Vegan Cooking & Baking: Unusual Products Vegans Use in Their Kitchen

So, you’ve made the positive leap to go vegan - yay! You’ve discovered where to buy your online grocery shopping and get takeaway delivered, and now you’d like to try your hand at some challenging-yet-rewarding vegan recipes by yourself. But wait - perhaps some of these plant-based ingredients are completely new to you? Sit back and let us fill you in… 

Hail seitan! This excellent meat replacement has grown in popularity in the vegan world in recent years due to its uncanny ability to replicate beef. With its tough, meaty texture you can make plant-based steaks, burgers, meat balls, and many more vegan meat substitutes with this wonder ingredient made from isolated wheat protein.

Recipe: Vegan Ham

Buy: Seitan at The Vegan Kind Supermarket

Aquafaba is a wonder ingredient that replicates the job of eggs in all kinds of plant-based cooking and baking recipes. Made from chickpea liquid, it manages to bind together and thicken vegan ingredients to make cakes, muffins, scones, and all kinds of sweet baking pastries and desserts, plus, can be cooked, boiled or baked to produce scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, and much more! What a legend. 

Recipe: Vegan Meringues

Buy: Egg Replacements at The Vegan Kind Supermarket

Nutritional yeast aka nooch is a delicious, protein-and-nutrient-packed, cheesey-flavoured food additive that can be used in a whole variety of savoury vegan meals and snacks. Whether it’s replacing parmesan in your plant-based spaghetti bolognese, mixing into a vegan lasagne before cooking, sprinkling on a baked sweet potato or tossing in a salad, the only thing holding you back is your imagination! 

Recipe: Creamy Vegan Carbonara

Buy: Nutritional Yeast at The Vegan Kind Supermarket

Honey shmoney - leave it to the bees! Made from agave plants, agave syrup (or, agave sugar) is the plant-based sweetener of choice with an endless amount of everyday uses for vegans and vegetarians. Sweeten your tea and coffee, drizzle on your plant-based desserts, glaze your vegan ham, or pimp up your smoothie - the options are endless!  

Recipe: Easy Vegan Flapjacks

Buy: Agave Nectar at The Vegan Kind Supermarket

Kala namak, also known as Indian salt but more commonly referred to as black salt, is a cooking and baking ingredient that originates from South Asia and is popular in a whole host of Asian dishes for its umami, eggy flavour. Popular vegan uses include plant-based scrambled eggs, curries, and sauces. 😋

Recipe: CRACKD Lentil Blinis

Buy: Black Salt at The Vegan Kind Supermarket

Agar agar powder is a vegan and vegetarian alternative to gelatine made from seaweed. With a multitude of uses including plant-based sweets and desserts such as jelly, preserving fruit, and even thickening soup, agar powder is a must-have for your vegan kitchen!

Recipe: Strawberry Frazier

Xanthan Gum is a multifaceted baking and cooking ingredient that acts as an egg replacement, thickener, binder and/or gelatine alternative in many of your favourite vegan baking recipes and sauces, and a whole range of gluten-free baked goods such as cupcakes and banana bread. What a talent!

Recipe: CRACKD Lemon Meringue Pie

Made from fermented soybeans, miso is a Japanese seasoning paste with a strong umami flavour used in endless vegan cooking recipes such as soups, sauces, stocks, and can be added to rice, plant-based meats, vegetables, and much more for a “meaty”, salty, and strong flavour.

Recipe: Miso French Lentil Soup

Buy: Miso at The Vegan Kind Supermarket

Images courtesy of Katerina Holmes, Mikhail Nilov, Pixabay and Sebastian Coman via Pexels.