Going vegan - need some advice

Breezer

I've been a vegetarian for 8 years and have more or less decided to go vegan (actually I'm not sure if that's the best word, since I'm not currently planning on stopping wearing wool etc. It's more like cutting eggs and dairy out of my current diet. Anyway, I digress, and don't want to get too hung up on labels.)

I find the Quorn range very handy (and tasty ) but unfortunately it contains egg. I've done a bit of research and there seems to be quite a few vegan alternatives, like this type of thing. The trouble is, that site says that these products are available in "most health food stores." I visited three today, including Holland and Barrett's, plus two Tescos, and all I managed to find was some soya milk and dairy-free spread.

Can anyone recommend a shop in the South Dublin/Dublin City/North Wicklow area that stocks any of these? And some of the other stuff on that site, vegan ice cream and chocolate etc, looks tasty Also, are vegan convenience foods significantly more expensive than their vegetarian equivalents? I'm a student for another year at least, so my budget is a major concern!

And yes, I know I could simply dump convenience foods and make everything fresh, but it's not really an option in my circumstances, for several reasons.

One further question. I'm pretty worried about eating out with friends and family. None of my family or friends are vegan and very few are vegetarian. They all respect my diet but there's no way they'd ever partake in it. It's never been a problem up till now because almost everywhere has at least one vegetarian option, bland as it might be, but I reckon if I were constantly saying no to places that have no vegan option I'd quickly make myself very unpopular. And in my experience, a lot of places have no vegan options. I know there's some good vegan-friendly restaurants around the place, but I don't think it would be fair to constantly insist on going there with people. So basically I'm wondering how on earth you guys cope with this situation?

Sorry for the wordiness of the post by the way! It's been 8 years since my moral conscience threw up so many questions and I'm in a small bit of a panic :pac:

sweetoblivion

Hey there, yep you can get all of those products in health food stores in Dublin - Down to Earth, Nourish, etc. Check the freezer sections

Just to add - if you get something like the Fry's chicken nuggets, for eg, it'll cost you nearly €5. Whereas a tin of pre-cooked chickpeas is anything from €1 - €2. It's not that hard to eat unprocessed food if you stock up on tinned or dried food Just a tip as you'll need to make sure you eat as much unprocessed stuff as possible & being a student and wanting to save money, beans and pulses are WAY cheaper in the long run than relying on boxed fake meats a lot.

Not meaning to be preachy, just a tip for your wallet and health

One tin of chickpeas can go: in a salad; in a curry (all you need is tinned tomatoes and spices); mashed up with carrots to make a little burger, with spices and gram flour to make falafels...etc etc.

Oh also re restaurants - if I don't want to eat something, I'll ask can they do it without. Like I was in Dakota the other day, I got a salad with avocado instead of feta. A lot of stuff can be adapted - if it's made fresh, they can just remove an item.
- Indian restaurants
- Thai restaurants
- Japanese/Chinese restaurants
--- all have vegan options (although you may have to ask questions about specific dishes)
- Veggie restaurants eg Cafe Fresh, Cornucopia, Juice (not my favourite tbh), The Happy Pear all do vegan options.

The hardest thing is weddings/events - before I gave up meat I tried to avoid dairy anyway so this has continued for me, but I inevitably end up eating dairy in some form at weddings. Personally that's not a problem for me, as I rarely eat dairy anyway, but obviously for vegans that can be an issue - so you might want to ring ahead to the venue and ask can they make you something.

Good luck going vegan!

Breezer

sweetoblivion wrote: »

Hey there, yep you can get all of those products in health food stores in Dublin - Down to Earth, Nourish, etc. Check the freezer sections

See this was the problem, none of them had a freezer! Can you recommend a specific one that does? I'm guessing city centre somewhere?

Not meaning to be preachy, just a tip for your wallet and health

No, you're not being preachy. The reason it's not overly practical is because I still live at home with my meat-eating family (can't afford to move out despite being 23 - stupid college course that's twice as long as everyone else's :pac:), and my mam likes to cook a family meal a couple of times a week. Usually she does a meat dish e.g. spaghetti bolognese for everybody else, and does the same for me except substituting Quorn mince. She enjoys cooking for us, and she's a fantastic cook so I'm not complaining, but she's also often tired after working all day herself and doesn't want to have to think too much: this brown stuff goes in this pan, that brown stuff goes in that pan, keep it simple. It took a several year-long battle when I was a kid to get her to this stage, so I really don't want to start another one. And no, helping her isn't an option, she likes to have the kitchen to herself when she's at it.

