Make Your Plant-based Transition Easy with these Healthy Vegan Substitutes for Animal Products

Though you don’t really need any of these healthy vegan substitutes, they can definitely help make your transition to a Whole Foods Plant Based diet a lot easier and more fun. Whenever you crave the familiar textures and flavors of animal products, check out this page before you fall back into old habits. 

Healthy vegan substitutes for dairy, eggs, and meat products were once hard to find, but now there are so many good options available. New products and recipes are coming out all the time. Just check the ingredients to make sure they don’t include any of the nasty ingredients listed in the bottom sections of the What Vegans Eat page.

One reason so many Vegans become unhealthy is because they rely on unnatural junk foods made to taste like animal products. (Or they don’t take vitamin B-12, zinc, or other supplements they may need.) Many people who adopt a vegan diet out of compassion for animals never learn about healthy nutrition. Don’t be one of them!

Some vegans are willing to sacrifice their own health to protect animals. That is a compassionate motive, but it doesn’t make sense to undermine your own health in order to help others. There are much better options available.

Ideally, it is best to stick with fruits, vegetables, legumes, gluten-free whole grains, and small amounts of nuts and seeds, but most of us crave the familiar flavors and textures of our favorite comfort foods now and then. Let’s at least make them as healthy as possible!

* Note: Many of the healthy vegan substitutes on this page are based on nuts or seeds which makes them quite high in fat, so use them sparingly (unless you are trying to gain weight). They are not meant to be the staples of your diet!

Umami — The Magical Flavor You May Be Missing in a Vegan Diet

Umami is naturally present in animal products and many people miss it when switching to a plant-based diet. When you start looking at vegan cookbooks, you will probably notice how often recipes include nutritional yeast and soy sauce. The reason they use these is for the “umami” flavor. Unfortunately, yeast and soy can be allergens and they are not recommended in the Medical Medium protocols, so many people avoid them.

The good news is that there are healthier options that can add the rich, umami flavor. Here are some healthy ingredients to add umami to your vegan meals:

• dried Atlantic sea vegetables (seaweeds)
• mushrooms (especially dried shitake)
• tomatoes (especially dried or roasted)
• avocado
• Chinese cabbage (especially roasted)
• vegetables (especially when roasted or sautéed): asparagus, peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, winter squash, celery, onions, garlic
• olives (especially dried)
• vegetable broth (Pacific Mushroom Broth and Trader Joe’s Vegetable Broth are Medical Medium compliant)
• sauerkraut, pickles, and other fermented foods (fermented foods are not recommended by the Medical Medium, but he said they are okay to eat in moderation if you like them)
• coconut aminos (I especially like garlic/ginger flavored)
• chickpea miso
• savory spices: toasted cumin, paprika (especially smoked), rosemary, thyme, garlic
• Toasted nuts and seeds
• Indian Black Salt (aka Kala Namak)
• Roasting, caramelizing, browning and grilling all boost umami (though they are also the least healthy way to cook foods)

Olives, pickles, sauerkraut, and chickpea miso are very high in salt, so use sparingly.

Healthy Vegan Substitutes for Eggs

Here are lots of very eggy substitute recipes, from omelets to sunny side up:

• http://freefromharm.org/food-products/delicious-vegan-eggs-recipes/
• Ener-G Egg Replacer works well for baking.
• Aquafaba (cooking water from garbanzo beans, or other legumes) is great for meringues or other egg white dishes — even works to replace the eggs in pumpkin pie. Looking for a great aquafaba cookbook: Baking Magic with Aquafaba.

The Vegan Eggz Cookbook and https://thegentlechef.com/ website have lots of egg replacement recipes. Unfortunately, many of these recipes are based on tofu and nutritional yeast so they wouldn’t be Medical Medium compliant, but they can be fun for an occasional treat if you are already healthy. If you are dealing with any sort of health issue, avoid all tofu (soy) and nutritional yeast (MSG).

Indian Black Salt, also known as Kala Namak adds an amazingly egg-like flavor to any dish. A tiny sprinkle on avocado or mashed chickpea salad can make it taste like egg salad. The flavor only lasts a few minutes, so add it right before serving.

