3 Huge Tricks To Make Vegan Food That Tastes Amazing!

How do I make vegan food taste good and add flavor?!

Here are my biggest tips that I always use when thinking about cooking delicious vegan meals!

1. Find a vegan-friendly cuisine you love and learn how to make those recipes. For instance, I’ve recently tried a few new Persian recipes that are vegan friendly, and I am in love. I make them all the time now. They are packed with flavor and feel new and exciting to me.

2. Think of your old favorite foods and learn creative ways to make vegan versions of them! This method is one of my favorites. I have many recipes that are ‘fake-aways’ of non-vegan meals.

3. Think of one vegetable you absolutely love and learn new recipes that feature it! For instance, I love pumpkin, and recently I’ve found a ton of cool recipes that utilize pumpkin as a key ingredient! Pumpkin lasagna, it’s a thing!

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Tip 1 - Utilize your favorite International Cuisines

I was wondering how I could make a plant-based diet taste better and be something I’m super excited about! How do I pack in the flavor with my vegan meals?

I found my answer by looking at international foods! There are so many plant-friendly diets across the world with incredible flavors we can easily recreate! Vegan Mexican burritos, Indian curries, Thai soups, Greek gyros, and so much more are awaiting you.

These are my top 5, high flavor, plant-based friendly cuisines I rotate through regularly:

• Greek

  • Spices & Herbs: Oregano, Dill, Bay Leaves

  • Common Flavor Elements: Garlic, Lemon, Extra Virgin Cold-Pressed Olive Oil, and Parsley

• Thai

  • Spices & Herbs: turmeric, peppercorns, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, and galangal (or sub ginger)

  • Common Flavor Elements: Coconut milk, lime leaves, red Thai chilies, cilantro, lemongrass, sweet basil, vegan fish sauce, soy sauce/tamari, peanuts

• Indian

  • Spices & Herbs: Cardamom, Cloves, Chili, Cumin, Coriander, Ginger, Mustard Seeds, and Fenugreek.

  • Common Flavor Elements: Coconut milk, ginger, garlic, cilantro, tomato sauce/paste, and oils/ vegan butter

• Japanese

  • Spices & Herbs: Sugar, Salt, Vinegar (different varieties), Soy, Miso Paste

  • Common Flavor Elements: Ginger, Garlic, Apple, Maple Syrup, Carrot, Ready Made Curry Paste, Sesame Oil, Seaweed

• Mexican (Including Tex-Mex)

  • Spices & Herbs: Chili, Cumin, Smoked Paprika, Fajita Spices, Taco Seasoning, Oregano

  • Common Flavor Elements: Lime, Cilantro, Garlic, Diced White Onion, Jalapeno

Whether I’m creating an authentic dish from one of these countries or simply using common elements used in international cuisine, it helps me have a variety of incredible flavors in my meals and meal prep.

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Tip 2 - Create Vegan Versions of Your Old Favorite Non-Vegan Foods

You might wonder, what are some of the most popular vegan foods…

Honestly, a lot of vegans cook the same things everyone else does but as a ‘vegan version.’ For instance, instead of steak and potatoes, we might cook up a simple portobello steak with mash, gravy, and asparagus. It is absolutely delicious! Or instead of a meat burger, we’ll have a decked out vegan burger!

Vegans also go nuts for cheese (nut-based cheeses that is)! Creamy, cheesy plates of pasta are just as addicting for vegan/ plant-based people.

So with that in mind, recreating meaty, seafood, and cheesy flavor is something vegans do on a regular basis! Here are the different spices, seasonings, oils, and more, that I use to recreate these delicious flavors.

Spices and Seasonings for Vegan Meaty Flavors

1. Steak seasoning

2. Pork seasoning

3. Chicken seasoning

4. Red Wine

5. BBQ rub (seasoning)

6. Vegan Butter

7. Garlic Granules

8. Fresh Cracked black pepper

9. Vegan beef or chicken broth

10. A cast-iron pan (to help sear your fake meats)

11. Pre-seasoned chicken breading, usually already vegan but double-check for milk products.

12. I always buy a cheap container of Pineapple juice to soak my tofu in before making fake chicken. Trust me, it is a game-changer.

Spices and Seasonings for Vegan Seafood Flavors

1. Capers/ Caper liquid

2. Dried Seaweed Flakes/Nori or Kelp Granules

3. Liquid Smoke

4. White Wine or Cooking Wine

5. Vegan Butter

6. Old Bay Seasoning

7. Maple Syrup

8. Salt

9. Garlic Granules

10. Onion Granules

11. Pepper

12. White Miso Paste

Spices and Seasonings for Cheesy Vegan Flavors

1. Plant-based Milk

2. Vegan Butter

3. Nutritional Yeast

4. Tapioca Flour

5. All-Purpose Flour

6. Onion Granules

7. Garlic Granules

8. Raw Cashews

9. Salt

Tip 3 - Experiment with your favorite vegetables!

Focus on a key ingredient, and have fun!

As mentioned before, I am really into pumpkins right now! They are so healthy and fun to cook with (I usually use pumpkin puree). I love trying to find interesting ways to incorporate pumpkin in my meals. I had found an interesting recipe that incorporated pumpkin in oatmeal fairly recently and it sent me down an interesting and wonderful path.

After that, I looked up “savory recipes with pumpkin” and saved a bunch of unique recipes that featured pumpkin in new ways that I had never tried before. It was so fun to eat a ton of new recipes featuring this vegetable in ways I would have never thought of before!

If you have a couple of favorite vegetables, I would recommend looking them up to see what kind of recipes feature them! Even if your search results bring up a lot of vegetarian recipes, don’t sweat it! It’s easy to take a vegetarian recipe and make it vegan. Simply swap the dairy products for vegan alternatives. Milk to oat milk or butter to vegan butter, etc.

This is a very fun and simple way to increase the number of vegan foods that taste amazing to you!

Enjoy eating vegan food that tastes amazing! <3