I will look at pre-making some burgers and falafel and stuff and freezing them though

sweetoblivion

Ah I can understand why you'd want meaty options so! Falafel mixes are great for that - you just add water, let them stand then make a burger/patties out of them. Orgran do a delicious gluten-free vegan mix. You could have it with potatoes/pasta/rice or whatever you want.
It might be an idea to make up some veggie burgers and freeze them? (My freezer doesn't work so I have to make nearly everything from scratch!)

Most city centre health shops in Dublin have freezers - especially around the george's st, camden st, wicklow st areas Nourish and Down to Earth have freezers for sure. In fact all Nourish ones do I think. And the Hopsack in Rathmines does too I think.

L.Jenkins

Hey looking for advice on going vegaterian again. I was a veggy a few years back for a couple of years but just couldn't stick to it. Any alternatives I can pick up in the shops and any extra vitamins I'll have to get for myself during the week?

Breezer

Well I bought a few things. You're right, that convenience stuff is expensive. I think it'll be kept strictly for emergencies and maybe BBQs.

But I have discovered that scrambled tofu with mushrooms and some salad in a pita bread is quite delicious It's not at all like scrambled egg, but it's good. It was also a pleasant surprise to discover that egg-free mayo, along with the non-dairy butter, was a lot cheaper than I'd expected. I'm still a bit apprehensive about eating out, but I'm going to have fun experimenting with this at home

djhunter30 wrote: »

Hey looking for advice on going vegaterian again. I was a veggy a few years back for a couple of years but just couldn't stick to it. Any alternatives I can pick up in the shops and any extra vitamins I'll have to get for myself during the week?

Way to crash my vegan thread Hmm, it depends what sort of products you're looking for. Nutrient-wise, beans, peas and lentils are great for replacing meat. Meaty look and taste-wise, the Quorn products are great - I have some in my freezer that I don't want to eat anymore, you want em? :P I never took vitamins as a vegetarian (I wonder should I start that now actually...) and I never had any health problems, provided you keep up a balanced diet it shouldn't be necessary. The one thing I would say, particularly if you're a woman under 40 (here's my medical background coming out) is to get your iron levels checked with your GP at the start, and then again in a couple of months until you're used to the diet and you know your iron is alright with it. If you find yourself feeling tired, find it hard to concentrate or you start looking paler than usual it'd be worth looking at too. I never had any problems in this regard, but I'm a guy, so it's less of an issue for me. Good luck!

Getwellsoon

Yeah all those "alternatives" are pretty expensive. They are in most health food shops though in the fridges or freezers.

Also, Superquinn does Linda McCartney stuff, and I've got completely vegan veggie burgers/bean burgers from there before too (I think they might be Green Isle ones?). They used to do fake chicken style pieces but I haven't seen them there for a while now, and they do falafels, onion bhajis, cauldron sausages...

A good shop over the south side is the Hopsack in the swan centre in Rathmines. They have lots of good stuff, and the Holland & Barratt in the swan centre also has that "granose sausage mix" stuff in the link you posted. The same company also do fake chicken roast / nut loaf mixes which are really really nice.

I'd definitely recommend you go to an asian supermarket though. Tofu, Tempeh and "mock meat" or seitan products are SO much cheaper there.

Sweetoblivion gave great advice about eating out. Most Thai, Indian and Asian restaurants will have a few vegan options. Like green curry (usually made with coconut milk), veggie sushi & soups, chana massala, samosas, bhajis... so there are a lot of places you can go with meat eaters.

The main vegan friendly restaurants are Govindas, Cornucopia & Juice - but I know that Cafe Bar Deli for example has a couple of things you can get, as does Gourmet Burger Kitchen, then Hell Pizza and Extreme Pizza also have vegan pizzas, and most places will be able to rustle up a nice salad if there's nothing else on the menu.

Remember - Don't be afraid to ask for anything!

L.Jenkins

Thanks for the advice. I donate blood on occasion so I have to watch my Iron levels alot. I'll try the Quorn foods again.