Reddit reviews The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions: Veganize It! Foolproof Methods for Transforming Any Dish into a Delicious New Vegan Favorite

Not a vegan, but I am a vegan-dabbling vegetarian.

Egg: I pretty much always use ground flax seeds. 1 Tablespoon of ground flax to 3 T warm water. Mix it up and wait for it to get goopy. If it doesn't get goopy, that's totally fine because it'll work anyway. There are also egg replacers that you can buy. Cornstarch and water can be used in a pinch. I'd expect the flax to be the cheapest though.

Butter: Earth Balance is great, Smart Balance Lite is cheaper since it is marketed as a margarine and not specifically a vegan butter like EB. Both are nice, but the SB Lite one kind of tastes like popcorn butter. EB is more subtle I think, though I haven't gotten it in a while since it is $3.80 per tub. I've also heard of people using coconut oil in place of "butter." You can also make your own for spreading onto toast and the such. This is an interesting page I found while searching for vegan croissants. Haven't tried any but it definitely seems legit.

Honey: Can't help you there. I've actually just begun to like honey oddly enough. However, you can use agave if you don't believe the anti-hype about it. Pure maple syrup is your best bet, though definitely not cheap! I'd just make a simple syrup since they're, well, simple.

Cheese: There are tons of vegan cheeses on the market. Teese, Daiya, Vegan Gourmet, Dr. Cow, Tofutti (Better than Cream Cheese is amazing for "cheesecakes"). All of them are pricey. Nutritional yeast is pretty much the go to for vegan parmesan and mac and cheese-like dishes. You can also make nut-based cheeses.

Alcohol: Barnivore. I can't help you here since I don't drink, but it should be obvious that anything with cream in it isn't vegan :)

Family: "In its 1996 position paper on vegetarian diets, the American Dietetic Association reported that vegan and vegetarian diets can significantly reduce one's risk of contracting heart disease, colon and lung cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, and a number of other debilitating conditions." link

I would just tell them to educate themselves about nutrition before they try to call you out on yours. I'm not very good at this part. By eating more whole foods you will reduce the amount of weird and partially unpronounceable chemicals that might go into your body while eating the typical American diet. You will (probably) get more healthy grains and proteins, more vegetables, more fruit, and less cholesterol, less bad saturated fats, and less trans fats.

I hoped I helped.

[Edit] I have a book called The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions. It's actually not that bad and it will have info for just about everything you need for substituting foods in your diet.

> I'm worried about what this means since almost everything I cook atm includes milk, eggs, butter, cheese or some sort of animal product.

Most people say that cheese is the hardest thing to give up, but from my experience I stopped craving it once I stopped eating it regularly. Everything has a vegan substitution. You can check out The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions:. The index format is pretty annoying but it has really great ideas for vegan switcheroos.

> I live in a country where soy, tofu and other ready made non meat products are unavailable...

Most old-school vegans didn't have those things either. You can make your own fortified nondairy milks with soy beans, almonds, rice, oats, hemp seeds, any other nut/seed, etc. and liquid supplements. And if you can find whole wheat flour or vital wheat gluten you can make your own seitan.

Where do you live? You are absolutely sure there are no Asian markets near you? Have you thought about ordering online for the special things like bulk nutritional yeast?

Family gatherings? I don't have any, but for holiday meals I just eat what is available. My SO's grandma made almost everything vegetarian except the turkey, obviously (now might be harder since I'm vegan and she despises people helping her cook haha). Christmas dinner we tried a tofurkey and it wasn't that bad. We even invited a friend over. My mother and I made our own pies, but later on I found out her store-bought crust had lard in it. YUCK! Anyway, it's doable. Just let the host know beforehand and if they can't accommodate, bring your own dish.

Substitutions

Butter/shortening sub = coconut oil, Earth Balance, Smart Balance light

eggs = flax seed meal + water

cheese = homemade mozzarella

milk = soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, oat milk, etc. Many you can make yourself.

i think i will buy that! also here's the link to buy it on amazon if anyone else is interested.