The Vegetarian to Vegan Pipeline

The Vegetarian to Vegan Pipeline

As an aspiring vegan — and current vegetarian — I try to limit myself to buying vegan groceries for my apartment. I already don’t eat meat and consume massive amounts of oat milk, so making sure my groceries don’t contain other animal products isn’t that much of a stretch. To save money, I’ve been focusing on eating at home lately, and therefore, have been eating vegan.

Yesterday, I broke my vegan streak with a Peach Milk Tea.

Why I’m not a vegan (yet) — The vegetarian to vegan pipeline

  1. There are foods I want to try and places I haven’t been. I’m nineteen. There are so many restaurants I haven’t gone to and dishes I haven’t cooked. I want to enjoy things before I write them off.
  2. With meat, substitutes are easy to come by, especially in New York City. If there aren’t any plant-based options, I could order something sans meat, which is why I find it easy to be vegetarian. With dairy and eggs, that’s a little more challenging.
  3. I have a limited understanding of nutritional value. Before I eliminate foods from my diet, I want to make sure I know what to replace them with.
  4. Veganism can be expensive. I’ve cooked two “cheap” vegan dinners this week, but they still ate up a lot of my monthly food budget. Eating vegan isn’t the most financially sustainable option for me.
  5. I could, technically, start eating vegan tomorrow if I relied on beans, rice, oats, etc., but I want to eat things I enjoy. I don’t yet have a collection of vegan meals that I can cook. I’m sure I’ll develop one as I find new recipes, but for now, I want to prioritize being happy with what I’m eating over being vegan.
As a vegetarian on an eventual journey to veganism, here are some of my pantry staples and vegan favorites. Read more for a curried chickpea recipe!

Vegan pantry staples

Cooking a hearty meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner isn’t always feasible, even when I’m eating animal products. It was important to try some easy, vegan products that I could prepare quickly. As I was grocery shopping, I found two new favorites: vegan eggs and oat milk creamer.

I used a powder called VeganEgg, serving as a soy, plant-based egg replacement. I found that it’s best to cook with minimum olive oil on medium-high heat, waiting until the eggs brown a bit. Vegan eggs don’t cook as quick as non-vegan eggs, but they were still easy to make.

I also started using Planet Oat caramel oat milk creamer in my coffee. My homemade iced coffee went from mostly non-dairy to completely non-dairy.

Both of these substitutes aren’t strangers to people who are already vegan, but they helped my breakfast go from vegetarian to vegan, and are now staples in my routine.

I like to choose vegan when I can. Right now, that looks like swapping out non-vegan groceries for vegan ones and learning how to cook with substitute ingredients.

Curried chickpea recipe — My new vegan go-to

My favorite dinner this week was a curried chickpea recipe I got from a ChooseVeg article. It was easy to prepare with my limited cooking skills and kitchen supplies. As I was browsing Google for some low-maintenance vegan options, I struggled to find recipes that reflected my key search words — ‘quick,’ cheap,’ and ‘easy.’

Often times, veganism feels complicated and unattainable. This article gave me a lot of options that were accessible both in terms of simplicity and affordability. While I’ve only tried two of the recipes on the list, I think that the curried chickpeas will remain a favorite on my eventual journey from vegetarian to vegan. Click the links to check it out! Enjoy!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

met gala 2021 tax the rich Previous post Politics Arrive to the 2021 Met Gala
The key to happiness seems to be elusive, but it may just lie within our ability to shift our mindsets. Next post The Power of Positive Thinking