5 Products to make your Vegan life easier!

When it comes to being vegan, there are lots of lists out there for vegan products to make your life easier that are, of course, food-related. In the almost 11 years since I have been vegan, so many foods have come out that make being vegan doable for more people. But today I’m going to list some non-food related items that can be part of your vegan transition or your current lifestyle. These are a little less obvious, and may make your days brighter.

Let’s get right into it! The five products that will make your vegan life easier:

1. The first is one many of you may already have: an instant pot. I am a long-time electric pressure cooker user. I originally used the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker. This was before the instant pot even came out! That started around 2007. Eventually, I decided to "upgrade" to the instant pot brand, but it didn't turn out to actually be an upgrade. Nothing wrong with the IP, I love it. But I do have to report it wasn't any better or different than the Cuisinart, except for the pre- set buttons.

An electric pressure cooker of any kind, not just the instant pot brand, is essential to a vegan kitchen. The reason I originally got an electric pressure cooker was to quickly prepare dried beans, and also to make vegan yogurt. About five years after I got my electric pressure cooker, the IP came out and it was all the rage. Meat eaters love it because it cooks their food very quickly and retains moisture and flavor, but it’s even better for vegans. Obviously, it’s better because we're not cooking dead animals in it. Related to cooking efficiently, and a vegan diet, electric pressure cooker rocks because whole-foods cooking is at the center of eating a plant-based diet. This means the instant pot is where it’s at for quick vegan home cooks.

2. The second item is actually related to the first. It’s the classic instant pot cookbook that I consider to be the indispensable texf for starting to use your instant pot. Vegan Under Pressure by Jill Nussinow is my favorite vegan cookbook for pressure cooking. As I mention below, I am not one for a big array of cookbooks. Just the essentials are what I keep on hand. But if you have to have one electric pressure cookbook for your collection, this is the one. It goes through basic cooking techniques, as well as more complex recipes, and really covers the gamut of the ways that you can use your instant pot. You’ll get ethnic dishes like Currys and Indian dishes, Thai soups, etc. You also get the basics for making desserts, steaming things, using it for classics like oatmeal, etc.

3. The third item I find indispensable is actually not an item- but it’s a community. Joining groups on Facebook such as one of my favorites, Inclusive Vegan Cooking and Meal Planning, or other vegan support groups is going to help you in your journey to eating cruelty-free and plant-based. There are many questions that even people who've been vegan for over a decade like myself run into. Feedback and community are so important to success in any endeavor. Others can quickly help you with your roadblocks, but only if you're already tapped into the group. I recommend exploring groups on Facebook that might be right for you, or in other settings outside of Facebook. Some topics I have seen vegan groups focus on include ethical vegans, vegan parenting and adoption, Christian vegans, cultural vegans, feeding vegan children, and vegan pregnancy. Personally, I’m not really on Facebook for reasons other than groups anymore. The group function on Facebook is really where I find the most use out of that application nowadays.

4. The fourth item is not one that you might think of a specifically vegan, but it’s one that I just can’t recommend enough. You’ll find yourself grating slicing chopping etc. a lot more food after going vegan. This Microplane box grater makes easy work of creating thin sliced zucchini and radishes, quickly whizzing through a block of vegan cheese, making grated carrots or jicama for salads, etc. If you’re vegan you should be eating salads! I know, I know, no health food pushing or diet shaming here, but whether it’s a cooked salad, a completely unhealthy salad with lots of vegan ranch, whatever, incorporating some raw foods into your diet is part of eating plant-based in a way that is long-term sustainable! My favorite micro plane box grater really does make life easier in that way. It does run between $25 and $30. I know that might seem like a lot for a box grater. But you need one that’s going to stand up to pressure- I’ve broken a few by pushing through them. I finally decided about five years ago to buy a slightly more expensive one. This is also microplane metal, meaning it is insanely sharp stainless steel, so it’s extremely whips through things very quickly and without much pressure needed. I just can’t recommend it highly enough, and I have sold a lot of folks on it! Everyone reports back that they love it.

5. The fifth and final item I recommend that will make starting your vegan journey easier is something you may have already: a smartphone or a tablet and the ability to quickly look up recipes on sites like Allrecipes.com, through Instagram, etc. The tablet or your smartphone can accompany you in the kitchen and is going to save you so much money by not having to buy cookbooks. I know, I love cookbook authors too, and want to support them! But most of the cookbook authors out there also making money for the recipes off of their blogs, Instagram, and websites nowadays. So yes, if you love the book, absolutely buy it. I have a great collection of vegan cookbooks. 

But when it comes to your own practice of being vegan and cruelty-free, it’s not about anything other than getting you the recipes you need when you need them for the lowest possible price, so that more vegan recipes are accessible to people.

And when you first start out, let’s face it, you should not be winging it. Vegan food should taste good when you bring it to a party, or when you eat it at home with your family or serve it to guests, because the more people who are turned off by vegan cooking because people don’t know what they’re doing, the more people are going to be scared away from going vegan or plant-based. So when you first start out, please please, use recipes -- no need to go crazy and spend money on cookbooks right at first. Just use a tablet or smartphone, follow vegan foodies on Instagram, get yourself to some great recipe websites that have good reviews on the recipes that have been posted. Read the comments for tips and tricks to make the recipe better via the open of folks who have tried it, and get cooking with a little help from the rest of the world of vegans who’ve done it already. Don’t go it alone, or you may be discouraged and have dismal results.

That’s it, that wraps it up for my five things that make your life easier as a vegan, at least for today! What do you think? Do you have things that have made your life easier as a vegan? Did any of these strike a chord with you? If so comment below!