Vegan Sprig 🌱

Just two people who went vegan and kept notes. Recipes, honest nutrition, the awkward family dinners. We reply to everyone.

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

We didn't go vegan because we started loving animals.

We went vegan because we already did. And one ordinary evening it stopped making sense to keep that love and what was on the plate in separate rooms.

That's the whole thing.

This account is what came after. 1/

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

Spring onions grow back if you put the roots in water. Still feels like a trick

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@cwiltzy Restaurant vegan mac is the hardest one to get right, so that's worth knowing about. Where was it? Eating out is the part of all this we have the fewest good answers for

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@vdethex Anything with vegan on the label, yeah. Cheese especially. The unlabelled half of it, beans and lentils and frozen veg, is about the cheapest food in the shop

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@VeganlifeKJP Free thickener, that. Okra does the job a roux or a spoon of cornflour does, so the 50% is the sauce making itself. If you ever want it to stop, get it hard and dry in the pan before anything wet goes near it

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@AntheaMur Half of what we know started as just doing what the recipe said

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

Nutritional yeast is badly named and I'm sorry about it.

It sounds like a supplement. It's a savoury, cheesy, slightly nutty flake you put on pasta, popcorn and roast potatoes.

If someone told you vegan food tastes flat, they hadn't found this

#vegan

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@poorvegancook The bloodwork end of it is well past anything I'd have a view on. But the coffee half is the easier fix of the two, since it's a timing change rather than a diet one. Same cup, just not with the meal.

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

Practical iron, for anyone told plant iron "doesn't count":

It absorbs less readily. So help it.

- Vitamin C alongside it (lemon over greens, tomato in the pan)
- Tea and coffee between meals, not with them. Tannins block it badly

Small timing changes, real difference.

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@flangedmale Sorry, that made no sense written down. Did you actually go and see one

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@poorvegancook Does the black rice go in with the lentils or later? Guessing later, or it'd take the whole pot with it

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@Deedee21991333 Lime or lemon there is doing two jobs. Seasons it, and keeps the avocado from going brown before you sit down

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

peanut butter on toast is a complete meal and always has been

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@iluvnycb @gibbontime Half of that sandwich is the press, not the bread. Thin ciabatta or any flatbread, dry pan, another heavy pan on top for two minutes, and you already know the fillings

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@Deedee21991333 Squashed straight onto hot toast instead of sliced goes further, and it stops sliding off the edges

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@LizParkin3 @jennysmortstar Sweet mince is usually the sugar in the mince rather than anything you did. Jenny's right about the savoury bit, and the quickest way in is acid: vinegar or lemon at the end pulls the sweetness straight back out

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@graxmytiny @imrealinmymind Cheese is the one where a straight swap disappoints, so it helps not to start with a block you eat on its own. The ones built to melt do fine inside something: toastie, pizza, pasta bake. Nobody's cracked cheddar on a cracker yet and it's fine to say so

[Vegan Sprig 🌱 @vegansprig]

@Trae4VL638 Alfredo's a good first one. Silken tofu blended with garlic and a bit of pasta water goes creamy on its own, and it beats cream on protein.