How to simply bake & cook vegan – 9 great substitutes

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How to simply bake & cook vegan – 9 great substitutes

Eating more vegan food has become more and more popular in recent years and cooking and baking with vegan alternatives is also gaining more and more attention. But not only as vegan one can use vegetable substitutes for baking or cooking. One or two vegan days a week do not only have health benefits, such as a lower risk of diabetes, but a vegan diet is also more sustainable and good for the planet.

Vegan breakfast from Verival

At first glance, cooking or baking vegan can seem quite complicated. But that’s not the case at all and that’s why in today’s blog post we want to introduce you to the 9 best vegan alternatives for cooking and baking. With our tips you will definitely succeed in having a plant-based breakfast.

The 9 best vegan substitutes for animal products

1. Agave syrup instead of honey

Many vegans renounce the consumption of honey, as honey is produced by bees and therefore strictly speaking also is an animal product. A tasty and just as sweet alternative to honey is the agave syrup. The agave syrup is won, as the name already says, from the plant agave and is even sweeter than sugar. Therefore, you should use agave syrup rather sparingly. Agave syrup is particularly suitable for sweetening your warm oat porridge in the morning, your yoghurt with muesli or crunchy and for baking various desserts.

2. Apple puree, avocado and flaxseeds as an alternative to eggs

For baking you can use apple puree or another fruit puree instead of eggs for binding the ingredients. This is a very uncomplicated variation and does not require any preparation time. As a rule of thumb, you can say that about one tablespoon of applesauce replaces one egg. In savoury recipes you can also use some avocado as a substitute for eggs. For bread or savoury recipes you can also mix one tablespoon of flaxseeds with three tablespoons of water to substitute an egg.

3. Plant-based drinks instead of cow’s milk

You can easily replace cow’s milk used for baking or cooking with plant-based sources. Whether you choose to have oat drink, almond drink, cashew drink, hazelnut drink or rice drink. There are many different varieties that you can use for cooking or baking. Here we show you different recipes for your own plant-based drinks which you can prepare in just a few minutes.

Make your own plant-based milk

4. Vegetable oil instead of butter

To substitute butter in both baking and cooking, you can use margarine or vegetable oil such as rapeseed oil or coconut oil. For a quantity of about 100 g of butter you should take about 75-80 ml of oil. A real insider tip for replacing butter is to use vegan yoghurt such as soy yoghurt and semolina. Mix about 120 g of yoghurt with a tablespoon of semolina and leave the mixture for a short time so that the semolina can swell. With this amount you can replace about 100 g of butter. However, we would rather advise against substituting more than 100 g of fat with this semolina-yoghurt mixture, as otherwise the mass could become quite sticky.

5. Plant-based yoghurt alternatives instead of yoghurt

To replace different animal yogurt varieties, you can easily use vegan options. Nowadays there is a wide variety of vegetable yogurts, including coconut yogurt, soy yogurt, and almond and lupin-based yogurt available. There is definitely something for everyone!

6. Yeast flakes instead of cheese

Yeast flakes have a slightly cheesy taste and can therefore be used as a simple cheese substitute in vegan cuisine. Yeast flakes are pressed “flakes” made from yeast. In addition, these small flakes are also rich in many valuable ingredients such as vitamin B1, B2, B5, B6 and folic acid. Yeast flakes also contain a lot of protein in the form of easily digestible amino acids. The yeast flakes, for example, can easily be processed as a cheese sauce.

7. Agar agar instead of gelatine

Gelatine which is obtained from animal connective tissue and bones, is frequently used to gel cakes. A good vegan alternative that is perfect for baking is agar agar, which is obtained from dried seaweed. Agar Agar can easily be used for both sweet and savoury dishes and is therefore a perfect vegetable alternative to gelatine for your next vegan cake.

8. Coconut milk instead of cream

Cream or cream fraiche are often used in recipes for soups or rice dishes. A delicious vegan alternative is coconut milk. Due to its similar consistency to cream, this vegetable alternative can also be used to make creamy sauces used in several dishes or soups. You can also use coconut milk in sweet dishes such as overnight oats.

9. Tofu, seitan and co. instead of meat

In vegan dishes you can simply replace the meat with lots of vegetables. In addition, you can include tofu, seitan and tempeh as meat substitutes in your dishes. These plant-based meat alternatives are also as good as their animal counterparts in protein content: e.g. 100 g of seitan contain about 35 g of protein.

It’s not that hard to cook and bake vegan because there are enough plant-based substitutes for animal products. You can also use these simple tips and alternatives to easily make your breakfast recipes vegan.

Let us know on Instagram which vegan alternative you did not already know! Have fun trying the different vegan alternatives! 🌱