Hi! I've been thinking about going vegan or vegetarian for a while, mostly for health reasons. I knew that the meat industry was bad, but I had no idea how fucking bad it was until I watched some (I have no idea how someone would be able to watch it in its entirety, especially in one sitting) of Dominion.
I also have some basic knowledge of nutrition so I'm not going in blind, but I do have some questions and I'd love to get some input and critique over what I feel like would be staple foods for me.
So, for staple foods I was thinking of: rice, farofa , potatoes, pinto beans, black turtle beans, lentils and chickpeas. I know of seitan and texturized soy, but I'm still looking for places to get them from. Also, every single tofu package I've seen has looked pretty disgusting (like gorgonzola cheese but m o i s t) are the ones I've seen just poorly made or does tofu just look like that? The appearance wouldn't put me off from it, but I'd like to know if it does look like that or if I've just had bad luck.
I think I'd be safe on protein but I haven't done the math yet, if anyone has any suggestions on other protein sources I'd be very glad to hear them.
Almost forgot to ask: should I trust the nutritional information on packaging or publicly available ones on the internet more? The ones on the packaging have much better macros and a lot more protein per 100g than the ones I've seen online. (talking mostly about beans and chickpeas here)
Now, I'm curious if vegan "dairy" products (like vegan butter, vegan cheese) are worth it. I'll probably at least try the cheese, I really like cheese and it'd make sandwiches a lot better. On that note: vegan sandwiches ideas? I guess vegan mayo, lettuce, tomatoes and carrots would be the one I would enjoy the most (without vegan meat), but if anyone has any protein-heavy filling ideas I'm open to hearing about them. I guess learning how to make a burrito would make my life a lot easier as i could just use beans or chickpeas for filling. :bean:
Anything I should that I should look out for that has animal products in it, but you wouldn't think so? I know of gelatin, porcelain and cosmetics/hygiene products, but not much else.
Also, what do you guys do when eating out with omni friends or ordering food with people? Just really plain dishes? Same question goes for traveling to non-metropolitan areas, where vegan restaurants are scarce.
I guess one of the good things about going vegan is it kinda forces you to learn how to cook. Anyways, thank you for reading and thank you to all of you who comment suggestions or critique.
The foods you mentioned are good; honestly there are tons of recipes online, if you just search "vegan [insert dish here]" you're bound to find great recipes. For general nutrition, just try to eat a good amount of vegetables/some fruit/whatever protein source and you should be good. A sample, easy dish is a veggie stir fry with tofu.
As for tofu looking weird, I'm unsure if the packages you're getting are just bad, but compare to online images? A lot of people press out the water and then saute it with whatever and it tastes amazing. Treat it like a sponge of flavor; by itself it's just bland, but it's like a canvas for all types of flavors. A really simple way would be to saute garlic with tofu and at the end drizzle soy sauce over it (not for everyone but i love it).
You can trust the nutritional info on the packets.
For vegan sandwiches you can try those tofurky deli slices, they're pretty good. There are some great vegan cheeses out there too, you just have to try some and see what you like. For burritos I love rice and beans so sometimes I just eat them with that, but you could of course saute vegetables in small cubes and put some pepper etc and eat it like that.
For animal products, the weirdest things have them. Like some chips will randomly have milk for example. Just be on the lookout even if you think an item couldn't possibly have animal products/do animal testing.
For ordering with omnis, I drag them to vegan restaurants, or if I must, try to go somewhere with vegan options. If you have good friends, they'll understand!
For some good vegan indian dishes check out veganricha.com, and for general asian dishes I like the channel Yeung Man cooking on youtube. Otherwise just try whatever; go off of what you like in your omni diet and convert those to vegan :).