Resources

A brief guide to vegan resources, movies, ingredients, and supplements.

Here is a great video regarding factory farming & COVID-19.

Documentaries & A Short Film

Vegan Transition Guides

Veganuary A lot of restaurants are participating in Veganuary this year. Going Vegan for 2021? Veganuary is a non-profit organization that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond. During the 2019 campaign, more than a quarter of a million people took our pledge to try a vegan diet, while more than 500 brands, restaurants, and supermarkets promoted the campaign, and launched more than 200 new vegan products and menus in the UK market alone.

Going Vegan: What You Need to Know to Make the Change Lots of things in life are hard, but going vegan isn’t one of them.

Challenge 22 offers participants a free, supportive online framework for trying veganism for 22 days. More than 100K people from all over the world have participated in the project since its launch in March 2014. While similar programs around the world are based on vegan starter-kits and email guides, Challenge 22 is an interactive program that offers a unique combination of group support and personal mentoring.

Ingredients and Products

Vegan Butter

Earth Balance The best vegan butter, you won’t miss dairy butter. I use this a lot: Classic Muffin Tin Stuffing, Amazing No-Chicken Gravy, Zucchini Bread and any other time I would have used butter.

Broths and Bases

Low Sodium No Chicken Vegetarian Broth is used in lots of recipes, I usually prefer its flavor to plain Vegetarian/Vegan broth. Classic Muffin Tin Stuffing, Amazing No-Chicken Gravy, Holy Grail Vegan Cheese Sauce and many soups use this broth.

I also use Better Than Bouillion No Chicken Vegetarian Base a lot and in Amazing No-Chicken Gravy, Quinoa, and Noodle House Ramen.

Also, I recommend Pacific Mushroom Broth, used in my Green Bean Casserole, unfortunately, some mushroom bases contain whey/dairy, please check ingredients on your items.

Nooch

Unfortified Nutritional Yeast is often referred to as Nooch. This ingredient adds cheesy, nutty and umami to many kinds of vegan cheese, dishes, and sauces. I prefer unfortified because the fortified kind can taste synthetic and vitamin-y. Vegan recipes use Nooch a lot, just a few faves on this site include 5 Minute Garlic Shake, Green Cashew-Fu Ricotta, and Dreamy Cream Cheese.

Quinoa

Quinoa a yummy protein staple NASA is into. I like tri-colored quinoa.

Cashews

Raw Cashews aren’t actually raw. Referred to as raw cashews when they are unroasted and unsalted, actual raw cashews are not suitable for human consumption. Cashews are steamed to remove an outer toxin, here’s a more elegant explanation. Grocers with a bulk section of grains and nuts sell unroasted, unsalted Cashews.

Miso

Mellow White Miso is a fermented soy-based paste which adds great umami flavor to food and vegan cheese. It’s also a commonly used soup base. If you have a soy allergy you can use Chickpea Miso instead.

Red Miso is more intense in flavor and I use it with white miso in Noodle House Ramen.

Non-Dairy Milk

Unsweetened, Unflavored Plant Milk For cooking, make sure you are using unsweetened, unflavored plant-milks such as Unsweetened, Original Almond Milk. Trust me, you don’t want vanilla flavor in your mashed potatoes. Soymilk, even when unsweetened is naturally a little sweet on its own. There are plant milks made from oats, cashews, coconuts, soy, almonds, quinoa and more. I recommend experimenting. I tend to cook with unsweetened, original almond milk. For Indian and Thai foods I recommend unsweetened coconut milk.

Sweetened, Flavored Plant Milk I sometimes use sweetened vanilla plant milks when baking. You may want sweetened coconut milk for dessert items. I love to drink Vanilla Enriched Rice Dream when eating Cookies and Zucchini Bread. Same goes here, I recommend experimenting with the many plant-based options to find your fav.

My new favorite plant milks & plant creamers are from Elmhurst 1925 click here for coupon codes. These plant milks are thick, creamy and additive-free.

Tofu

Tofu Press I recommend getting a tofu press, mine is light and vise-style. I went for a long time without one and have often wondered why.

There many varieties and textures of tofu. Below are the kinds I use.

