Mistakes New Vegans Make (And How To Avoid Them)
This #Veganuary, consider adding more plant-based meals to your kitchen repertoire. Here are some tips that will help you avoid going hungry.
Going vegan can seem intimidating. I had the fortune of being a teenager when I made the switch, and while my options were quite limited then, as I came from a rural town in northern Florida, I had one big advantage: I didn’t know I couldn’t go vegan. I mean to say that I didn’t know that the obstacles in my way ought to have prevented me and would have prevented most people from succeeding. Yet, about 15 years later, I’ve never looked back.
Still, there are things I wish I had known when I started out, things that would have made life easier. This article addresses some of the issues I encountered or observed and what I’ve learned along the way in terms of dealing with them.
Tofu: What You Need To Know
I can hear it now: tofu is gross, I don’t eat that.
And you don’t have to. It is possible to be a vegan and never buy a container of tofu. But before you rule out an ingredient, there are some nuances to it that you should be aware of.
The first thing to know is that there are different types of tofu. If you have tofu in a recipe, it won’t come out right if you don’t use the right kind. Silken is best used for blending into smoothies, soups, puddings, and so on. Then you’ve got firm, extra firm, and super firm types. Those will hold their shape better, in ascending order.
The other main thing to get right is pressing your tofu. Now, you can buy a tofu press, but anything heavy will do. Put your tofu on a clean paper towel, then put another paper towel on top, followed by your heavy item. I tend to use a cast-iron skillet to press mine, but books or other heavy dishes will work, too.
You have to press the water out. This is especially important if you’re going to marinate the tofu or cook it in a sauce: it absorbs flavor much better that way. The stereotype of tofu as the bland white sponge is only as true as you let it be. Trader Joe’s, for example, has a wonderful baked tofu in two flavors: sriracha and teriyaki. I like the sriracha kind for sandwiches, and the teriyaki one is good in a stir-fry, sliced and stirred into ramen, or nuked very briefly and combined with leftover Chinese takeout.
Once again: you don’t have to eat tofu. But if you haven’t tried it in a long time, or ever, then you should give it a shot. Probably my favorite way to eat tofu is by getting it from a Chinese or Asian-fusion restaurant, but be sure to ask about the sauce in the dish. Not all are vegan, and some contain fish sauce or another animal product.
If you do order mapo tofu, for example, be advised that some restaurants make it with minced pork. Also, most places that have tofu in one or two dishes will do substitutions; that is to say, if you see General Tso’s tofu on the menu, with no other tofu options, you can try asking for the dish you’d normally get — say, sesame chicken — and having them substitute in tofu for the chicken.
Protein That Isn’t Tofu
If you’re like me, you like to experiment with new foods and food combinations. If not, though, I highly recommend adopting a more experimental attitude towards food, if you can.
The reason I say this is that meat substitutes have come a very long way, especially in the last decade or so. They’ve become more mainstream, relatively speaking. Before I went off to college, my hometown had very little in the way of vegan-specific offerings, so when I went to school, I suddenly had access to all sorts of new foods that I hadn’t even known to want.
When I had my first vegan sausages, I didn’t know how to act. Tofurky bratwurst with red pepper relish and Italian sausage by the same brand in my pasta sauce changed the game for me.
I didn’t love the veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs when I first tried them. The kind that were supposed to replicate a meat-like texture and appearance, in those days, missed the mark by a lot. (If I have to drench something in mustard to make it edible, it’s probably not going to become a favorite.) Nowadays, you really can get a vegan burger that gets pretty close to cow’s flesh, to the point where some of them even contain beet juice to replicate bleeding the way a rare burger would.
Meat analogs are not your only option, however, and a lot of them can be quite expensive. I love Gardein’s Szechuan Beefless strips, but at around $5 a bag, it’s not practical to buy it every day. For more practical, everyday options, I’d direct you to this article to start with. The Game Changers documentary creators also have a website, which has tons of protein-packed recipes. And if you’re into nutrient and calorie tracking, this is a handy guide for getting the nutrition info for a recipe.
