Recipes

One of the aspects of following a vegan lifestyle is following a vegan diet, and one of the aspects of following a vegan diet is that one must be able to cook vegan meals. And this means you are going to need to have access to vegan recipes. This in itself is a very large topic for discussion with many variables to consider. The first being your basic level of cooking skills!

Speaking generally, there are two groups of people that go in search of vegan recipes. There are vegans who want recipes to cook for themselves, and there are non-vegans who want to cook a meal for someone that is vegan, and are not sure what to cook. Within each of these groups then are then the people looking to cook something for a special meal, and those looking to cook quick and easy daily meals.

Without a doubt, the most important thing about cooking meals for vegans is that the meals are actually vegan. If you have never thought about this before, it can be daunting! Many processed foods have dead animals or dairy products hidden in them. Vegans know this and will typically avoid food where they cannot be certain there are no embedded animal parts.

A simple example of this problem is with baking. Most non-vegans will include eggs, butter, and milk in their baking. Knowing this fact, most vegans will not eat baking unless they are aware its origins. They want to know who made, that it was genuinely made form vegan ingredients, and that they trust all the people involved from the creation of the ingredients, through the baking process, to the serving of the final product. They want traceability associated with their food.

If you are new to this, the secret is to keep everything really simple. Lightly steamed vegetables with a few nuts and some colorful vegetable embellishments is easy to source, easy to cook, and definitely vegan. As you learn more you can become more complex.

Unfortunately, many of us feel we must demonstrate our cooking skills to others. We always want to show what a beautiful meal we are capable of making. And we attempt to make our first creations too complex. Many of the ingredients you buy every day at the supermarket may contain animal products. This applies to simple things like fruit juice, sugar, and salt through to more complex ingredients like pasta, and sauces.

Another factor you need to beware of when cooking for vegans is the range of ‘… vegan food substitute products …’. Many supermarkets sell ‘vegan’ meats, hamburgers, sausages, fish, and cheese that are all 100% vegan and guaranteed to taste just like the real thing. Some vegans love this sort of stuff. Others are revolted by it. Some vegans see it as an alternative they can cook for meat eating friends. It is safest to avoid all these look-alike products if you are cooking for vegans you have not discussed this with.

The last thing you really need to keep in mind is that most vegans are revolted by the sight and smell of dead animal parts. And they definitely do not want to eat any vegan food that has been in close proximity to them, or that smells of them. If you are cooking meat and vegan food in the same kitchen (especially at the same time), make sure you keep all ingredients well separated and use separate utensils for each. Cross-contamination is likely to result in most vegans refusing to eat the food. Many meat-eaters react to this behavior by vegans as petty, but to understand what is going on you just need to think of something you would not want cross-contaminated with your food.

Imagine you are in a friend’s kitchen as they are preparing a meal. Their pet dog defecates on the floor. Without thinking they bend over and scrape the feces onto some newspaper using the knife they have just be cutting your food with. They roll up the newspaper and through the waste in the rubbish. Then they continue to prepare your food with the same knife, possibly after splashing a little water over it. You would be disgusted. How would you feel about eating the final meal?

Try not to judge vegans for their beliefs or how they choose to see the world (likewise vegans should try not to judge others). But also try to accept that cross-contamination of vegan food with animal produce is likely to be as revolting to a vegan as the previous example (hopefully) was to you.

When you go to visit a vegan’s house, do not take your own meat, milk, eggs, etc with you unless you have discussed this with them previously. Most vegans do not want animal products in their houses and will not welcome you bringing them with you for your own consumption while you are there.

In this section of the web site we will be adding links to external sources for vegan recipes and providing a place where you can upload vegan recipes yourself. Please note that veganbasecamp.com will not have looked at any of these recipes or verified they are strictly vegan. We are just providing a starting point for you to find vegan recipes on the internet.