These egg substitutes will make baking without eggs easy. They each work best for different recipes. Replace 1 egg with one of these options:

• 1Tbs. ground flax + 3 Tbs. water
• 1Tbs. ground chia seed + 1/3 cup water
• 1 Tbs. agar agar powder + 1 Tbs. water
• 1/2 mashed banana
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4  cup stewed prune puree (handy in organic baby food jars)
• 3 Tbs. peanut or almond butter
• 1 tsp. psyllium seed husk powder + 3 tsp. water (not recommended by the Medical Medium, and some people find it constipating, but almost essential in certain types of gluten-free baked goods)

Healthy Vegan Substitutes for Cheese

Many commercial vegan cheese substitutes have artificial ingredients and canola oil, nutritional yeast, and/or gums, so always read labels. However, vegan cheese is easy to make, and there are also a few good commercial choices available:

Miyoko’s Pourable Mozzarella is a liquid “cheese” that makes a delicious baked-on topping for pizza, nachos and any type of casserole. I put it on just about anything I bake that would taste good with a cheesy topping: scalloped potatoes, mac & cheese, nachos, and more. It wouldn’t be so good as the filler cheese in mac & cheese (I use a cauliflower/cashew/chickpea-miso/lemon blend for that and put the Miyoko’s on top).

Kite Hill Artisanal Delicacies are almond based and delicious, plus they have excellent ingredients! — Original, Ricotta, and Truffle Dill & Chive are highly recommended. They also have cream cheese style products, but those have a lot of added gums, so are not recommended.

Treeline Treenut Cheeses are also great tasting and made with excellent ingredients. They are cashew based.

Spero Sunflower Cream Cheese is delicious. I especially like the Smoked flavor one. Check ingredients on other flavors. Some have ingredients that are not Medical Medium compatible.

Miyoko’s Fresh VeganMozz and Smoked VeganMozz are tasty and melty, though not particularly nutritious. Good for an occasional pizza, grilled cheese or veggie burger. However, most of their other products (while delicious) contain nutritional yeast, which is not recommended by Anthony William. *Miyoko’s has recently come out with a delicious cream cheese made with excellent ingredients and available in several flavors.

Miyoko also has a cookbook called Artisan Vegan Cheese. Most of the recipes contain nutritional yeast, but there are a few that do not. I’ve found that you can leave out the yeast and replace it with a little chickpea miso with great results. Coconut oil is also a dominant ingredient, which can raise your cholesterol. You might be better off looking for recipes online if you have cholesterol issues.

It is really easy to make your own nut and seed based cheeses. Here are a couple of good cookbooks to get you started (or do a search for recipes online):

• This Cheese is Nuts!: Delicious Vegan Cheese at Home – Julie Piatt offers some great cheese and cream substitute recipes. Just skip the nutritional yeast, agave (try maple syrup or a mild flavored raw honey) and other less than healthy ingredients. There are a lot of great choices to try in this book. It is really quite easy to make your own plant-based cheeses. Once you start, you may get addicted!
• The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook – Jo Stepaniak has created a whole line of excellent vegan cookbooks (again, most of the “cheese” recipes in this book depend on nutritional yeast for flavor, so use sparingly or not at all). Try replacing yeast with dried mushroom powder, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and/or chick pea miso, or other ingredients from the umami list above.

Healthy Vegan Substitutes for Milk & Dairy Products

It is easy to make your own almond, oat, sunflower, hemp seed, or cashew milk. You can strain it through a nut milk bag (most natural food stores sell them), but be sure to use the solids for something else (like a granola ingredient), so you get the whole-food nutrients. Soaking nuts or seeds first will make a smoother milk.

Gluten-free oat milk – my daughter makes this a lot and it is quite tasty. It is also much less expensive to make than nut-based milks and has the added bonus of being low fat and safe for those with nut allergies.

