Photo: Vegan cake cooked by Mousse Meringue
What are the alternatives to animal-derived ingredients?
Since the consumption of animal products has a significant impact on animal welfare, your health and the environment, here are some suggestions for replacing milk, cream, butter, cheese and eggs for everyday cooking!
- To substitute milk
Any vegetal milk: almond, soy, rice, oat, cashew, coconut, hemp and other milks.
- To substitute cream
Any vegetal milk or vegetal cream, like the Belsoy creamy soy preparation, available in grocery stores.
- To substitute butter
Coconut oil, vegetal margarine, Earth Balance spread, avocado. For pastry, you can substitute butter with a little bit of applesauce, banana or zucchini.
- To substitute cheese
A large choice of vegetal cheeses is available in grocery stores like Gusta, Daiya, Earth Island, Zengarry, Vegnature and many others brands.
- To substitute eggs
In pastry, you can substitute eggs with chia seeds or ground flax seeds mixed with a little bit of water. The gel that will form is perfect as a binder agent in pastries. To substitute eggs for breakfast, try this recipe of scrambled tofu by La cuisine de Jean-Philippe published on Youtube.
(The Buddhist Chef; see the recipe here)
A must-read article
“Progress! Canada’s New Food Guide Will Favor Plant-Based Protein and Eliminate Dairy as a Food Group” Click here to read more.
Marie-Noël Gingras
Marie-Noël Gingras works in the Department of Animal Advocacy at the Montreal SPCA. In the past few years, she has collaborated on numerous projects related to animal rights and welfare (the Vert et Fruité and Vegan Portraits blogs, the Montreal Vegan Festival), as well as collaborated with the Défi végane 21 jours book, published in spring 2016 (Éditions Trécarré). You can follow her on Facebook.