What foods do vegans eat?

It’s time for another post on what vegans eat. In this ongoing series I share my breakfast, lunch, and dinner from an ordinary, regular day. These aren’t the fanciest of meals. They’re just what I happened to pull out of my refrigerator on a given day.

(For more from this series, check out the links at the bottom of the post.)

What foods do vegans eat? Avocado toast for breakfast

What foods do vegans eat? Well, not to be too on the nose here, but obviously avocado toast comes to mind. It’s a really easy breakfast, but also one that is endlessly satisfying. Any day that starts with avocado is a better one.

I like to top my avocado toast with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast flakes and pinch of salt. If I’m really hungry, baked tofu fills out vegan avocado toast.

Beyond Sausages for lunch

It seems like there’s always one vegan product or another that is the Loch Ness monster of the day. People are out in droves trying to score a sighting of it, often just narrowly missing it. And then once that elusive specialty product is finally found, it must be documented on Instagram ASAP.

When Expo West took place in LA a couple months ago, the main product people were raving about were the new sausages from Beyond Meat. Their Beyond Burger is popping up in restaurants and stores all over the place, and it’s popular this vegan grilling season. People seem even more excited about their new sausages.

Beyond Sausages come in three flavors – original brat, sweet Italian, and hot Italian. From almost all accounts, people said that they really nailed the flavors & texture.

There are plenty of vegan sausages already on the market that I really like. (Field Roast smoked apple sage comes to mind.) However, I’m always up for trying something new, and since I used to be a brat fan in my non-vegan days, I was eager to check this out.

(Why do vegans eat things that taste like meat? <—– Find out here.)

I had quite the saga actually getting these sausages. First, when I was in Chicago in April, I heard that one restaurant in town was selling them. So I took an $18 Lyft to get there, only to discover that they were sold out.

The next day when we were a half an hour out of town on our way home, I saw that Veggie Grill had just started selling them that day at all locations – including the one that was 3 blocks from the hotel where we’d stayed the night before. If only we’d left Chicago an hour later!

But now my freezer is fully stocked! My mom grabbed several packages for me at her area Whole Foods around the same time that David found them on a business trip in Dallas.

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File this under “You know you’re vegan when…” David went on a work trip to Dallas, and while he was picking up snacks for the hotel, he found a bunch of Beyond Meat brats & hot Italian sausages, which have been elusive. (They’re not available where we live yet.) He’s bringing them back in his suitcase today! But his boss was so confused when he saw David’s shopping basket… He said, “Are you going to eat 12 sausages in your hotel room while we’re here?” 😂 #weirdestcarryonever #sorryTSA #getyourown #beyondmeat #beyondmeatsausage #beyondsausage #veganfoodlovers #wholefoodsmarket #dallasvegan #dallasvegans #veganfoodshare

A post shared by Cadry Nelson (@cadryskitchen) on May 24, 2018 at 7:37am PDT

(They’re currently only sold at Whole Foods; although, from what I understand they’ll start being available at other grocery stores by mid-June if not earlier.)

Anyway, so far I’ve tried the brats & sweet Italian sausages. They were both excellent! I had the brat on a bun with horseradish mustard, onions, and pickles. And I’ve had the sweet Italian (pictured here) as a sandwich, with pasta & marinara, and also as a pizza topping.

I really liked both of them; although, I think I like the sweet Italian slightly better, which took me by surprise.

I had the sweet Italian sausage with a side salad that included spinach, green leaf lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes, and candied pecans.

Burrito bowl with spicy chickpeas for dinner

For dinner I made burrito bowls. I shared a vegan burrito bowl recipe a couple months ago with lentil & black bean taco meat. This time I did something similar, but made spicy chickpeas instead using the filling from my chickpea tacos.

For the grain part of the bowl, I did a combination of brown rice & cauliflower rice. Cauliflower rice on its own is a little lacking to me, but when I use it in combination with brown rice, it fills things out.

I like that I’m getting in an extra vegetable, but I still have that toothsome texture of brown rice. I used boxed frozen brown rice & cauliflower rice from Trader Joe’s. (They’re both in my favorite vegan Trader Joe’s products list.)

Also included in the bowls is a spinach salad with red bell peppers and Trader Joe’s pico de gallo, also on the favorites list.

For more pictures of my everyday meals, check out these “What foods do vegans eat?” posts:

• What I eat: Vegan meals from an ordinary day
• What I eat in a day: Vegan
• What vegans eat: Warming foods for a chilly day