10 Vegan Food Hacks That Will Change Your Life! π₯π±πͺ
Checkout these tips that will help you save time, money and help you along your journey Throughout many years of trial and error I have developed a few hacks, tips & tricks that have helped me on this lifestyle and I share them with you in this video!
Share your tips in the comments down below! I'm sure you know and already do a few of these, but I'm sure you have some gems to share yourself!
0:00 – Intro
0:40 – #1 How to keep greens from wilting?
2:48 – #2 How to pick a good avocado?
4:19 – #3 How to keep bananas from getting too ripe?
5:12 – #4 How to mix oil into nut/seed butter easier?
6:34 – #5 Use Kala Namak to make tofu scramble taste more 'eggy'.
7:06 – #6 How to make a quick vegan cheese crumble?
10:11 – #7 Frozen fruit & veg are healthy time and money saving options!
12:00 – #8 Grinding flax & chia for optimal absorption.
13:19 – #9 Cook different grains and legumes in the same pot to boost nutrition and variety!
14:45 – #10 How to quickly find out if something contains milk/eggs.
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Hey Simnett Thankyou so much for your nutrition guide! I wanted to go vegan back in 2015 and failed miserably that I felt ashamed of myself. And I stumbled onto your guide 3 years later in 2018 and have been vegan for over 3 years now thanks to you!
That’s awesome! He has a guide?
Way to go!!!
My tip for newer vegans: at first donβt just make your old recipes and replace non-vegan things. Instead: find a bunch of simple vegan recipes that you think youβll like and make those.
So true. Chicken used to be my main source of protein. Was never the biggest fan of red meat (beef and lamb), pork and fish. Now I don’t really crave it. My main protein sources now are tofu, tempeh, seitan and beans. Bean burger over a Beyond Burger any day. Beyond Meat is anyway ridiculously expensive this side in South Africa.
@Luciano Willemse I believe that, it’s priced here about double of other fake meat burgers aswell (in the Netherlands), but it’s also development costs etc. so we still support them from time to time (main source of protein is just plain old veggies (yay they have plenty protein too!) and beans/lentils).
So true. Your old recipes wonΒ΄t taste the same and you will be disapointed, witch is totally unnessecary when there is so much gooooood food out there! So much spices andl flaves and so many things to try!
Agree totally. When I first started on this path I watched good videos (like this one), got a couple of good vegan cook books & read at least the introduction, but also many of the recipes, And most helpful for me, decided to start by learning how to make dishes from a culture that has been vegan/vegetarian for Ever, in my case, Indian food – but there are others to choose from. After awhile I did miss the comfort foods like Mom used to make, and now I’ve even figured out how to make a pretty good vegan Jigg’s dinner. It wouldn’t fool my Grandmother, but I like it. I will be making the nut & seed crumble once I make a trip to the Bulk Barn. Thanks for the tips.
Option for people without window/counter space: Chop fresh herbs and pack them into an ice cube tray, put just enough water in each space to saturate them, then freeze them and put them into labeled bags. Anytime you need a heaping Tablespoon of herbs, drop a cube in the dish and stir it in.
Or even freeze them as is in Tupperware and then you can slice the amount you need per meal – makes chopping a lot easier and saves on ice cube space
Same but with olive oil, then freeze. Small amount of greens and you have a small cube of flavor to use with soup, meal or whatever hot to melt it.
Ooh thank you
@Laura Upton Yes! Leafy green things are great in the freezer. Iβve been using plastic ziplock bags. I toss my whole bag of spinach straight from the store in there for smoothie ease.
thanks for the tips ! I pretty much always waste a bit of herbs :/
bro I went vegan in September 2019 after discovering your channel, and it changed my life. My brother is vegan now too and my parents are getting better. You showed me the light and I took off from there. I always give you credit for helping me get to where I’m at now. <3
This is Very inspiring. I have been vegetarian for 12 years. I choose vegan whenever I can (err should).
This is my first week with this lifestyle change. I pray I will become the example for my family too. Thanks for your encouragement. Gma Jo
my dogs vegan.
