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What are your favorite vegan pre-packaged foods?
IMPORTANT: These do NOT have to be foods that specifically target vegans, like Amy's or many meat substitutes (though they certainly can be).
For example, most Triscuits are vegan, but they aren't generally thought of as a "vegan food" per-se.
ALSO IMPORTANT: They don't have to be health-conscious foods (though again, they certainly can be).
It's now cliche at this point, but the "Oreos are vegan" type of insight is also what I'm interested in. Sometimes you just want some junk food on hand, you know?
In the UK I reckon that bizarrely the pharmacist boots has the best vegan sandwich range. Their no chicken salad is just so on point.
Also juicy marble steaks are amazing, but at like £10 for a steak with the same radius as a tin of beans they're an occasional treat sadly.
These look really intriguing. Other than Qorn which I mentioned below, I've been very disappointed in pretty much all meat substitutes I've tried. The beyond meat burger seemed the most promising, but it smells and tastes like chlorinated dog food to me. Does this taste anything like that?
Huh. When did you last try Beyond? There's also Impossible, which is pretty good. I tend to prefer Impossible as a burger and Beyond as an ingredient (think bolognese or chili con carne).
I can't even touch the real thing without feeling ill. For that matter, handling raw Beyond hits that uncanny valley of whether I need to feel sickened or not. Impossible Breakfast Sausage crosses that line for me. It genuinely creeps me out. It's very hard for me to work with and makes me very uncomfortable to eat because it's too like the real thing. That's not a sales pitch; that's me cringing.
Hmmm it's been a while, but I'd say a couple of years maybe? Have they changed the ingredients? My wife and kids enjoyed it, but I cannot get over the smell and taste. Coriander/cilantro and grapefruit taste very different to me compared to how they taste for most people. I suspect there might be something in the beyond meat burger that has the same effect.
I've heard Impossible tastes better but haven't found it over here. I'll give it a go if I can find some somewhere. Your description of the sausages actually make them sound really good XD
I'm not vegan or vegetarian but I'm always looking for different ingredients and food to try, and I'd like to make learn to make more vegetarian dishes at home. I generally prefer vegan and vegetarian food that's not trying to be meat. Sometimes though, you just want something protein rich that's super quick and easy to make - pop it in the pan and you're good to go. It's hard to beat animal proteins in that regard, and they're often a lot less processed.
My favorite dish to cook (before I watched cows piracy to make fun of vegetarians with a freind - that was a huge mistake!) was 6 meat stew. So safe to say I still crave meat and for me impossible and beyond both do hit the spot. But as ya say, they're not quite right so I can see how they mightn't do it for ya.
Those juicy marbles aren't a perfect analogue for steak, but they're not far off - particularly in texture, which seems to be a real challenge for subs - and the taste is certainly gorgeous, if noticeably not a pinpoint facsimile.
TIL these are now available in the States. Ordered some. Not cheap at all! But will keep in the freezer and use as an occasional luxurious treat meal.
I reckon ya won't regret that. Good choice mon amie.
All but a handful of Snyder's of Hanover pretzel flavors are vegan. My two favorites, Hot Buffalo Wing bites and Sourdough Nibblers, are as vegan as they come, and I can't go down the snack aisle anymore for fear of buying more of them than I can handle.
Dude, I had to stop buying those very same buffalo pretzel bites because every time I bought a bag, I would demolish it in one sitting.
Roasted sunflower seeds. I can get through a very unhealthy amount while absorbed in a book
I’m almost certain that it’s not what you’re looking for because it’s more of an ingredient, but I love Butler Soy Curls. It’s mashed up whole soybeans that have been extruded into tiny ropes and then dehydrated. It’s a better than tofu because it includes all the fiber and has more texture to it. Like tofu, it’s a good canvas to put flavors on.
Not a prepackaged snack food, but I can eat a stupid amount of Castelvetrano olives. Those buttery smooth-tasting green olives are just divine.
I was introduced to those a couple years ago and my god. I never thought I liked olives until a tried them and now I hunt down my favourite brand whenever I can haha.
Onigiri and kimbap can easily be made vegan. A local store sells them with marinated mushrooms or just vegetables. Bibigo sell frozen vegan onigiri.
...wait, are onigiri not usually vegan?
"Plain onigiri" is rice and seaweed, but it is not uncommon for them to be filled with an animal protein.
ahhh okay that makes more sense!
I really like Qorn, especially the pieces. It's fairly close to chicken in texture and the taste isn't bad. It's next to impossible to get here in France though.
