No matter what your reasoning is, from environmental concern to health reasons, you might be thinking about going vegan and might have some big questions about vegan food. Whether you’re just trying to cut down on meat and dairy, or attempting to fully cut all animal products out of your diet, there are plenty of great vegan recipes out there for you to try.

You might think of vegan food as being boring and entirely made of greens, but nothing could be further from the truth. With a little bit of imagination and creativity, you can make vegan food that’s just as tasty and exciting as any non-vegan equivalent. Below, we’ll run you through some of the best ideas you could use for vegan food if you’re not feeling particularly confident about just making it up as you go along. If you’re wondering what you can do to make interesting and delicious vegan food, read on below to find out more!

Condiments

If you’re someone who likes a lot of condiments to help flavour your food, then you’ll be pleased to hear that most of the condiments that you already use are likely to be vegan, meaning you don’t have to change as much as you might expect!

Condiments such as ketchup, sriracha, soy sauce, mustard, and tabasco sauce are all vegan as standard, and there are many different brands that now offer vegan mayonnaise (sometimes sold as “vegannaise” that can be easily found in most grocery stores.

Cheese

Many new vegans find it difficult to stop eating cheese, and it is a flavour that many people really miss. Fortunately, it’s not actually all that difficult to replace if you find that it’s a flavour you can’t do without.

There are many different brands of cheese alternative available, made from a wide range of different bases. Obviously anything made from milk isn’t going to fit into a vegan diet, but soy or coconut based cheese alternatives can be just as good as traditional cheeses in a lot of situations! Alternatively, if you miss the funky taste of parmesan in your cooking, then a sprinkle of nutritional yeast can bring a lot of that punchy, savoury flavour to your vegan dishes. It’s a great option for making cheese sauces for pasta dishes, for example!

Bread

Good news! Most bread is entirely vegan. Bread is made from a simple list of four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and salt. Some breads such as brioche or buns can contain enriching ingredients like butter or egg, however, so it is a good idea to check the ingredients list before buying any, just in case.

Meat

Meat is the big, difficult thing to replace. It can be such a huge part of a non vegan diet that working out how best to replace it can be difficult. If you like to cook, though, then it can be an exciting challenge that can be actively enjoyable to try to solve.

There are many different commercially available meat substitutes, like Quorn and soy products, or even seitan, which you can make at home without needing much more specialist stuff than a bag of wheat gluten. Alternatively, making dishes with mushroom based ingredients instead of meat options can be great – try making a Bolognese sauce with mushrooms and nutritional yeast instead of beef!

Eggs

Eggs are an important ingredient in a wide range of different baked goods. Fortunately, they aren’t too hard to replace, in most cases. A mashed up banana will hold most baked goods together just as well as an egg, without making too much impact on the taste, and potato starch can also be used as a binding agent to help hold your baking together without ever needing an egg at all. Eggs are more useful for their binding properties than their flavour, in most cases, so they aren’t actually as difficult to substitute out as you might think!

Conclusion

Vegan food doesn’t have to be boring! With a bit of creativity, it’s possible to make a vegan alternative to almost any dish you can imagine, and often without adding much (or any!) effort or expense to your cooking process. If you’re ever short of inspiration, though, you can check out Sinfulvegan or other vegan advice and tips websites for a great collection of exciting recipes that you can follow directly or simply use for inspiration! No matter what you’re looking for, it should be relatively easy to find resources to help you with vegan recipes and vegan food, no matter your levels of skill and confidence.