition" tag and you can add some coaches, nutritionists, or just vegans who post recipes. Facebook has a lot of awesome groups, as well, if you search by a keyword.

    I second the person who posted about B12, you'll need to get either a pill or a shot supplement for that as you can only get it from animal-derived sources. Omegas are present in flax seeds (oil or whole/ground), hemp seeds. Healthy fats are also in nuts. Ethnic supermarkets are awesome for cheaper produce shopping, try new things! For the beginning you can try making your favorite recipes vegan with substitutes (if they weren't such originally).

    Feel free to ask me any questions. I'm a nerd and was healthy vegan for 3 years, vegetarian for 8 (and currently). I've read a lot of research, cookbooks, and participated in the general lifestyle (vegan household products, etc).

    Edit: Oh, and you gotta try these, vegan falafel and naan! https://minimalistbaker.com/easy-vegan-falafel/

    https://minimalistbaker.com/?s=vegan+naan
  • svel713
    svel713 Posts: 141 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Starbucks: Coconutmilk mocha macchiato, no caramel, double mocha syrup is a good drink that I am 95% sure is vegan.

    Meat: Boca chicken burgers at most grocery stores (USA) and Meatless Meatballs from Trader Joe's. Learn to make seitan at home for cheaper meat.

    Ice Cream: Simple Truth Almondmilk ice creams, Vegan Halo Top, Trader Joes has some ice cream and vegan mochi.

    Parmesan Cheese: Grind raw cashews in a food processor with Old El Paso taco seasoning and Nutritional yeast. Its not active baking yeast, you may have to look around for it.

    Protein Bars: ThinkThin has two plant based bars. Raw Rev Glo Creamy Peanut butter is good and can be found on Amazon.

    Pasta: Dry box pasta is usually vegan, check the box to be sure.

    Beans: Dried beans are your friend once you get used to them. Buy kidney and garbanzo beans canned. Kidney beans have a toxin that can hurt you if you cook them wrong. I skip that with canned so I don't have to worry about it since canned beans are pre cooked. Garbanzo beans straight out of the can are a tasty, lazy snack. Bonus points if you put Just Caesar on them with a broccoli veggie blend.

    Salad Dressing: Just Caesar tastes like the real thing. There are other flavors but I haven't tried them yet.

    Hummus: Its vegan if it doesn't have a yogurt base. Most don't.

    Chips: Most plain tortilla chips are vegan. Doritos Blaze are vegan and are great if you like spicy chips.

    Ramen: Top Ramen (not Maruchan) has an oritental (sometimes called Soy Sauce) flavor that is vegan. Some kimchi is vegan, just make sure it doesn't have fish sauce.

    Drinks: Powerade Zero, most diet sodas, and Rockstars are vegan.
  • Amortentiax
    Amortentiax Posts: 27 Member
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    Thank you so much everyone! I plan on hitting up a book store this weekend for recipe books, and I’ll have to grab all of those vitamins! I am SO excited.
  • potatovegan
    potatovegan Posts: 32 Member
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    Join some vegan facebook groups for support and recipes. Some of the plant based doctors I like to follow are Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live is a great book), Dr. John McDougall (the Starch Solution), and The Forks over Knives Plan is a great book, not sure who wrote that one. Pinterest is a plethora of information. Dr. John McDougall has a lot of FREE information and recipes on his site, drmcdougall.com . Welcome to the vegan world!
  • fuzzylop72
    fuzzylop72 Posts: 651 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Vegan for life is a good resource (book) to have although most of the critical information is available for free on veganhealth.org.

    Also, while certainly not low calorie cooking, the recipes i've tried from vegan comfort classics (hotforfood cookbook) have all been good.
  • scarlettsky7
    scarlettsky7 Posts: 128 Member
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    Feel free to add me!! Vegetarian for over a decade, vegan for 5 months!! I post yummy food ideas
  • Amortentiax
    Amortentiax Posts: 27 Member
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    potatovegan wrote: »
    Join some vegan facebook groups for support and recipes. Some of the plant based doctors I like to follow are Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live is a great book), Dr. John McDougall (the Starch Solution), and The Forks over Knives Plan is a great book, not sure who wrote that one. Pinterest is a plethora of information. Dr. John McDougall has a lot of FREE information and recipes on his site, drmcdougall.com . Welcome to the vegan world!