Favorite? Hippeas Ranch Chips. They're vegan gluten free Cool Ranch Doritos. They should be a controlled substance. Literally crack.
I find their makeshift chickpea cheez doodles addicting.
Same. And my wife is a complete junkie.
Connoisseur (an Australian ice cream company) makes two vegan ice creams that are absolutely delicious: Vanilla Brownie and Hazelnut Chocolate. I'm not a vegan, but these are still my go-to dessert.
In the UK I like to grab a sandwich or wrap at the co-op sometimes. Harissa wrap or Falafel sandwich.
I bung them in a grill press before eating. Nice.
Or the Plant Patty at Subway (lettuce, onion, chilli, olive on Italian with sweet onion sauce), but that hardly counts as pre-packed.
Yup, Falafel sandwich is my go-to when available, ideally with grilled eggplant 💜
Field Roast Sausages are so good, not even when compared to "real sausage", they are just a really great tasting food product. They are actually not horrible ingredients-wise for a processed food, I think they contain less than 20 ingredients. If I ever recommend a substitute, they will always be the first.
Field Roast also makes pepperoni that is the closest I've found to the real thing, although when I scanned them with the Yuka app, there are some questionable additives unfortunately.
Also Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos are vegan, which I don't think all flavors are.
Barakah frozen veggie biryani. Likely unavailable where you live, but I'm sure there's a similar product available everywhere -- veggie biryani is just great, and many Indian foods are naturally vegan which in my experience is far better than trying to make something taste like something it's not.
Frozen kimchi pancakes are
usuallysometimes vegan and are a convenient snack to pop in the toaster oven.The "California style veggie burgers" from Costco. They refuse to stay together on a bun, so I've been folding them in a tortilla, ala cruchwrap supreme, and then grilling it shut. This keeps everything stable and has the bonus of grilled tortilla being delicious.
Some of the vacuum sealed Indian food from the grocery store is vegan, but you need to check the labels. Just heat a pouch and dump it in a bowl with some rice, and optionally add cilantro and green onions to freshen it up.
Kimchi is often made with fish or shrimp sauce, so vegans should doublecheck for that. Just as an example, the brand costco sells lists anchovy in the kimchi ingredients, at least from the info Im seeing online.
yeah this is a common enough kimchi ingredient that I'd hesitate to treat kimchi as vegan unless it's very explicitly labeled that way or you're making your own.
Similarly the only kimchi pancakes I could find ingredients for were definitely not vegetarian.
The recipe I use is this one and it's vegan aside from the kimchi itself. If you use vegan kimchi it's totally vegan (though idk how commonly available vegan kimchi is if you don't make your own).
At least in Ontario, I commonly see vegan kimchi in "health food"-type stores, and the person I buy from makes both regular and vegan, so it's available in some regions.
Makes sense! I'm sure it exists where there's enough demand for it, it's just definitely not the default, so I'd never count on it being vegan without checking the ingredients unless it said so explicitly on the label. I haven't seen vegan kimchi available in shops here yet, but I've only ever seen kimchi at restaurants and the Asian supermarket here so that's probably a factor.
Apologies, I meant frozen ones as mentioned by the previous poster. I thought maybe it was common for the kimchi to be vegan in them by quirk of manufacturing, but none of the ones I found were even vegetarian.
I just checked the one in my freezer it also contains anchovy. Damn. Thanks for the heads up.
Pastabilities vegan mac n cheese is just... Box mac n cheese. It's amazing, in that it just perfectly replaces box mac n cheese. My wife and I find it significantly better than any other box mac n cheese we've tried!
IIRC Sour Patch Kids meet the standard for vegan in the US because no gelatin is used, but here be dragons because those things are like edible heroin :)
Frozen falafels are close enough to real ones that I usually don't bother making them by hand anymore.
In the UK/Ireland, Marks & Spencer do a really good vegan "no chicken kyivs", they've got a really nice texture and a fantastic garlic flavour - I prefer them to chicken kyiv.
Meant to be vegan: the impossible chicken nuggets are my absolute favorite frozen nuggets, regardless of whether they're meant to be vegan or not. We literally make them once a week at home because they're so good and just so easy.
Not meant to be vegan, but just are: Trader Joes hummus is my favorite prepackaged hummus. I also love most Sapporo Ramen flavors, and they are usually vegan. Finally, Kettle Chips are delicious and are junk food, and not really meant to be a vegan snack, but they are by virtue of being just potatoes, oil, and salt.