What’s in My Vegan Cupboard
The trick to vegan cooking is having all the right ingredients to hand. It helps to have a good stocked-up cupboard of things you can reach for as bases to your meals, and then you can just add all the veg and fancy stuff.
Tins
Some people may claim that veganism is expensive, which it can be if you are doing it a certain way. One way to avoid this is to buy foods that won’t go off, at least not for a good while. It’s great to have a few cans of soup in your cupboard: tomato, vegetable, lentil, bean, minestrone, leek, etc. This is a quick and easy way to get some goodness into your system and will see you through those cold, lazy winters.
Secondly, beans – especially of the baked variety. Beans are so great. You can have them on toast, cook them into a homemade chilli, or even put them into a vegan pie. Baked beans count towards your five a day and are a great vegan source of protein. I found a vegan version of tinned beans and sausages in CC Continental Supermarket in Hyde Park, Leeds. Tesco and Sainsbury’s also stock a veggie version of this childhood favourite but are unfortunately only vegetarian friendly and not vegan due to the milk content!
Chopped tomatoes, coconut milk and chickpeas are all great fundamental pieces to have in your vegan cupboard. They can all be used in a variety of dishes including making your own sauces at home to avoid buying over-priced, ready-made jars of sauce which are often ridiculously high in sugar and salt.
Pasta and Rice
A good way to eat vegan on a budget or with low-cooking skill is to find some different recipe ideas to go with pasta, noodles or rice. These items can be found at any supermarket and can often be found in bulk. Some varieties – particularly fresh – will contain egg, so make sure to check the label, but most dried stuff is suitable for vegans and will last for a very long time in your cupboard. It’s always good to have some potatoes on hand, too. It is extremely important that as vegans we get enough carbs to keep up our long-term energy storage, like with most “diets”.
Cereals
As I explained in my recent blog post on eating breakfast as a vegan – http://www.hercampus.com/school/leeds/how-eat-and-cook-vegan-breakfast – we can still indulge in the quick and easy morning option of cereal. There is a huge amount of cereals out there and many are free from milk, eggs and other animal products. It’s just about checking the ingredients list! Some cereals come fortified with iron and vitamin B12 – two things infamously said to be lacking in a vegan diet.
Jars
Another great source of B12 for vegans is marmite or vegemite. Nutritional yeast extract can be easily eaten on toast or cooked into certain dishes and is a great way to add flavour – love it or hate it!
Peanut butter, the Holy Grail for many vegans, is also never lacking in my food cupboard. Again mentioned in my vegan breakfast blog, peanut butter is quick and easy on toast with bananas or blended into a smoothie and is a good source of protein. You can even find peanut butters with pumpkin and/or flax seeds. Tip: avoid reduced salt peanut butter… this just ends up being increased sugar peanut butter.
I also keep a jar of special vegan-friendly pesto. Attention! Most pesto is not even vegetarian, let alone vegan! The cheese used in traditional pesto is a hard cheese which is made with rennet (the stomach lining of baby cows – yuck). I also have a squeezy tube of agave nectar which can be used in place of honey (which isn’t vegan). Agave nectar is a natural alternative to sugar. It is sweet and easy peasy as the tube is squeezy! You can have this in tea, or on porridge.
Nuts and Seeds
Finally, I keep a few bulk bags of nuts and seeds to hand. The nutritional value of eating nuts and seeds is incredible and they can easily just be added to salads, sandwiches, stir fries or kept in your bag to munch on the go. My personal favourites are walnuts, cashew nuts, chia seeds and sunflower seeds.