@Tequila
Heehee. I raised a lonely tiny (4week- young- kitten) two years ago with special milk for baby kittens. It always watched closely what his ‘mum’ ate and after having grown up Tilly begs like crazy to get his share of steamed carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes ….and I always tell him ” YOU, sweet Tilly, are carnivorous. Y o u don’t need to copy your humans. ” But – he insists on a nice share of (suitable) vegetables. π That’s soooo c u t e .. I love to watch him munching his sweet potatoes, even trying brooccoli- πΌ”nay, don’t like this “
This is beautiful. Iβve been vegan for 20 years now and I feel amazing. And you and your parents will feel healthy and happy. Thank you for becoming vegan. Thank you because this is a positive change to your life, to the earth and to the animals. Sending you lots of love
The peanut butter tip blew my mind!!! So simple & no oil all over my counter π€―
Love the label reading tips – I also look at cholesterol on the food label as a quick check to see if there are animal products in the food. Dietary cholesterol is only found in animal products, so itβs an easy way to spot if a product is potentially vegan before going the entire ingredient list.
@Alfred M veganism isn’t dumb
@Alfred M veganism is by far the best diet and it has been proven, and how are you saying veganism kills most life when it is literally the only diet out there which is saving billions of animals?
@Alfred M troll
As a vegan of 10+ years, too, I figured out these things meanwhile, too. But the cheesy sprinkles I didn’t knew (the only thing from your video), it sounds delicious and I’m gonna make one as soon as I can (just soaked my last cashew nuts for vegan ice cream). π
The other tips, I don’t know if they will apply for others, but:
1) if you love fresh tomatoes all year round, in winter you may wanna give a try to all smaller tomatoes – cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, strawberry tomatoes or whatever they call them in your area. These are surprisingly tomatoe-y, they taste almost like homegrown ones, which grew in pretty sunny spot. Right now the regular sized tomatoes taste just watery and bland, but these small ones don’t.
2) if you like plant milks, consider making your own. They are easy to make and way cheaper per liter than store bought (at least here in Europe). You can find a lot of recipes online, so I share only oat milk recipe as one of my favourite milks: pour hot water over oat flakes, about 3-4 x the amount of flakes. Leave overnight, then blend. You’ll get thick liquid which can be used like cream. You can keep it for a week in the fridge and use like cream and make milk as you please or you can dilute it with water to consistency you like. You can add a pinch of salt, some sugar or oil, if you like, blend it and strain. If you don’t mind bran floating in your milk, you don’t have to strain it.
3) if you have enough storage space, buy in bulk, especially seeds, grains, flour, oil, salt, sugar, frozen goods, canned / jarred goods – about everything what doesn’t spoil quickly. If there’s a deal like 4 for price of 3, or 3 for price of 2 and it’s something you use and it doesn’t spoil fast – buy it, even if you have it already at home. If it has long shelf life, it can sit in your pantry.
4) ignore some labels – if it’s frozen soup vegetable mix, you can still cook it in the pan and srve with rice, if it’s frozen pan vegetables mix, you totally can drop it into your pot with vegetable stock & potatoes / rice / grains and make soup. As woman you won’t die by eating “yogurt for men”. You can bake a cake with mayo, flour and sugar (just use right proportions and choose mayo without mustard seeds or garlic π). What is something advertised for, it’s not the only one purpose it can serve.
5) while you can / should use the water from canned / jarred chickpeas (aquafaba), you better strain your canned red beans and wash them short in the sieve. The enzymes in beans cause bloating, that’s why you don’t cook them in water they were soaked and add certain herbs while cooking them. The canned / jarred beans are usually just dried beans with water, sealed and cooked (pasteurised), so all these bloating substances are still in the water. If they cooked the beans before pasteurising, they’d overcook them while pasteurising.
6) to not waste food, freeze leftovers (whole meals, leftover vegetables you are less likely to use before it spoils), when you don’t feel like finishing them now. I was i.e. putting different berries (blueberry, raspberry, lingonberry, cranberry mini kiwi aka aktinidia etc.) in one container in the freezer and when I make dessert, I can grab a handful of mixed fruits and put it on the top of some cream, pudding, yogurt etc. The greens / herbs in olive oil or water got mentioned by others already.
7) you can make own instant vegetable stock by blending carrots, celeriac root, leeks, parsnip, parsley root, garlic, onion, herbs and whatever you put into your veggie stock – blend it with as little water as possible to not kill your blender and then strain the liquid and use quickly or freeze. The blended vegetables you mix with some oil and put in container and in the freezer. The oil allows you to scoop the amount you need. I used to salt these and keep in the fridge, but figured out not salted, oiled vegetables hold longer. I don’t make cubes, because it takes more time to prepare and then more space than container with scoopable vegs.
That’s all for now, there are probably more tips, but I wrote down what I had on mind while / after watching the video.
Thank you
Big tomatoes are cancelled. They’re often delicious but they go bad so fast. Small tomatoes just last and last.
Thank u so much
@user-mc5vy2vk5n amazing tips, thank you for all of that!