Organic gluten-free steel cut oats are available from Bob’s Red Mill. Here’s another oat milk recipe you may want to try – https://avirtualvegan.com/oat-milk/

New Barn Almond Milk — some of their flavors have healthy ingredients and are great if you don’t want to make your own.

Malk — has both refrigerated and shelf-stable (my new favorite!) versions of their almond milk and oat milk, both with very clean ingredients.

You can make “milk” from lots of different seeds, nuts, or grains. Yum Universe tells you how in The Ultimate Plant-Powerful Dairy-Free Milk Guide, PLUS what to do with the leftover pulp:

The Ultimate Plant-Powerful Dairy-Free Milk Guide

Yogurt & Kefir Substitutes

Forager Plain Drinkable Yogurt has great ingredients and tastes almost like the real thing, but unfortunately, the flavored ones have “natural” flavors added and their firm yogurt has gum added – choose Plain Drinkable!

It is really easy to make your own yogurt with any nut or seed milk. Just mix in a starter (from commercial vegan yogurt, or probiotic capsules) and leave in a warm place overnight… or longer if you like it more sour. Add a little raw honey or maple syrup for a faster ferment.

You can also buy kefir grains to make your own kefir the same way, or get it started with a commercial kefir drink like coconut kefir or Kevita.

Butter Substitutes

Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter — It is actually delicious! It contains a lot of coconut oil, so limit consumption if you have issues with high cholesterol. Needs refrigeration (or freezing if you won’t use it within a few weeks), or mold will grow.

Raw flax oil with a sprinkle of Celtic Sea Salt provides a nice buttery flavor for things like baked potatoes. Make sure your flax oil is very fresh and use in moderation. It goes rancid very quickly.

Nutiva Buttery Coconut Oil – Their website says the butter flavor is from “certified organic non-GMO plants including sunflower, coconut and mint.” Again, lots of saturated fat, so use sparingly. Good flavor and (unlike Miyoko’s) it can be used like ghee for sautéing and does not need refrigeration.

Aquafaba Butter Recipe (use avocado oil or olive oil, in place of canola, which is all GMO!) — I also heard about a new product that sounds really good. Available at Eataly in NYC, LA, Boston, Chicago, and soon in Vegas. If it’s as good as they say, I’m sure it will soon be more widely available.

Vegan Desserts

In general, when looking for desserts and dessert recipes, think Paleo. They avoid dairy, refined sugars, canola, and grains (no gluten), so they are generally pretty healthy. Just make sure they don’t include eggs!

We also have lots of dessert recipes in my Whole Foods Plant-Based, Gluten Free Recipes — Medical Medium Compatible facebook group. Just use the facebook search option to find them.

Ice Cream Substitutes

There are lots of vegan ice creams on the market. Unfortunately, many of them have unhealthy ingredients like agave, refined sugar, tofu, soy, gums, and “natural” flavors. Read labels and choose the ones with healthy ingredients. (Agave is similar to high-fructose corn syrup in the way it affects blood sugar.)

Here are two vegan cream brands I love – http://vixenkitchen.co — They use cashews and maple syrup, and it tastes pretty good, especially the coffee and chocolate flavors.

For flavor and creaminess, I love Cosmic Bliss (formerly Coconut Bliss). They even have a gluten-free cookie sandwich! Unfortunately they do use gum.

Make Your Own Sorbet

If you have a Champion, Omega or similar juicer you can just run any frozen fruit through it for a delicious 100% fruit sorbet. My grandkids love it! A food processor will also work.

For a tasty frozen yogurt, it is easy to make your own in a food processor. Just process:

1 cup frozen Wild Main Blueberries or other frozen fruit

1/2 cup Forager Plain Cashew Yogurt or Plain Drinkable Yogurt (or less)

Drizzle in a little organic maple syrup, date sugar, or raw honey if you like it sweeter. It is delicious!

Vegan Cookies

Most commercial cookies have gluten, refined flour, refined sugar, butter or oil, and/or eggs. You can find some good gluten-free vegan recipes online, but sometimes you just want to buy a box of cookies that are made from healthy, whole food ingredients.

Simple Mills makes pretty good cookies with excellent ingredients. I like the double chocolate and the pecan best.

