Vegan food products A-C
Bacon
BacOs: you know, those 'bacon bits' in a plastic jar you can scatter over salad and whatever - they're suitable for vegans! Full of hydrogenated fats, but still vegan.
Vegan bacon: this stuff isn't going to fool anyone into thinking it's 'real' bacon, but it generally tastes acceptably edible and is a nice addition to vegan fry-ups. Personally I don't like fake meat products to look too realistic, so not looking identical to meat is an advantage as far as I'm concerned. The only vegan brand I've found so far is by Redwood Foods (all their products are vegan), some supermarkets do their own vegetarian bacon but I have yet to find any that's vegan.
Biscuits
Ginger nuts, Digestives and Bourbons are most likely to be vegan-friendly.
For the others, it's a case of label-reading. Co-op are good at labelling
their own-brand biscuits as vegan-friendly.
Burgers
Vegan burgers generally fall into two categories: 'fake meat' types that
are supposed to mimic the taste and texture of meat, and those that aren't,
such as spicy bean burgers, nut cutlets or vegetable burgers. Most tend
to be the non-meat-imitating ones these days.
Bear in mind that many meat-free burgers are not suitable for vegans as they contain milk or eggs. Many supermarkets do a good range of vegetarian products but the majority of products are not suitable for vegans. Holland and Barrett and wholefoods shops tend to have a much better range of vegan burgers.
Some vegan brands (there are probably others but I don't eat burgers
that often so I'm not familiar with them all):
Alicer's:
tandoori, vegetable, Mexican and Thai flavour burgers (all products are
vegan and gluten-free)
Cauldron: chilli burgers, savoury burgers and carrot and onion burgers
(the other burgers in their range are not vegan)
Fry's
burgers, cutlets and schnitzels (all their products are vegan)
Goodlife nut cutlets
Grassington's Multigrain
vegetable bakes and Spicy bean burgers
Linda McCartney: Spicy three bean bake
Sainsbury's: Spicy bean quarter pounders, nut cutlets
Tesco: Mexican-style quarter pounder burgers, nut cutlets (these are now
vegan again after being non-vegan for a while)
Not exactly burgers, but Asda do nice butternut squash and pecan roasts. They're a similar shape to burgers but they need oven cooking rather than grilling.
Not vegan: Quorn - all Quorn products contain egg.
Unfortunately, British chocolate manufacturers have a habit of dumping milk into their products at every opportunity, including dark and plain chocolate, so it helps to know what you're looking for when it comes to finding vegan chocolate. However, be assured that it does exist, and a lot of it is rather tasty!
- Accidentally vegan chocolate - available in supermarkets
and mainstream shops:
Ritter Sport Marzipan, Peppermint, 50% and 70% varieties
Fry's chocolate, orange and peppermint creams
Divine 70% Dark Chocolate and 70% Dark Mint Chocolate
Sainsbury's and Co-op after dinner mints
Plus some varieties of plain and dark cooking chocolate if you're not
a purist (check the ingredients)
Update (May 08): Green and Black's are no longer labelling
their 'vegan' dark chocolate as vegan and are adding milk to
the ingredients list because of cross-contamination issues. More
details.
- Specifically vegan chocolate:
Wholefoods shops and Holland and Barrett often have a good range of specialist (i.e. more interesting) vegan chocolate, including luxury chocolates suitable for giving as a special Christmas or birthday present. Brands to look out for include:
Plamil (chocolate
bars, all products vegan, nut-free and gluten-free)
Organica (chocolate bars, some
products vegan)
Booja Booja (luxury
chocolates, all products vegan and wheat-free)
Montezuma's (all sorts of handmade,
fairly traded chocolates, not all vegan but products are clearly labelled
on the website)
Dairy Free 'milky' chocolate
bars, look for them in the free from section in supermarkets and in wholefoods
stores. The company that makes these also do 'milk' chocolate buttons
and chocolate spread. A nice change from dark chocolate!
There are also a number of online shops selling vegan chocolate, including:
Animal Aid Shop, Alternative Stores, Vegan Store, Viva! shop - all products on their websites are vegan.
A lot of chocolate's vegan chocolate page
Cream
Alpro soya cream is good for pouring, cooking and baking with.
There is also CremoVita whipping cream, but it did taste fairly strongly
of soya when I last tried it. Find them both near the soya milk/UHT or
in the allergy sufferers section. Asda stock a dairy-free, soya-free cream
called Oat Supreme which is Vegan Society approved.