Salad
When I started seeing my (non-vegan) partner, he told me he’d dated “vegetarians,” before. And he kept on buying heads of lettuce that would then mostly be wasted. I didn’t know they were supposed to be mine until this had gone on for much longer than I’m proud to admit.
The thing is, I don’t eat a lot of salads. I definitely enjoy them, but they hadn’t ever been a go-to food for me. And so I find it a little comical when people think veganism means you have to eat salads all the time.
I really got out of the habit of eating fresh vegetables, like those in a green salad, because I went through a period of time when all my food came from a food pantry. Sometimes I would have food stamps, but because I wasn’t yet officially disabled, they would get cut off from time to time because of Florida’s “economic self-sufficiency,” rules. (Anyone who’s under a certain age and considered able to work has to work to continue receiving SNAP benefits over a certain period of time.) I also didn’t have a fridge or any real way to preserve food, so that made things interesting as well.
When the only things you have most of the time are things that come in a can or a box, you work with it because you have to. The good news is, having done that as a vegan, I can confirm that it’s doable. But I’ve been vegan for about 15 years now, and I have to start actively changing my diet to eat more actual plants. It’s a bit of a trip.
You can be as healthy as you want to be. Or as unhealthy. Oreos and Skittles are vegan, too.
Dietary Fat
Plant fats are good for you, and you should include them in moderation in the forms that suit you. If you don’t, you will find your food less than satisfying.
The reason? You can achieve fullness without fat, but satiety cues are heavily influenced by your fat intake. Additionally, the fat soluble vitamins (A, E, D, and K) require fat for absorption. Translation: if there’s no or not enough fat in your diet, you won’t feel well at all.
If you do enjoy salads, try them with avocado, hummus, vinaigrette, or another healthy fat. Don’t just get the side salad with lettuce and tomato and drizzle on some fat-free dressing and think that will keep you full and sated.
Season Your Food…
In addition to fat, which does give food a flavor on its own, learn to season your food with herbs, spices, and so on. You may already have some background knowledge that can come in handy.
I wasn’t raised vegan. My dad did most of the cooking. The man owns an actual tub of lard. That’s how southern we were.
I had to figure out the seasoning issue for myself. And I’m still not a very good cook. With my tummy issues, what I can handle eating is something of a moving target. It’s usually more about texture than flavor, but if I didn’t season my food to taste good — not just edible, good — I wouldn’t eat most days.
You can get started with what you can find in your average dollar store, but if you really want to experiment and get fancy, I recommend it. I didn’t know rich people go to stores that only sell spices or only sell olive oil. I had no idea. You don’t need that, of course, and you don’t need a spiralizer or any other fancy equipment, necessarily. But playing around with food, experimenting, is one thing that really powered me through when I first went vegan. You never know what you might discover.
…But Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
If all that sounds overwhelming or intimidating to you, you’re not alone. And not everyone loves cooking or spending a lot of time on food.
The good news is, since you eat food on a regular basis, you already like some flavors. It’s a matter of translating that into a vegan format.
Dad did most of the cooking, but mom was Italian and could make an amazing all-day sauce. And I loved Italian sausage, and what makes Italian sausage for me is the spice mix. Tofurky’s version is my favorite. Field Roast makes an Italian, but theirs is a bit heavy-handed with the fennel for my taste. The texture is very good in both. I’ve yet to try Beyond sausage pizza, but I definitely will be checking into that.
But it doesn’t stop at meat substitutes. I make a mean black bean chili, solid pasta sauces, and I adore Chinese, Mexican, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors and cuisines. There really is no end to what you can play around with, but if you already know you like a particular cuisine, that’s where I would start. That’s where I did start, actually, at the likes of Taco Bell and Subway, and in my own kitchen with black (or red) beans and rice.
Get Excited
I know people sometimes view a life change like veganism as not just intimidating but quite restrictive. It can be, but that depends entirely on you. If you go into this with the attitude that half your plate is now empty, then sure, things might seem pretty bland and uninspired.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Go into it with an attitude of exploration and celebrate trying new things and finding new favorites, along with veganism’s other benefits, of which there are many, and you’ll find a very different path unfolds for you.
