Vegan Wish List for 2015

vegan-noms

 

If you’re thinking thoughts about National Vegetarian Week  (#NVW15), you might be interested in a survey done by UK’s VeggieVision TV to discover what lay at the top of their community’s wishlist of “it’s not vegan and I wish it was” items. You can see the results below. Are your “if only” not-yet-vegan noms on the list?

1. Quorn

There are plenty of vegetarian meat alternatives out there, but because Quorn contains eggs it isn’t suitable for vegans. So that’s not good. What is a bit more good is that Quorn already sell vegan Quorn products in the USA and have seen the growing demand for vegan food in the UK, so they may well start shipping it here, too. And then anyone who cares for Quorn may have it.

2. Lemon Meringue Pie (and Key Lime Pie)

Key lime pie is the wrong green and also terrifying, but some people like it. And a lot of people like lemon meringue pie. The U.S. stocks an egg-free meringue mix but it’s expensive in the UK and not easy to find. It would be nice if you could get vegan meringue pies available pre-made, but a mix would be wonderful, too.

3. Vegan supermarket sandwiches

Seriously, UK supermarket sandwiches ALWAYS seem to have meat and dairy products in them and vegans are just as likely to get hungry on the go and have the same money to spend as anyone else. There are lots of sandwiches out there that could easily be made vegan-friendly. Falafel sarnies, certainly. What is it about falafels that they magically contain dairy once ensconced in bread? BREAD, WHAT DO YOU DO TO THE THINGS INSIDE YOU?

4. Dairy free smelly cheeses

There are quite a few delicious dairy free cheeses now, but it would be great to see a powerfully strong dairy free ‘blue cheese’, a cheese just as pungent and nobly veined with blue as it is dairy free. Many UK vegans taking the survey also asked for animal-free goats cheese. The cheese of the goat is a marvellous thing. To veganise that cheese would also be marvellous.

5. Better labelling on wines

For some reason, the labelling on wine bottles is rarely clear. This is a shame, because not only have vegans been known to like wine, but also a great deal of wine is vegan friendly these days, using bentonite clay instead of fish bladders as a fining agent. If only these wines could communicate their vegan-ness to the vegans who might wish to drink them. Wouldn’t that be proper and good? Wouldn’t that make sense?

Vegans sadly can’t simply assume the wine is safe for consumption, because although the use of blood in wine processing is banned in the UK, the use of eggs and milk still makes some wines out there unsuitable for vegans. Some places like Marks and Spencer and the Co Op label their vegan-friendly wine, and it would be great to see more national supermarkets follow suit.

This is quite a long plea for wine, but still. It is fair to say that wine is even more popular than lemon meringue pie, though that is no fault of the pie.

Other suggestions on the vegan wish list include:

  • Yorkshire puddings
  • Maltsters
  • Toffee
  • Jaffa Cakes

So….

Vegans have plenty to eat, and it’s not like animal and dairy products are so essential or amazing that substitutes need to be found – the world of vegan food can be utterly delicious in itself. However, vegan alternatives to meat and dairy also have their place, and are welcomed in a varied diet.

With vegan versions of all kinds of things, from butter, cheese and yoghurt right through to black pudding (yes, seriously!), it’s no wonder that the vegan lifestyle is growing as more people think more about how their food reaches them and what they want on their plate.

Nice to explore next: http://veggievision.tv/

Photo credit: Vegan Noms