Welcome to Cooking for Vegans!
This site is a guide to how to provide vegan-friendly food for various occasions. It is primarily aimed at non-vegans looking for vegan recipes or help with vegan cooking, for example to provide a meal for a vegan visitor, but new vegans and anyone thinking of becoming vegan or cutting down on animal products may also find it helpful.
This site contains information about:
- vegan recipes - everyday meals, recipes for special occasions, easy vegan recipes, quick vegan meals, creative recipes, dairy- and egg-free baking, vegan buffet and party food, barbecue and picnic ideas
- food shopping and vegan food products - how to read the labels, vegan alternative versions of non-vegan products, products that look vegan but aren't, non-vegan ingredients to avoid
- how to veganise meals - Sunday lunch, Christmas dinner, how to cook for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores at the same time
- what on earth you could cook for your vegan niece/friend/sister's boyfriend who's coming over for dinner next week...
What's a vegan?
Vegans are people who don't eat any foods which are derived from animals. As major ingredients go, this means meat, fish, eggs, milk and honey, and any products made from these, such as cheese. They do not eat by-products or additives that are animal-derived, such as gelatine (made from animal bones and tissues), whey or lactose (both from milk). Foods with animal ingredients added as 'extras' are also unsuitable for vegans, such as vegetable soup made with chicken stock or mashed potatoes with margarine or butter added. Vegans also tend to avoid non-food animal products, such as leather clothing.
By comparison, vegetarians do not eat meat or fish (or their by-products) but they usually do eat milk and eggs. If you are providing food for a guest and are not sure what they eat or don't eat - ask them beforehand! They will be pleased that you are making the effort for them.
Once you've learned a few basic points, providing vegan-friendly food is not difficult. It's often colourful, tasty and varied, and you might find some new and exciting ideas for your cooking repertoire.
Latest news
1st April 2008: I've improved the ready meals section to make it clearer and add some more information. I have split the previous page into two new pages: ready meals with details of ready-made vegan products and 10-minute meals with ideas and recipes for no-time-to-cook meals.
20th March 2008: I've added some links to carefully-selected (i.e. good) recipe websites, so now you have even more recipes to choose from!
9th March 2008: The vegan breakfast page is now online, plus I've tweaked and added a few other bits.
30th January 2008: I've added a supermarket vegan products list page, with details of which supermarkets provide vegan product lists (and which don't) and how to obtain them.
27th January 2008: I've added a where to find more information page containing links to various vegan-related information resources.
11th December 2007: The baking page is now up and running. Share the three best-ever introductions to veganism :-).
2nd December 2007: Cooking for Vegans goes live! This
is brand new website and an ongoing personal project I've been working
on for a while now. I will continue to update and improve the site, so
it's by no means a finished work (and probably never will be!). I'd love
to hear any feedback you have about the site - positive as well as critical
:-) - and to know if you've found it useful or if there's anything else
you'd find helpful that could be included. If you'd like to, you can contact
me here.