The best food when you’re sick is somewhat bland, but also tastes good. It’s a tough combination, and even tougher when you’re vegan. But you still have quite a few options. I’ve collected a bunch here, in no particular order. Soup! Soup is an amazing food when you’re sick. It goes down easy, and helps you stay hydrated. You can easily find vegan soups at most stores. Look for Amy’s...
Yes, almost all vanilla extracts (even artificial ones) are vegan. I’ve never come across a vanilla extract in a store that wasn’t vegan-friendly. Vanilla used to be made with castoreum (from a beaver’s anal glands), but it’s exceedingly rare nowadays because it’s difficult and expensive to gather. If you looked hard enough you could probably still find some. How Vanilla...
Vegan substitutes keep improving. Milk and eggs are easy to find vegan alternatives for. And it turns out that butter is fairly easy too. Think about what butter adds to a recipe, and that will lead you to the substitutions. It mainly adds 2 things: flavor and texture, both of which are mainly a result of its fat content. That’s why the best vegan butter substitutes are...
Oyster sauce is a popular ingredient in a lot of Asian dishes that obviously isn’t vegan. When it comes to substituting oyster sauce, we don’t have a ton of options. But there are some, and some vegan brands are launching vegan versions of products like oyster sauce, so always keep an eye out for them. Is Oyster Sauce Ever Vegan-Friendly? Real oyster sauce is basically never vegan. Most of the...
The short answer is that yes, molasses is typically vegan, but isn’t always. There’s one aspect of molasses manufacturing that you might not consider vegan. I’ll keep it as brief as possible, but you do need a bit of background information to understand why. How Molasses is Made The sugar products we use today have been made for hundreds of years by boiling and refining...
When oil reaches a high temperature during frying and deep frying, secondary products can form that are bad for your health. While many believe that oils with a high smoke point are best for high temperature cooking, recent research has shown that it’s not the best metric to go by. I’ll summarize that research in an easy to understand way so that you can choose your frying oil with confidence...
Key takeaways: The foam on top of chickpeas is called aquafaba, a substance consisting of various carbohydrates and proteins from chickpeas (or other legumes). The proteins are key in forming the foam, and function similar to egg whites. Aquafaba is relatively tasteless, so whipping it after adding some sugar and cream of tartar makes a good plant-based meringue (not quite the same as whipped...
Baking is a carbohydrate-heavy activity. However, by focusing on certain types of flours, you can have a bit more control over how much protein you get as well. Here’s a table of the protein content in 100 grams of several types of flour. Most are wheat, but I added a few non-wheat ones as well for comparison. In terms of getting the most protein per calorie, chickpea and coconut flour are the...
Beans are a great source of nutrition. They are one of the top vegan sources of iron, and have a lot of protein and a great amino acid profile, but they contain a lot of antinutrients, along with other undesirables. One way to reduce these negative aspects of beans is to soak them before cooking them (soaking beans is important for softening them as well). People have soaked beans and nuts...
As I’ve recently experienced first hand, yes it can. But it’s not always easy to notice. Because you’re likely only eating a tablespoon or two at a time, eating rancid flax typically won’t cause more than mild stomach issues. How to Tell If Ground Flax is Expired There are really only 2 ways to tell if it’s gone bad: Smell – This is the most reliable way. If it smells weird (almost...