Extra-Firm, Water-packed Tofu for Frozen Tofu I recommend freezing it in its package before pressing and using it in your recipes. I just put the tofu in the freezer after I buy it, then I mark it with an “f” (for frozen) and move it to the fridge until I am ready to use it. If the tofu has not thawed all the way, I just microwave it before I press it. This process of freezing, then thawing and pressing gives it a marvelous spongey texture. If you marinate it, the tofu will soak up lots of flavor. I discovered this concept when I ordered tofu at a Bronze Empire and it was listed as “Frozen Tofu”. If you pan-sear it and put it in soup, it will soak up the broth, but stay firm. It’s magical.

High Protein Super Firm Tofu This is vac-u-packed, All-American “Super Firm High Protein Tofu” and you don’t even have to press it. I use it in Cashew-Fu Ricotta and Oven-Baked Sriracha Tofu.

Silken Tofu Fabulous for custard, pudding and making no-oil vegan mayo. Be sure to buy Silken Tofu and not Soft tofu. This is also no-press tofu, just open the package and drain the water out. If you let it sit in a bowl the water will separate out more on its own and you can drain it off again.

Tamari

Tamari This is a great way to add umami, saltiness and hearty flavor. I prefer the low sodium kind. Tamari is a gluten-free soy sauce.

Egg Substitutes

Flaxseed Egg 1 TBSP Ground flaxseed + 2.5 TBSP water. Flax eggs are great in baking. I use flax eggs in Zucchini Bread and Classic Muffin Tin Stuffing.

Neat Egg is a combination of ground chickpeas and ground chia seeds, it’s a great natural egg replacer, I use it in chocolate chip cookies.

Ready to Heat and Eat Vegan Meats

There are a lot of awesome plant-based vegan meat products around. My favorite is Beyond Meat’s Hot Italian Sausage, I prefer it to the original and their burgers. They aren’t all that hot spice-wise, just great flavor. This is an item I eat sparingly because Beyond Meat and a lot of vegan meats are the health equivalent of animal meat which is why they taste so much like meat. These are a great item to bring to a BBQ or party where there is grilling going on.

Chocolate

Chocolate Chips I use these Equal Exchange Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips and I also use Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and Chunks for baking.

There are lots of Vegan Chocolate bars on the market, typically dark chocolate is the easiest to find vegan. Cocoa butter comes from chocolate and it’s vegan, it does not contain dairy-butter.

Marshmallows

Marshmallows are not typically vegan because they contain gelatin. Thankfully, there are these delicious Dandies Vegan Marshmallows, I’m very into these. Check out Easy Oven Vegan S’mores.

Supplements

I got my blood work done before and a few years after going vegan. The good news is that my labs improved greatly after going vegan. This happens to a lot of people who switch to a plant-based diet.*

B12 Both vegans and non-vegans have difficultly getting B12, it comes from bacteria, it is not produced by animals. Many vegan foods are enriched with B12, such as Vanilla Enriched Rice Dream and other kinds of plant milk. I take this B12 weekly.*

Vitamin D Both vegans and non-vegans have difficultly getting enough Vitamin D, it comes from the sun. I take this Vitamin D daily.*

Omega 3 Dr. Greger has a lot of good information on this at nutritionfacts.org. I take this Omega 3 daily.*

Vegan Multi-vitamin A solid choice if you are looking for just one pill to take. I take this Multi-vitamin daily.*

Protein Being vegan does not cause protein deficiency. Vegans get their protein from the same place that animals (like cows, pandas, and other large beasts) get their protein: from plants. Protein deficiency is exceptionally rare in the western world. If you want even more protein for athletic pursuits or bodybuilding there are a ton of great vegan protein powders available. My personal fav is Moon Juice Vanilla Mushroom Adaptogenic Protein.*

*I am not a medical professional. Please consult a medical professional if you need medical advice.

Website For Nutrition Information

NutritionFacts.org is my favorite place to learn new things about nutrition. This is a massive amount of valuable information. You can easily use the search box on the site to find information on almost any health-related topic. From the about page on NutritionFacts.org:

NutritionFacts.org is a strictly non-commercial, science-based public service provided by Dr. Michael Greger, providing free updates on the latest in nutrition research via bite-sized videos. There are more than a thousand videos on nearly every aspect of healthy eating, with new videos and articles uploaded every day. NutritionFacts.org was launched with seed money and support by the Jesse & Julie Rasch Foundation. Incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit charity, NutritionFacts.org now relies on individual donors to keep the site alive and thriving.

NutritionFacts.org is a proud member of the True Health Initiative, a global voice for lifestyle as medicine.

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