I agree looks tasty for beans too
I just went 100% vegan last week on my 35th birthday, trying to learn as much as i can. Awesome videos man very helpful. Thank you!
congrats, its the best thing for sure!
Great!!! Congrats and welcome to team vegan. It is not easy at the beginning, but I assure you that it gets easier until it becomes second nature.
Congrats on your path to great health!!
π You have my blessings! Congratulations!
The best thing you will ever do for your health. I wish we had been as foreword thinking as you are. We waited until we had numerous progressive health conditions (arthritis, psoriasis, heart irregularities, etc) and then got in gear. Happily all 11 conditions were better or gone within 6 months. In a year they were all gone and have not returned in 10 years of being vegan. I truly feel itβs like a mini miracle. Compile a stack of recipes that you love and you should be fine. Good luck on your journey!
Iβm an old lady vegan !!! Been vegan forever so I know most of these tips ( except the green onions in water) but I think what you are doing is great. Most beginning vegans are a bit lost and your information and down to earth presentation is really terrific and I think it would be super helpful. ππ€
Yes! Iβve been doing the cut flower technique for almost all my store bought veggies for years now. π₯³ itβs like night and day for perking up and preserving freshness. π
Great tips! I’m surely going to adopt the vegan cheese crumble. I already do something similar, but never considered to add that many nuts and seeds.
On the label reading tip, I agree going for the contains section is extremely helpful and I do that, but they don’t really add honey there, so be extra careful and check if they use honey — especially if it is sweet/candy or glazed.
Great tips! I think I was doing pretty well considering most of them I already did, but I especially loved the combining grains idea cause Iβve never thought of that!! Information was presented really well, appreciate it π
Thank you for the tips!! π Interesting fact: in Europe (or at least in Western Europe) all the allergens must be in bold in the ingredients list! So, the only thing you have to do when you check is see if there’s any bold words in the list of ingredients π₯³ I didn’t realise it would be different in other countries but it makes sense since there’s different regulations π€·π½ββοΈ
I am from the states but was living in France, and when I got home I was also amazed that we don’t bold the allergens! I was like….this is so inconvenient!
this is true but gelatin is one exception
Love your videos even though I’m an old long time vegan. You are entertaining and I always learn something. I live alone and making everything from scratch is labor intensive so I batch food so I always have stuff on hand. I portion soup into cups so I can microwave a single serving. I make a big pot of groats (whole oats) that take an hour to cook and portion into bowls for the week. I make 6 salads into plastic containers with a paper towel on top and store upside down so they are ready to dress and eat. My freezer is full of beans and grains cooked from scratch portioned into bags so I don’t rely on cans. Most fresh vegetables–zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower–can be rinsed and microwaved for 3 minutes in a bowl with a saucer on top, then drained without using a pot. I have a lemon tree and discovered I can freeze the lemons whole and pull them out to thaw as needed. Pickled red onions are crunchy and jazz up things in the winter especially (Slice them up, put a lot of salt on them and let them sit around for a couple of hours. Rinse well and add apple cider vinegar and water and keep them in the fridge for weeks) I wash and freeze herbs still on the stem in a plastic bag, then pull out the stems after the brittle leaves fall off and you have frozen herbs like cilantro and basil and mint to use as needed.
These are great tips!
Fabulous tips .. just beware of salt in pickled food … I do it without … As it can lead to colon cancer in recent studies
I absolutely enjoy your friendly presence. Iβve been vegan 5 years and I find your content super helpful. Thank you. ππ½
As a new vegan, This video is just priceless to me π sending love from the other side of the world πβ₯οΈ
I have been on/off vegan for about 5 years but always struggled with the cost and availability. This video was super helpful for me! Thank you.
Thanks. Iβve been vegetarian 20 years and vegan on and off throughout this time and strict vegan for the last 5 years. I was vegan on an off due to poor nutrition, now I seem to have more understanding and knowledge. I had a great time watching your tips in from my Australian kitchen. Looking forward to watching more of your videos. Thank you for sharing. The more knowledge/hacks we can create the healthier vegans/plant based lifestyles we can live
I’ve been vegetarian for a while now but still enjoy watching vegan content because it’s a great way to incorporate new ideas. I’d say I’m probably about 90% vegan as EVERY now and again I’ll eat an egg or a slice of cheese pizza with the kids. I never thought about mixing rice, lentils and quinoa. I’m definitely going to give that a try π
Awesome message dude! Been vegan for over 40 years. And yes these are great hacks. I loved the rice lentil and quinoa. πkudos and blessings!