The Vegan Challenge

From a recently converted vegan…

Foods to embrace:

• Beans (in all their glory and variety).
• Nuts (as a snack or blended into nut butter).
• Tofu and tempeh. Bland as is – you MUST cook well and eat with delicious sauce or marinade. If you’re an egg fiend try scrambled tofu – great with mushrooms and spinach).
• FRUIT and VEGETABLES are actually amazing! And versatile! Raw, stir fried, baked, steamed…with rice, bread, pasta, beans…sauce concoctions…The possibilities are endless.
• Non-dairy milk. I have coffee with soy milk, muesli with oat or rice milk, I bake with almond milk, cook with coconut milk and make ice-cream with quinoa 
  milk. Go wild.

• Mock meat – available in supermarkets, but for more choice head to an Asian grocery or health food store.
• Soy cheese is not at all bad, although often not brilliant eaten on it’s own,
  it still does the trick on pasta or pizza.
• Coconut yoghurt – available from health food shops.
• Soy ice cream or, even better, coconut ice-cream.
• For baking use flax/chia eggs, Nuttlex, Tofutti, coconut oil and non-dairy milk. Easy.
• Dark chocolate.

Places to shop:

• Health food isle and freezer section of the supermarket.
• ANY fruit and veg shop!
• Dr. Earth in Newtown
• The Cruelty Free Shop in Glebe
• Asian supermarkets – IGA in China Town has an extensive range of mock products – frozen, cold, canned and dried.

Places to eat:

• Pretty much any Asian restaurant is vegan friendly – get a tofu/veg dish.
• Turkish/Middle Eastern is also great – dips, falafel, bread, salads, dolmades…
• In Newtown go to:
  • Green Gourmet – they also have amazing desserts and tofu ice-cream
  • Blossom Lotus
  • Basil Pizza and Pasta – they have soy cheese pizzas
• Newly opened in Sydney on George St. (but a Melbourne institution) is Lord of the Fries – a vegan’s answer to fast food!
• Indian is great for veg options (just beware of ghee…) – Maya Vegetarian in Surry Hills and Hari’s Vegetarian on Broadway are vegan friendly.
• In Glebe, Badde Manors is of course an institution…
• About Life in Rozelle and Bondi Junction (a supermarket and cafe).
• Ungaro Raw in Rozelle.
• Cow and Moon in Enmore and Messina both have divine sorbets.
• Most cafes and restaurants in the Inner West have vegan options or will amend something for you.

Food blogs to visit for inspiration:

• http://www.mynewroots.org/site/
• http://www.greenkitchenstories.com/recipe-index/
• http://www.vegiehead.com/recipes.html
• http://www.earthsprout.com/
• http://www.loveandlemons.com/recipe-browser/#cat-vegan