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OK, so after the first five entries from the Daily Vegan, the worst case scenario is that you are writhing around with the pain of cheese withdrawal symptoms and ready to do just about anything to get your hands on some opiate-laced cheddar. At the same time, you’ve lost all your friends after inviting them around for coffee and presenting them with a cup of curdled soya!
But hopefully it’s not like that!
Whatever next? How about ice cream? From my experience, this is one area where you’re unlikely to encounter even the slightest problem adapting. I have meat-eating and vegetarian acquaintances and family who choose to buy vegan ice cream because, having tried it at our house, they think it tastes much better. It doesn’t have that unpleasant dairy after-taste. The biggest seller is Swedish Glace – vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, Neapolitan and other assorted flavours – available in large tubs. Most supermarkets sell it, as do almost all health food shops.
Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda also now sell tubs of Almond Dream ice cream in four delicious flavours – mint chocolate chip, praline crunch, salted caramel and velvety vanilla. These went down very well at the Animal Aid office when they first appeared last year and remain a firm favourite.
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What about individual portions, when you are out and about and your non-vegan friends are having an ice cream? If you don’t want to be left out, and there is a decent healthfood store in town, you can often purchase small tubs of incredibly luxurious, rich chocolate Booja Booja. And there are other brands emerging, such as So Delicious, Zen Zen, Co Yo, Food Heaven and The Coconut Collaborative.
Whilst cornettos have been off the menu for some time, Tesco has now released a dairy-free strawberry version under its own Free From brand that is remarkably good, so keep an eye out for these.
Yoghurt is also easy – large pots and multi-packs of small cartons can be bought from many supermarkets and health food shops, and non-vegans generally like them too. Good wholefood shops also sell single individual-size cartons. (For those of you who are particularly conscious of air miles for your food, look for Sojade, produced in France from French grown beans, but you’re much more likely to find Alpro in supermarkets.)
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There are several dairy-free mayonnaises too, including varieties made by Plamil, a long-established 100% vegan company, as well as Granovita, Really Not Dairy, Tiger Tiger, Solesse and some supermarket own-brands.
For margarine, try Pure, Vitalite (cheap and cheerful from supermarkets) or go for one of the more expensive varieties that contain better quality oils that can sometimes be found in wholefood stores.
As for cream, Alpro/Provamel is once again the market leader, producing soya, coconut and rice creams, though my personal preference is Oatly Cream – which, as the name suggests, is made from oats. Soyatoo is another option, which is available in squirty cans of vegan cream, as is Schlagfix.