    I actually watched the Forks Over Knives documentary today in between my classes! Ah-mazing! I’ll definitely have to check all these out
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,020 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Make sure you're supplementing EPA/DHA omega 3 because you're no longer getting that in your diet.

    You're not getting them, but you don't need to supplement them because your body can synthesize them from ALA omega 3 found in plant foods.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,741 Member
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    Disclaimer: not vegan or even vegetarian. My husband's pescetarian though and does all of the cooking. We eat 90% vegetarian at home and I'd say 1/3 of our meals are vegan...

    FAVORITE vegan cookbooks are by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, especially Veganomicon. Even our local library has her books and lots of other great vegan cookbooks.

    I also love meal ideas from YouTuber Kicki Yang Zhang. She doesn't upload much anymore, but her "what I eat in a day vegan" videos are fantastic...lots of her meal ideas have turned into household staples. She does really simple foods with an Asian bent and plenty of "comfort food" in the mix...amazing.
  • cqbkaju
    cqbkaju Posts: 1,011 Member
    edited March 2018
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Make sure you're supplementing EPA/DHA omega 3 because you're no longer getting that in your diet.

    You're not getting them, but you don't need to supplement them because your body can synthesize them from ALA omega 3 found in plant foods.

    Only a relatively small amount EPA or DHA (best case is about 8% - 10% conversion rate for either) can be synthesized from ALA and that naturally requires a large intake of ALA to make this possible.
    That would require a large volume of food, obviously.

    DHA conversion is particularly poor:
    "Furthermore, in vegetarians ALA supplementation was demonstrated to increase the proportion of EPA but not DHA"

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257695/

    @cwolfman13 has a well-rounded fitness routine, so I would give his advice a bit more weight, personally.
  • HotMama115
    HotMama115 Posts: 25 Member
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    Thug kitchen!! Such an awesome cookbook!!! Language offensive but it makes me laugh! Recipes are killer!!
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,020 Member
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    @svel713, your post triggered a lot of ideas for me -- this isn't meant as a criticism of anything you wrote - just an easy way for me to add my ideas because I'm lazy.
    svel713 wrote: »

    Parmesan Cheese: Grind raw cashews in a food processor with Old El Paso taco seasoning and Nutritional yeast. Its not active baking yeast, you may have to look around for it.

    You can find nutritional yeast on Amazon or order directly from a producer like Bob's Red Mill.
    It's also good on popcorn. I like it sprinkled on beans as a quick snack (heat canned or previously cooked beans in the microwave, add nutritional yeast to taste, any other spices you want like cumin or ground chipotle, stir, eat).
    Beans: Dried beans are your friend once you get used to them. Buy kidney and garbanzo beans canned. Kidney beans have a toxin that can hurt you if you cook them wrong. I skip that with canned so I don't have to worry about it since canned beans are pre cooked. Garbanzo beans straight out of the can are a tasty, lazy snack. Bonus points if you put Just Caesar on them with a broccoli veggie blend.

    I never heard that about kidney beans, so I guess I'm lucky I haven't killed myself cooking them.

    OP, if you're new to cooking beans, I recommend the "Bean by Bean Cookbook" by Crescent Dragonwagon.

    Lentils are an easy way to ease to into cooking legumes. No soaking required, they cook quickly, and they're very versatile.

    I keep a variety of both canned and dried beans on hand. If you do cook dried beans, you can cook a large batch and then drain and freeze them in smaller batches (they thaw fairly quickly if you've drained them, so they're not sitting in a block of ice, plus I find the texture much better if you drain before freezing). Or if you're really impatient, you can pop them into soup or stew straight from the freezer. There's an incredible variety of dried beans available on the Internet if you want to try some that you don't find in your grocery store. Also look in ethnic sections or specialty ethnic grocery stores for different legumes.

    Another thing to know about beans is that the cooking liquid (either from the can or from cooking them yourself) can be used as an egg substitute in cooking (vegan meringue! homemade vegan mayo!). Search the web for "acquafaba" recipes.

    Salad Dressing: Just Caesar tastes like the real thing. There are other flavors but I haven't tried them yet.

