Does It Vegan?

Veganizing a recipe doesn't always mean 1:1 substitutions.
Amounts, ratios, and/or entire ingredients oftentimes need to be adjusted – even replaced – for techniques and flavors within a recipe to be preserved.
This Persian-inspired French galette by Andy Baraghani is a striking example!

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/veganization-tahini-apple-tart/

“Man they should make a ginger turmeric ice cream” was all I needed for my friend and rabbi Mira to inspire me. By the time she added, “Have you ever had golden milk?” I was in fixation mode.

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-golden-milk-ice-cream/

A few days ago, in a kitchen not so far away...
One baker embarks on a return to sweet simplicity. Resisting the forces of conventional ingredients, she navigates the galaxy of complicated recipes striving to find balance between ease and flavor.
May this dessert course be with you.

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/veganization-3-ingredient-sugar-cookies/

With so many failures to this point, I suspect Grammy (wherever she may be) didn't approve of my efforts to change her family-famous recipe. I daresay she'd approve now!

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/community-spotlight-grammys-zucchini-bread/

finally!
This post was 6 months in the making starting with inspiration from The Squeaky Mixer and guidance from
And now I have - for myself and you - an infinite means of customizing vegan cakes
🎂 www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-designed-sponge-cake

black and white cookies? black and full spectrum cookies? Either way, they're vegan!

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-black-and-white-cookies/

It's baking season!

Which US-nationally available "butter" is most likely to work in your conventional recipes?

Read my discoveries below:
🧈https://www.doesitvegan.com/product-review-vegan-salted-butter-sticks/

Squeeze the day with these cheery cookies! This vintage recipe is one of few things that adds more zest to my life than puns.

www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-lemon-sugar-cookies

3-Ingredient Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
3! powdered sugar, no-stir peanut butter, and egg replacer -

but not just any egg replacer. Veganize this classic recipe unearthed by with the winner of my egg replacer review.

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/3-ingredient-vegan-peanut-butter-cookies/

Eggs may be separated, whipped, boiled, poached, pickled, scrambled, flipped, baked, microwaved… They can even thicken custards and emulsify sauces! Indeed, no ingredient is more versatile –

And I don’t use them.

Discover which US-nationally available egg replacer is most reliable at:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/product-review-egg-replacer/

Agar has many purposes, but “Jell-O” is not one of them.

Unlike the classic gelatin-based dessert, agar produces brittle gels which hold their shape yet break upon jiggling. Kappa carageenan, by contrast, offers structure and flexibility!

Learn the ratio of liquid:thickener by following:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/2-ingredient-vegan-jell-o/

Sponge cakes don't vegan easily! I needed to know which recipe comes closest to that classic texture achieved by separating eggs.

And which one does? Discover how many won via:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe-review-vegan-sponge-cake/

Despite its color, Punjabi gajar ka halwa may be more dairy than carrots featuring warmed whole milk and ghee always, and paneer and/or sweetened condensed milk sometimes.

Read how to preserve the luscious mouthfeel and flavor of ingredients like ghee without using them via:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-gajar-ka-halwa/

Tamarind, the dark and sticky sweet-tart pulp within pods of tamarind trees, may demand sourcing gymnastics depending on where you live.

dark and sticky sweet-tart…
Those characteristics make tamarind sound like prunes and lime juice, don’t they? Learn the measurements of my substitute at:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/tamarind-substitute/

My culinary journey would be woefully limited if not for foods lovingly shared with me.

I am grateful for a beautiful teacher and cherished friend from Morocco who handwrote her recipe for Zaalouk, a North African spiced eggplant dip, and then granted me permission to publish it:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/zaalouk/

Be kind to yourself and don't peel your chickpeas. Steam them!

And whether you need to address an inauthentic tahini, stretch money spent on an authentic one, or omit sesame seeds altogether, discover my hack of tapping into the similar taste and flavor compounds in lemon peels at:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/creamy-whole-lemon-hummus/

However you garlic is a good way to garlic!

For me, steaming, mashing, and freezing medallions of fresh garlic cloves empowered me to harness their potency. Learn how at:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/steamed-garlic/

Gustatorily, home-roasted bell peppers are more flavorful than jarred. But making your own takes time and barely saves you any money. The taste difference, therefore, may be the only reason why I keep doing it.

I support whichever decision you make! And should that decision be to roast your own, you can learn how at:

https://www.doesitvegan.com/how-to-make-roasted-bell-peppers/

I did it! I did The Squeaky Mixer's technique vegan -
https://thesqueakymixer.com/designed-sheet-cakes-master-guide/
by adapting Bianca Zapatka's sponge cake recipe!!
https://biancazapatka.com/en/vegan-sponge-cake/
Thank you, you amazing people, for inspiring me to make a birthday cake that delighted my newly 7yo 🥰

“Passover is tricky for vegans,” my good friend Bekah texted me after inviting me to her Seder. “Matzo balls have eggs in them.”

challenge accepted!

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-matzo-ball-soup/

Maqloubeh is a customizable rice dish from the regions called Palestine with a name that summarizes it all: "upside-down".

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-maqloubeh/

You can't get more cage-free than this!

Many vegan green dressings exist, but a true green goddess dressing includes animal-based products like mayonnaise, heavy or sour cream, and anchovies.

I uphold these textures and flavors with avocado and non-dairy milk, rice vinegar, and my anchovy substitute.

Get the recipe at:
https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-green-goddess-dressing/

Recognizing that to veganize is to inauthenticate sometimes, I resolved to veganize paneer. And for whatever success I had, I have to recognize that I did not create paneer.

In this case, “Does It Vegan?” is shorthand for:

Do the ingredients of my lifestyle function in an authentic recipe by Maneet Chauhan well enough to offer me a glimpse into another culinary world?

Learn how I answered, "Yes!"

https://www.doesitvegan.com/recipe/vegan-paneer/