How to: be plant based at Uni
Hello, Reader!
In the left column, none of the ingredients is specifically plant-based; they’re kitchen basics everyone should have regardless of dietary habits (subject to allergies). The right column has the vegan basics which may not be in a non-veggie person’s cupboard. I don’t have any nutritional benefits of vegan mayo… but I just really like mayo and I put it on everything so it’s definitely one of my kitchen basics. Rolled oats are a great breakfast food and, compared to other grains, they’re high in protein, fat and many vitamins and minerals. A kilogram of rolled oats in Holland and Barret costs about £1.30 with student discount and if you can find some in Lidl or Aldi, even cheaper. Nuts are a really good source of protein and make a good healthy snack and a pack of them in Lidl will cost you under £2. Plant-based milk - wait for it - costs the same as cow's milk in Lidl; a litre of soya milk or oat milk for £0.59? Nutritional yeast is the secret of veggie recipes; it’s deactivated yeast, rich in B12 which adds a cheesy, salty flavour to foods that have nothing even close to cheese in them. This is a bit of a splash; £3.49 in Holland and Barrett but it lasts for ages - in my humble opinion, totally worth it. Bottom line is; if you know where to shop, your basics or your weekly shop shouldn’t clean out your bank account. Make sure to stick to your shopping list, and be realistic about what you actually need in your kitchen and what’s redundant.
I stopped eating meat about four years ago, and then I stopped eating fish and seafood about two years ago. Now, alongside moving away for university I became responsible for doing my own food shopping which means that the products I purchase are independent of my family’s shopping. Because of this, I can choose to consume more plant-based products and therefore push a higher demand for them on the market. So I decided to do exactly that, and I’m going to tell you how you can too, should you want to.
Your first step? Stock up on your veggie kitchen basics. These are ingredients that are common in plant-based recipes that you should always have in your cupboard. Your regular food shops should really include mostly perishable ingredients which you can use alongside the things in your cupboard for a specific dish you know you’re going to make before they go off. Otherwise, you will end up wasting food, and the money you’ve spent on it, because of it going bad before you can use it. Underneath, you can find my list of kitchen basics, which you can use for inspiration or copy exactly, but I highly recommend that you research recipes for yourself and see what kinds of things are common and which kinds of things you might need.
In the left column, none of the ingredients is specifically plant-based; they’re kitchen basics everyone should have regardless of dietary habits (subject to allergies). The right column has the vegan basics which may not be in a non-veggie person’s cupboard. I don’t have any nutritional benefits of vegan mayo… but I just really like mayo and I put it on everything so it’s definitely one of my kitchen basics. Rolled oats are a great breakfast food and, compared to other grains, they’re high in protein, fat and many vitamins and minerals. A kilogram of rolled oats in Holland and Barret costs about £1.30 with student discount and if you can find some in Lidl or Aldi, even cheaper. Nuts are a really good source of protein and make a good healthy snack and a pack of them in Lidl will cost you under £2. Plant-based milk - wait for it - costs the same as cow's milk in Lidl; a litre of soya milk or oat milk for £0.59? Nutritional yeast is the secret of veggie recipes; it’s deactivated yeast, rich in B12 which adds a cheesy, salty flavour to foods that have nothing even close to cheese in them. This is a bit of a splash; £3.49 in Holland and Barrett but it lasts for ages - in my humble opinion, totally worth it. Bottom line is; if you know where to shop, your basics or your weekly shop shouldn’t clean out your bank account. Make sure to stick to your shopping list, and be realistic about what you actually need in your kitchen and what’s redundant.
Now that you know your basic ingredients, you need to know what kind of recipes you’d like to try. Browse plant-based recipes and find ones that sound tasty to you, but also are appropriate to your budget. My favourite vegan recipe I’ve tried was this vegan mac n cheese. I adjusted it slightly, by adding more oat milk and chilli flakes and it was absolutely delicious. Allow yourself to experiment with the recipes and even adjust non-veggie recipes to make them veggie. Read up about plant veggie swaps you can make and simply try it! Some recipes will come out tastier than others but the important thing is trying it out.
Lastly… meal prep! Or even meal-plan if that works for you, although personally, I found it difficult to maintain. I only cook whenever I feel like it or have no more prepared meals in the fridge, but when I do cook, I make huge portions so that I can store it away for the next day and sometimes even the day after that. With a busy schedule, it’s easy to miss meal times or not have time to cook every day, but with pre-prepared meals, you can simply grab and go. This can be healthier, but it definitely is cheaper in the long run than getting something from a cafe on campus.
I have found it quite problem-free to swap to a more plant-based diet at university, but everyone’s different. Whether you would prefer to gradually cut out certain products or cut it all out in one go, or whether your goal is to simply cut down on your animal product consumption rather than completely cut it out, I hope you can find some helpful tips in this post. Every little helps! And if you’re looking for some inspiration with plant-based recipes, make sure to check out my Instagram story where I regularly share my own veggie meals!
Happy shopping!
Love,
Agnes xo
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