    It's very easy to make your own salad dressing from olive oil (or other oil of your preference -- avocado and nut oils are tasty on a salad) and vinegar (you can vary the flavor greatly using different vinegars, like balsamic, white balsamic, sherry vinegar, herb-infused vinegars, fruit-infused vinegars for salads that have some fruit). Add salt, pepper, herbs, spices to taste (when you're starting out, one of those blended Italian herb mixes works with most greens + veggies salads). -- Which reminds me, grains + greens are a good way to break out of the traditional salad rut if you want. One of the first salads I ever "invented" for entertaining decades ago was romaine + couscous (these days I might be more likely to use arugula/rocket + bulgur or quinoa), with cremini mushrooms, chickpeas, thin-sliced shallots, and lemon-olive oil-black pepper dressing. So good, and if you make it a decent size, it could be a full meal.

    If I'm just making a salad for myself, I don't bother with mixing up the dressing separately. I just pour the olive oil and vinegar right on the salad, add salt, pepper, and whatever other spices or herbs I'm using and "toss" (I actually use a knife and fork to cut up any large pieces of veggies that sneaked in, and "cut" the dressing in at the same time).
    Hummus: Its vegan if it doesn't have a yogurt base. Most don't.

    Hummus is another thing that's easy to make for yourself. The traditional version is chickpeas, tahini (sesame seeds ground up until they resemble peanutbutter in texture), garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil, but you can try other legumes, or even substitute veggies like carrots and beets for part or all of the legumes; substitute other seeds or nuts for the tahini, and try other flavors in addition to or in place of the garlic and lemon juice. Lots of times when I'm making it just for me, I'll just mash up the chickpeas with a manual potato masher (a handle attached to an open-patterned metal mashing tool -- it's difficult to describe), and not worry if it's a little chunky), but if I'm making a bigger batch, the food processor mashes it smooth in very little time.


    I recommend Rose Elliot's "The Complete Vegetarian Cuisine." Although not all the recipes in it are vegan, most of the ones that aren't have vegan options.

    Best of luck!

    *Full disclosure: I am not vegan or even vegetarian. I just eat and cook a lot of meals that are vegan-friendly.



  • AmandaDanceMore
    AmandaDanceMore Posts: 298 Member
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    Thug Kitchen is awesome. They have cookbooks and a blog. I also love Plant Based on a Budget (they actually have a meal plan that’s pretty good if you’re trying to save money but also eat vegan). There’s a video on YouTube that’s tofu basics for beginners. I recently watched it as I’ve never really been big on tofu (my favorite method up until recently was Thug Kitchen’s baked tofu), and that video has been LIFE CHANGING. I’ve gone from eating tofu once in a blue moon to several days a week.

    Nutritional yeast is your best friend. Get it. You will quickly learn how amazing it is.

    It REALLY isn’t too hard to be vegan. You’ll get more and more comfortable with it as you go. Just remember that if you make a mistake or fall to temptation, no one is perfect. You’re fine!
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    Like anything else, unless you have health issues that require you to be vegan, I would highly suggest working your way into this rather than going cold turkey.
  • Klmom123
    Klmom123 Posts: 91 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Recent vegetarian here , but my daughter has been a vegan for the last three years. So when she’s home from college I make her vegan favorites. One of them is split pea soup and another is Mexican quinoa bowl. You just have to swap out a few minor things in order to keep them vegan, I always keep vegetable stock on hand, and obviously no cheese can go in any of the dishes. But they really are delicious. Another one that she made recently was a black bean burrito, the whole family liked that. The hardest thing for her is going out to eat since most restaurants offer vegetarian dishes but very seldom does she find a restaurant that has vegan options. There is usually some sort of milk or powdered cheese in the sauce or the breading hidden away.
    Good luck to you, she loves her choice to be vegan .
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    potatovegan wrote: »
    Join some vegan facebook groups for support and recipes. Some of the plant based doctors I like to follow are Dr. Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live is a great book), Dr. John McDougall (the Starch Solution), and The Forks over Knives Plan is a great book, not sure who wrote that one. Pinterest is a plethora of information. Dr. John McDougall has a lot of FREE information and recipes on his site, drmcdougall.com . Welcome to the vegan world!

    OP, if you do decide to use these sites for information, I recommend taking what is useful (recipes) and leaving that which is less useful (lots of food restriction/fear of certain foods).

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