By Savini Gauri
What is Vegan? Let me help you get a better understanding of this lifestyle and how we go about cooking and baking vegan-friendly meals, snacks, desserts, and bakes.
Welcome to a blog post of my Back to Basics series. As I developed lactose intolerance a while ago, I started researching and experimenting more with alternative cooking and baking options to suit multiple dietary requirements. That included dairy-free options, gluten-free options, vegan options, and zero processed sugar options. That got me really interested in vegan cooking and baking. I love developing recipes for all you home cooks and home bakers who are looking for ways to improve or change your diet to suit your needs. As you might have noticed, most of the recipes I post are specific to suit different types of diets. From my Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies to my Gluten-free Gooey FLOURLESS Chocolate Cake, I think it is pretty clear that I love to experiment with all sorts of recipes that cater to all sorts of food preferences. The main reason for doing this is that I want Savini The Bakeshop to be your one-stop place for recipes that are inclusive for everyone irrespective of what diet you follow.
Therefore, I wanted to help you understand what a Vegan lifestyle is all about and why it is becoming a more and more common choice among people everywhere in the world.
What is a Vegan diet?
For those who have practiced being vegan know that this is not a fad or temporary dietary choice made to lose weight or even be particularly healthy. It is not done for “dieting”. Being vegan and choosing to live this lifestyle is all about cutting out all sorts of animal products and instead choosing to have plant-based foods. People often tend to confuse Vegan and Vegetarian diets. To clarify, vegetarians don’t consume meat, eggs, etc… but they still consume animal-based products like milk, cheese, honey, etc... On the other hand, Vegans do not consume anything that is derived from animals, not even cow/goat milk, honey, cheese, or gelatin.
Why does someone choose to be Vegan?
There is not just one particular reason people choose to become Vegan. It could be multiple reasons and could be completely different for everyone. Someone may just do it because they feel like it or more often because of ethical and environmental associations that are associated with eating animals and animal-based products.
A common question that comes up is that “Is it a healthy choice?” I tell them that it is as good as any other. There are multiple vegan options that are rich and delicious and filling.
People often mistakenly think that vegan food is always low-calorie or simply “healthy” by default. But that is not true. Though many people often say that they feel great after choosing a vegan lifestyle. Though it does help you increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and cutting out dairy often helps people with their gut health and digestion. In contrast, some people do not share this feeling and rather feel low on energy and undernourished. I myself am not a vegan, but I do not consume any form of dairy at all. But it is wrong to assume that all vegan food options are healthy.
Can anything be made Vegan-friendly?
Most of the recipes I post are Vegan to begin with as I don’t consume dairy in any form. But on the other hand, I am not big on using flax seeds or chia seeds as a replacement for eggs. So I try to reform and develop the recipe in a way that is self-sufficient without having to add any “replacements”. I do not find these replacements any good since they do not give consistent results. Therefore, there is a need to develop a recipe specifically for vegans.
While developing Vegan recipes, my main aim is to make sure that there is very little to no difference in texture, flavor, and appearance of the Vegan and Non-Vegan options. A good example of that would be my recipe for Grandma’s Chocolate Cake. It’s super-moist, slightly crumbly, and perfect to have on its own or build into a frosted cake.
I hope this article helps you get a better understanding of the meaning of Vegan as it becomes more and more common among people around you.
Happy Cooking/Baking!
Question: What is your favorite Vegan dessert to bake?
