Help me, vegans!

[thefourthvine]

Because of my baby's suspected dairy allergy, I have joined the ranks of the more-or-less vegan. (I can actually still eat eggs, but they aren't a huge part of my diet anyway.) And, see, I've been a vegetarian since I was ten. I know how to be a vegetarian! It doesn't require thought or effort! Whereas this veganism thing is very new and very, very hard.

Normally I'd just hit Google and research the shit out of this. But, well, I have a four-month-old baby. I don't have time to make out with Google the way I used to. So I am hoping to use the friends list shortcut - that there are vegans on my friends list who might have advice for me. Or, I guess, people on my friends list who aren't vegan but just love to Google.

Basically, here's what I need to know:

1. What are the basics of a vegan pantry? What are the special things that vegans keep around all the time, that make cooking or meals easier?
   
   
2. What are really good vegan products?
   
   
3. What are some good vegan recipes? Right now I'm relying much too heavily on fake meat, and that is not how I like to cook or eat. At least, not this much. I might as well be a carnivore! So - recipes? I especially need ones for balanced meals that are super-fast or that I can make in a crockpot. Suggestions of cookbooks featuring these things would also be very welcome.

Help? Please? Anyone? I will take links or comments or just supportive pats. I am experiencing involuntary dietary change and it's very scary!

Comments

[teaotter.livejournal.com]

My partner is allergic to dairy proteins, so we've developed a number of work-arounds for foods. We're not vegan, so the complete-protein question will have to be answered by other people. But we do vegetarian food most of the time.

There are a lot of cuisines with easy-to-adjust recipes. Asian food is generally your friend -- Chinese, Japanese, Thai. If you buy something packaged you still need to read the ingredients. But it's easy to drop the meat out of most stir-fry recipes and add tofu, tempeh, some other legume, potatoes, mushrooms -- basically whatever looks good at the time.

Traditional Italian food often works well, too. Lots of veggies and pasta in tasty sauces. Just substitute out the cream or cheese.

So I'd say our staples are pasta, beans, rice, potatoes, nuts, and loads of fresh veggies and fruits. We make most of our own baked goods, because most breads/pastries have butter, milk, whey, or margarine (which usually has whey in it, darn them!). We also keep lots of broth on hand, fresh herbs, and lots of pickles, olives, nuts, and assorted tasty condiments. My partner is a big believer in condiments.

We've discovered that canned coconut milk is a better dairy replacement than most soy or nut milks (obvously, YMMV) and makes fantastic baked goods and cream sauces. And custard.

Cheese... well frankly, most of the cheese substitutes aren't very cheese-like. We've been replacing things like parmesan with ground walnuts and chopped olives (to give you that thick salty taste) for quite a while now. We haven't found a mozzarella substitute we really like, but we'll often add something with a similar smoothness of texture (like fried eggplant, in lasagna).

We've only successfully made "macaroni and cheese" (the baked kind) as a very eggy noodle casserole. It tastes great, but I can't imagine how you'd bind it without the eggs.

There are also some decent vegan butter substitutes -- Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (available at Whole Foods and other health food stores) can pretty much do anything that butter can do, in sauces or baked goods both.

We use a lot of the recipes at CookingLight.com as well.

Good luck!