We eat plants 99.99% of the time. But since people love putting labels on things then sure, you could call us vegan. So after being vegan for 15 years, what do vegans eat?
A LOT as it turns out.
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What do vegans eat?
It’s very simple. Vegans eat a plant-based diet.
Everything we eat comes from plants. From burritos to mashed potatoes, hot dogs and hamburgers, pizza, ice cream, pancakes, rice bowls (and yes, the occasional salad) – every meal we eat is made only from plants. It’s also some of the best food you could ever dream.
When you hear about someone who’s vegan, at first you might think that all we eat are salads and leafy greens like a rabbit, but that kind of diet is too hard to stick with.
We’d be hungry all the time and bored out of our minds!
After 15 years of being vegan, our meals are so incredibly delicious that it’s hard to think of any reason why we’d ever go back. Food is so much better now than any time in our entire lives. And this is coming from a couple raised from birth on meat, cheese, and dairy so we know exactly what we’re “missing out” on.
So what can vegans eat? Think of a food. Literally any example you can think of has a vegan version. It’s so much easier today compared to when we started! We’re constantly amazed with all of the creations that companies are coming out with in terms of vegan alternatives. Even meat-eaters are finding the vegan versions tasty. If you don’t believe us, try a Beyond Sausage and be amazed. Daiya cheese shreds are heaven to us!
When someone asks us, “What can vegans eat?” We answer easily with:
- Indian
- Mexican
- Italian
- Thai
- Chinese
- Japanese
- American
Basically we eat any cuisine from around the world because we can make any cuisine vegan. It all comes down to ingredients and preparation.
Meat alternatives are simply an early bridge in the beginning or a rare treat that we enjoy occasionally. Expensive packaged foods aren’t the real answer to what we’re eating.
What do vegans eat? (The Real Answer)
A more honest answer of what vegans eat is to simply look at the main staples feeding the world:
GRAINS and BEANS
These two categories more than any other make up the bulk of the calories that feed the world. All of the other additions from the plant world round out a healthy, fulfilling diet and give us our vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and healthy fats.
What Vegans Really Eat (List of Foods):
- Whole grains – rice, wheat, oats, barley, quinoa, and many other grains
- Legumes – the world’s huge variety of beans, lentils and peas (one of the healthiest foods you can add to your diet in the Blue Zones)
- Root vegetables – white potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, and rutabaga
- Green and yellow vegetables – cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, celery, onions, and garlic
- Aromatics – onions, leeks, peppers, garlic, ginger, and an array of herbs and spices
- Leafy greens – spinach, kale, arugula, collard greens, parsley, cilantro (your daily vitamin dose)
- Fruits – the entire healthy rainbow of the fruit world to bring your taste buds to life (and your daily dose of antioxidants)
- Fats – Nut butters like peanut, almond, and cashew, fresh nuts and seeds, heavenly olives, avocado, and coconut milk
VEGAN DIET = STARCH + VEGETABLES + LEAFY GREENS + FRUIT + HEALTHY FATS
You can think of the foundation of our meals as whole grains and legumes. For whole grains, these can be in the actual form of whole grains like rice or it could be what we make with grains like bread, pasta, tortillas, and many other delicious creations.
Then we add vegetables and legumes for nutrition. For sides or additions we might have fruit, fats like nuts, nut butters, seeds, coconut milk or creamy avocado, and finally fresh herbs and spices for our vitamins and minerals.
If our diet instead consisted too much of green and yellow vegetables or leafy greens, but not enough starch, we’d get bored and hungry very quickly.
But the real magic of a vegan diet is all of the unique combinations and endless creations you can make from plant-based ingredients. Through imagination and culinary magic you can turn them into things like pancakes, burritos, pasta, bread, sandwiches, soups, stews, and many other comfort foods we enjoy.
What We Typically Eat in a Day
What we eat day-to-day can vary according to what’s fresh in our produce section or farmers market and we also love to experiment with new foods! Winter might make us crave more soups and stews and in summer we might eat more sandwiches, fresh salads and smoothies, but we also have a lot of comfort food favorites that we enjoy. Here’s a few.
Vegan Breakfast
Main: Cereal with soy or coconut milk, homemade toast with peanut butter, oatmeal with nuts, raisins and maple syrup, blueberry pancakes with pecans, Field Roast sausage, hash brown potatoes, French toast with homemade bread
Sides: Fruit smoothies, fresh fruit
Drinks: Coffee, tea, or lemon water
Vegan Lunch
Main: Dinner leftovers, hummus sandwiches from homemade bread, spinach or kale salads with homemade dressing, chickpea mock tuna sandwich
Sides: Fresh cabbage salad with mango
Drinks: Water
Vegan Snacks
Hummus and pita chips, nuts and seeds, fruit, fermented pickles (check out our Fermentation Adventure YouTube channel)
Vegan Dinner
Main: Vegetable rice bowls, pasta with red sauce or white bean sauce, vegetable soup with potatoes or barley, homemade bread, homemade pizza, Indian curries, masala or dal with rice, Thai noodles with coconut milk, Mexican tortillas with rice, beans and salsa, sauteed tofu strips, homemade rice and bean veggie burgers, potato pancakes, Chinese “fried” rice, creamy mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, vegetable dumpling soup, spicy bean chili
Sides: Oven-baked sweet potatoes, baked potatoes, steamed or sauteed veggies, baked potatoes wedges (fries) with herbs and spices, fresh salsa, spicy buffalo cauliflower
Drinks: Wine, water
Vegan Dessert
Dark chocolate (several times a day!), banana bread, pumpkin muffins, chocolate chip cookies
Want more vegan recipe ideas? Check out The Game Changers movie.
What Vegans Eat – Delicious Food!
Going vegan today couldn’t be any easier! You don’t even have to be 100% vegan to enjoy the health benefits and the amazing flavors that plants give us. At the very least, replacing a few typical meals with plant-based meals can add a lot of value to your life. It’s changed our lives for the better and keeps us trim, happy, and healthy.
We also get to stuff our faces with delicious food without needing to count calories, points, or carbs. How awesome is that?
We hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into many of the vegan foods we enjoy. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. It helps us make more videos for you!
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