Butter, eggs, milk and some honey.
These are the basic ingredients when you start baking. But do you really have to profit from animals to cook your own treats?
We’ve put together a list of awesome vegan swaps for these common ingredients.
Want to know more?
Read on:
Vegan Alternatives to Butter
Coconut Oil, the tasty alternative for butter
Perfect for taste, but be careful though as some studies say the saturated fats it includes makes it as unhealthy as butter… just animal friendlier.
Vegetable Oil – the healthy alternative for butter
The healthy alternative to butter, heavily used in the mediteranean cuisine, vegetable oils are high in omega 3 and vitamin E.
Peanut Butter – When you need an energy boost
The strong taste of peanut butter makes it optimal for some recipes like energy bar, power balls.
Margarine – the lookalike
It looks like butter, it almost tastes like butter, but it’s plant based.
Too good to be true?
Yes and no
Margarine is a great substitute for butter, but be careful as some brands contain lactose or whey in trace amounts.
Flora’s margarine checks all the boxes, give it a try!
Vegan Substitute for Eggs
Free and Easy – Plant-based Eggs
Perfect for pancakes and meringues, try this egg-replacement by “Free and Easy” (which not free by the way).
Follow your heart
You want eggs that look like eggs? Just Follow your heat… What I mean was: “Check the brand “Follow your heart”. You can find it online. It is made with non GMO soya.
Vegan Alternatives to Honey
The most obvious one is sugar… but be careful, often sugar made from sugar cane has been whitened with bone char. Try to go with organic sugar if you want to stick with it.
Beet and coconut sugar
You can however check out beet sugar. Amazon.co.uk sells some. Another alternative I love is coconut sugar. Not only does it taste great, but nowadays, it’s quite easy to buy online. Again, you can simply find it on Amazon.co.uk here or there.
Dates & dates syrup
If you look for a less transformed sweetener, you can try dates or dates syrup.
You’ll find date syrup online here.
Dates are best found in your local grocery store, being Tesco, Sainsbury or Aldi.
Agave Nectar
Coming from a plant found in Mexico (Agave is actually what they use to make Tequila!), the taste is somewhere between honey and pure maple syrup
Maple Syrup
This is a classic but don’t underestimate it. It’s relatively cheap (because more popular) and simpler to find everywhere. You’ll also find more recipes listing it.
And well… I love its taste and never get bored of it.
Sugar equivalent: 1 TBSpoon of sugar can be replaced by 3/4 TBSpoon of Maple syrup.
Stevia
It’s a natural sweetener made from plants… but the plant itself is so sweet (200 times more than table sugar) that it needs to be very much diluted to be used. Commercial Stevia is also blended with different sweeteners, such as erythritol (a sugar alcohol) and dextrose (glucose). It’s not our preferred choice as a vegan honey-swap, but due to its popularity, we thought it was only fair to include it.
Vegan Alternatives to Milk
This one is such a big topic (including almond milk, soy milk, etc.) that we decided to dedicate a full article on the topic. It’s to be published very soon, so stay tuned!
Start Baking Today
There is no excuse to stop baking for a vegan. Alternatives exist and they are not simple substitutes for the original. Most of the products above deserve a spot in everybody’s kitchen, even if they don’t care about animal cruelty.