What On Earth Do Vegans Eat?

by

This is probably one of the biggest misconceptions about turning vegan or following a plant-based diet.  What on Earth do vegans eat? There’s nothing left to eat!

What a load of baloney!

It’s one of the phrases we vegans will hear time and time again when someone finds out we are vegan.

But what do you eat?

Even before I went 100% plant-based, I was a vegetarian.  Even then people couldn’t understand it.

Once I told someone I was vegetarian when we were at a party.  The host had made chilli for everyone and made me a separate veggie chilli with beans only.

Someone overheard and asked why I had a separate dish.  I explained I was vegetarian and didn’t eat meat and their reply?

‘Oh.  Do you forage for food?’

They weren’t even joking.  Deadly serious.

Yes, being veggie meant I had to forage for my food as there was nothing else I could possibly eat when I didn’t want to eat meat.

Seriously!

Since turning vegan this misconception of there being nothing to eat is ten-fold! Still, today, people are shocked when they find out I am vegan and cannot fathom what on Earth I must eat.

Are there plates seriously 100% meat at every meal?

I actually rarely ate meat when I was a meat eater.  I never ate steak or loved bacon.  I only tried lamb once as an adult and wasn’t keen.  I only really ate chicken and fish and soon stopped that when I pulled a long vein off some chicken I was once eating.  That’s what threw me into total vegetarianism.

Then, over time, I became very health conscious and began researching being naturally and truly healthy (not relying on medication) and this led me to reading a lot of articles about diet.

The more I read and learnt, the more a plant-based diet made sense for overall health.

It was later that I came to have the understanding of a plant-based diet being better for the environment and also for the welfare of animals.  In fact, now the strongest argument, I believe, is for the sake of the animals and I cannot believe I was so blind to this before.

Anyway, since becoming interested in healthy living and opening my eyes and belly to vegan food, organic food, healthier food and so on, I actually eat a much wider variety of food now than ever before!

There are so many fruits and vegetables.  Apparently there are over 20,000 edible plants and yet we only consume a small percentage of them. 

The number of meats available is even smaller, so why do people think meat is the only thing available to eat?

If you need some inspiration on what to cook for a vegan or if you’re turning to a vegan diet yourself then you’ve never been more spoilt for choice.

A quick internet search will find a vegan version of pretty much any meal you like.  We made vegan paella for the first time last week and it was delicious!

We eat scrambled tofu in place of scrambled egg… tempeh, tofu, soy pieces, jackfruit, chickpeas (the list goes on) in our curries in place of meat, soy mince or brown lentils in place of beef mince in our spaghetti bolognese, vegetable burgers instead of meat burgers, nut roasts or vegan pies with our roast dinners. The options really are endless and we eat everything we used to eat, just without the meat! Plus, we LOVE vegetables and legumes, so we can easily make vegetable versions of everything without the soy if we like.

It’s easy to experiment and try lots of variations of vegan-friendly cooking. We never run out of ideas. Or, if you prefer to flick through the pages of a cookbook then there are so many out there for vegans!

What on Earth do vegans eat?

The answer is absolutely stacks of delicious, healthy, colourful, nutrient-rich food!

For some vegan recipe ideas, try these:

 

Discover more from Healthy Vix

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Comment