To start with the obvious: fruits and vegetables are always vegan. Grains are vegan too, so you can choose from an endless assortment of vegan breads, pastas, and breakfast cereals. Beans are cheap, nutritious, and come in dozens of varieties. The same goes for rice-based dishes. Every sort of nut is likewise vegan—great news if you love almonds or pistachios! Soy-based milks and yogurts are convenient, satisfying, and rich in protein.
All these foods are just the beginning of your vegan choices. Now let’s dive deeper. Prepare to be impressed!
Vegan Grocery Items
You can choose from hundreds of delicious vegan packaged foods. Start by checking out brands like Miyoko’s, JUST, and Gardein. These and other companies make it easy to bypass non-vegetarian foods.
You can choose from an extraordinary assortment of vegan meat products. And the variety of dairy alternatives is equally impressive. If you enjoy foods like cheese, ice cream, and butter, you’ll find dozens of high quality vegan replacements. And things will only get better—not a month goes by without fantastic new products hitting the market.
Spend just twenty minutes wandering around a natural foods store and you’ll discover countless exciting things to try. Don’t miss the bulk section, which is loaded with low-cost vegan snacks and staples. If you lack a natural food store nearby, most supermarkets carry a decent selection of vegan items too.
For extensive coverage of all the best vegan packaged foods, see our vegan alternatives page and our online grocery.
Easy Vegan Snacks and Meals
Vegan snacking offers wonderful possibilities. Our vegan snacks page features more than twenty ideas that require zero preparation.
Even if you’ve never cooked before, you can prepare delicious vegan meals in no time. In fact, you don’t even need recipes! Any of the following dishes takes just minutes to make, and can be prepared a hundred different ways:
As you gain confidence making simple meals like these, you may decide to progress to more sophisticated cooking.
Vegan Cooking
Nothing will enhance your enjoyment of food like learning to cook. Our vegan cooking guide teaches all the basics. If you’re a fan of bread or baked desserts, you’ll also want to read our vegan baking guide.
No matter what sort of cooking interests you, there’s a vegan cookbook that specializes in that particular niche. Publishers release dozens of top-tier vegan cookbooks every year.
Many of the world’s most popular cuisines are remarkably vegan friendly. Our world cuisines page provides in-depth coverage. Not only will reading this material inspire you in the kitchen, it’ll also make you more savvy when eating at restaurants. So now let’s review some of the best vegan dining options.
Vegan Dining
There are thousands of vegan restaurants worldwide, and thousands more vegetarian establishments. On top of that, many non-vegetarian restaurants offer excellent vegan meals. Virtually every city offers fantastic vegan dining options. Our vegan restaurant guide will help you find the best choices.
Additionally, the majority of fast food chains offer vegan meals. Taco Bell stands out as a haven for vegans. And Burger King offers its Impossible Whopper throughout the USA—just order it without mayo to make it vegan. Discover other vegan-friendly chains by reading our vegan fast food guide.
Vegan Drinks of Every Kind
Coffee and tea is vegan by default. If you enjoy lattes or adding cream to your coffee, several companies make excellent vegan creamers. Alternately, most brands of oat milk blend nicely into coffee.
Fresh juices are refreshing and full of flavor. And smoothies made with unsweetened soy milk contain lots of healthy fiber and give you an extra hit of protein.
When it comes to nutrition, unsweetened calcium-fortified soy milk compares favorably to dairy milk. Vegan milks taste markedly different from one brand to the next, so try them all to find your favorite.
If you enjoy alcohol, vegan choices abound. The vast majority of beers and a great many wines are vegan. Upwards of 90 percent of distilled spirits are vegan, too.
Try More Vegan Foods at Every Opportunity
No matter which foods you enjoy most, you’ve got all kinds of related vegan choices. Simply trying just a few new foods a week will rapidly move your diet in a vegan direction. Wherever you go, there’s always another new vegan food to sample.
Most of the foods we’ve just reviewed are remarkably healthful. But it’s always wise to be conscious of nutrition, especially when making changes to your diet. Our vegan nutrition guide offers expert guidance.
As you can see, adding more vegan foods to your diet couldn’t be easier. We’ve only covered the basics here, and there’s so much more to learn. Our vegan eating guide thoroughly explores the topic. And for even more information, please see our links to every single page of Vegan.com’s food coverage.