They also make healthy cookie mixes and other baking mixes.

Healthy Vegan Substitutes for Gelatin

Agar is made from seaweed. It is one of the go-to gelling agents in vegan and vegetarian cooking. You can make desserts like Jello, or add it to jams, or vegan cheeses as a thickener. http://www.grassrootsvegan.com/blog/making-vegan-gelatin

You can also use Irish Moss, or pulverized Kelp Noodles as jelling agents.

Gluten Free Vegan Cakes, Breads, and Pastries

It is easy to make eggless cakes and pastries, but it’s a little more challenging to also make them gluten free.

I highly recommend Heather Crosby’s Gluten Free Baking Academy if you love your baked goods. It is well worth the cost of enrollment. Get on her wait-list to be notified of her next gluten free vegan baking course. Right now she has a bread course and a cookie course, but I hear she is working on a new one.

MinimalistBaker also has some excellent vegan and gluten free cake recipes. Look for them online.

Healthy Vegan Substitutes for Meat and Seafood

Frankly, I never missed the taste or texture of meat at all. I haven’t eaten meat since 1969 and I haven’t explored this category much. Most recipes and commercial products you will find are made from soy, tofu, seitan (wheat gluten), tempeh, or textured vegetable protein (fractured soy), so I wouldn’t recommend them.

Look for recipes and products made with jackfruit, mushrooms, eggplant, nuts, seeds, lentils, and beans. Jackfruit has a particularly meaty texture and it absorbs whatever flavors you cook it with. Look for it frozen or in BPA-free cans without citric acid (or rinse off the citric acid before using). Native Forest brand is a good one.

Portobello mushrooms make a great burger substitute.

Here’s a great article on replacing meats with various kinds of beans — https://www.forksoverknives.com/substitute-beans-for-meat-guide

You can get plenty of protein from leafy green vegetables, beans, lentils, gluten-free grains, quinoa, and small amounts of nuts and seeds. Cook your beans and grains well and make them into loaves or burgers if you want a more “meaty” experience. Add a little ground flax seed, or ground chia to help your ingredients stick together.

Here’s a delicious Eggplant “Meatball” recipe (leave out the nutritional yeast and use gluten free oats): https://mypureplants.com/best-vegan-aubergine-meatballs — I made these with Italian sausage spices instead of marjoram and they were excellent!

You can even make gluten-free seitan for the meaty texture.

Try this grillable burger recipe for starters. You can even use nut milk pulp for the bread crumbs, or look for gluten free bread crumbs — Mary’s brand GF bread crumbs are pretty good, though they do have a little soy sauce in them.

If you want a “liverwurst” flavor, this recipe looks interesting — http://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/lacto-fermentation-raw-vegan-leberwurst. I haven’t tried it, so send me feedback if you do. (Dr. Greger recommends avoiding the kimchi ingredient, because it may be connected with higher prostate and breast cancer rates, so use your own judgement about using this recipe very often.)

I did try Beyond Meat at a cooking demo. Yes, it has the taste and texture of hamburger (as far as I remember it), but the ingredients are not very healthy. If you absolutely can’t live without that meaty experience, you might want to try it, at least as a transition food. (The ingredients are a lot better than the Impossible Burger! I would avoid those completely.)

Personally, I think there are so many other delicious foods I’d rather eat.

Seafood Substitutes

This book by The Gentle Chef looks fascinating, though I don’t have it yet: https://thegentlechef.com/gentle-chef-cookbooks/the-gentle-sea/

More Healthy Vegan Substitutes

https://delightfuladventures.com/vegan-substitutes-common-kitchen-staples/ Most of these are Medical Medium compliant recipes, but watch out for gluten (seitan), soy, nutritional yeast, and other “not advised” ingredients.

http://plantpurecommunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Info-Sheet-Everyday-Plant-based-Substitutions.pdf — Skip the soy/tofu and yeast on this page and you’ll find several handy, Medical Medium compatible ideas for replacing animal products.

Now Let’s Stock Your Kitchen with Vegan Pantry Staple Foods