The Vegan Thread

It would help if you didn't post non-vegan recipes in the Vegan Thread, Ludwig, even if they're in German. :)

(It doesn't say if the second lot of honey can be replaced with agave syrup.)

Hey guys, are you still doing your vegan rides? Moving to London early next year for a while and wondered if you guys still organise something... even if it's a ride and pub meet

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Hey man, I am keen. I'm sure I could speak for most people following this thread saying that I want this to happen.

Update the thread when your around and we can make it into a special event. If it's a welcome/back to london johhnyw vegan ride then it's more of an event.. More people garenteed. People love events.

Let's definitely do a ride, we've been dragging our feet over it for too long.

Can we still get one in before Christmas? Maybe ride to the Animal Aid Christmas Fayre on Sunday?

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_living//3351//

Then drinks somewhere or another ride?

Sounds good to me @Thrasher... I'll be bang up for that

Hmmm, Plamil white chocolate. Really nice.

Not tried the brand before... worth a punt I take it?

Did you go to this Oliver? Report please!

There has been confirmation in the mince pie thread that the Gregg's mince pie is dairy free. Oh. My. God.

Shame nobody came along for a ride. :)

I go every year, so for me there was nothing new--just a pleasant morning looking at some interesting new products, talking to people at activist stalls about the work they do, buying lots of chocolate, eating two Veggies double Cheezly burgers, bumping into some friends. It's always worth going (even if, it has to be said, it's essentially the same every year). Do I take it people here don't really know about the Christmas Fayre?

I like Plamil chocolate, although there are people who don't. It's a very ethical company that runs its own 100% vegan factory. The name refers to them having been the originators of plant milk together with the Vegan Society in the 1960s.

No. But after a google I am a bit more informed. Thanks

http://thevegancalculator.com/

OK I'm an omnivore but I'm totally obsessed with all sorts of food, from whole to junk and lots in between, including lots of vegan meals just by accident.

Just now I made Farinata, a Ligurian oven-cooked pancake, as a snack. There are other things made across Italy called farinata made of other things, but this one is a batter made from water and chickpea flour, baked with olive oil, a sprig of rosemary and sprinkled with salt.

It is literally the best thing I've eaten in ages. I'd forgotten about it but I just nailed it tonight. It's a snack really, although a south american version is eaten like pizza, apparently.

Seriously, if you're looking for something new to make, check out this recipe. It's amazing.

So, you whisk a batter of 3-1 ratio of water and gram flour by weight, + dash of oil and maybe rosemary, rest for 4hrs min, then stir again and pour into 2mm of very hot oil in a very hot iron skillet, and put in a very hot oven. Takes 15 mins. Take care with a pallet knife to loosen it off the iron after resting a bit. Chuck a bit of good salt on.

Open some wine.

Just watched Cowspiracy and am now convinced I need to give vegetarian/veganism another proper shot.
Advise on makin the transition easier?

Cool Dakin. Lots of years of experience on here.. If you have a question - fire away.

YouTube has a massive Vegan community which has some really good advice - also some not so good advice / more entertainment than anything else.

Fat Gay Vegan is a great resource for London based eating out amd product reviews.

Instagram has a lot of good meal ideas - just search #vegan #veganfood - something like that.

Websites like thug kitchen.com which mix comedy and culinary goodness are now everywhere.

Making the switch is a peice of piss. So much of a variety / depth to food choices - in the supermarket and in a resteraunt these days. I went to boxpark for the first time in ages and stumbled across an amazing vegan place.. Can't remeber the name.. But paid I think 9 quid for a massive bowl of really good ramen with "vegan crack" on top..

Sounds amazing. Going to try that out.

What did you struggle with on previous attempts?

The vegan joint in box park shoreditch is cook daily. My faves are the bowl with ackee and dumplings etc and the coco soup with glass noodles!

Dakin, I got a cookbook when I went vegan and have never felt better (veganomicon by Isa Chandra). Lots of energy, less cravings and more real hunger feelings. I dont eat the junk that people bring to the office so I also lost weight which has stayed off. It's easy to go vegan if it's what you want. Feel like i'd been released from feeling guilty all the time. Also care more about myself and look after myself with good food!

Great stuff, Dakin. In practical terms, there is now little to prevent someone living in London from accessing good vegan resources from one day to the next, although it has to be said that London has stayed a little behind in veganism, while other cities have accelerated. It's still a lot better than it was. In this thread, we would obviously advise skipping the stop-off at vegetarianism, as it's inconsistent and not very effective. But see how it goes for you.

A key skill to develop is simply to read every ingredients label on packaged food you buy. That can be a right pain at first, but you become very quick at it and after a while you don't even realise you're doing it any more. Another thing is, simply, knowing what is in stuff you may get served and what you have to ask about when trying to find out if it's vegan. That will take you a while, but it's worth it. What worked for me, apart from having support from knowledgeable friends, was going to excellent vegetarian, and later vegan, restaurants to get a sense of just how good veg*n food can be. This led me to learn to cook. It may not be your kind of hobby, but it turned out to be mine. As a result, I now know the vast majority of the time how any given dish is made, which saves a lot of work in asking people.

I got lots of stuff wrong after I'd made the decision to go vegan. Don't beat yourself up over that; it happens, as it's just normal trial and error, and it's impossible to avoid swallowing the odd fly when you're riding along.

There's a huge amount of choice around now. I'd advise learning to cook with fruit and vegetables and other natural ingredients first before trying out the 'fake' 'meats' or 'cheeses'. They're very expensive, usually not that nutritious, and while I think they're quite an entertaining addition to a vegan diet, to me they seem very much tacked on.

That said, find out what kind of taste preferences you have. A lot of people say 'I couldn't live without meat' partly because they're into particular textures of food, e.g. things you have to chew, as opposed to non-textural taste, e.g. a gentle herby flavour. If you thrive on 'meaty' texture, do try the 'fake' 'meats' etc. I must admit I find it quite fascinating how they're developing, though.

There are very good classes of 'replacements', e.g. vegan ice cream is said by many to be straightforwardly better than dairy ice cream. I think some companies are beginning to nail this with 'fake' 'cheese', too.

Don't force yourself. A lot of people watch things like 'Cowspiracy' and then think 'this is right, I have to do it', but 'go back' afterwards, whether sooner or later, largely because they had missing ingredients in their decision. What you need to be fully behind your decision and to stay with it is twofold--an emotional motivation (motivation makes us act, but fades or changes) and a moral reason, which doesn't fade or change but can remain unshakably in place (although it isn't in itself action-triggering). I subscribe to the idea that animals have a will and that it's wrong to try to break or dominate another creature's will. For you, it may become something else.

Anyway, as Thrasher said, feel free to ask about anything here!

The vegan place in Boxpark is Cook Daily. Forum trip? We tried to plan this a while back but still haven't done it.

Edit: Er oops, didn't spot Bea's post up there.

Or we could do a Brighton ride sometime to go to this place, whose photos look incredibly appetising:

http://fatgayvegan.com/2015/12/09/vegan-tapas/

@andy_k i think the main thing was feeling like a pain in the arse when people cooked for me.

@Bea tried vegetarian diet for six months this year and i felt so much better. less lethargic, healthier, slept better etc.
Definitely need to try and find some decent cook books and work out some good stable meals for the everyday.

Yes to this. +Dakin? Roll with some protein deprived vegans ;)

REPOST: Shambala festival has announced it's on site food vendors will all be meat and fish free in 2016..