help change my veggie foods to vegan foods!

[St George]

Hi. I know these are not the sort of posts you want to read,but can anyone help me on these items:

Tomato Sauce
Salad Cream
Handwash
and,this is pretty vague,i use 'RealEat' chunks of fake meat in my home made curries and chillis,but i know that they are only veggie friendly,not vegan friendly.Do you know of any small chunky fake meats(soz,but i dont have the bag i currently use here) that would be suitable in curries that are vegan friendly?

I have tried the animal free shopper,but the search facility is truly dire.

I hate having to post this stuff as i am sure it bores you rigid,but any help is truly appreciated as the more items i can cross off my list,the nearer i will be to becoming vegan.

[Michelle]

Morningstar Farms Griller Recipe Crumbles (which is a meatless ingredient for chillis and spaghetti, etc.) are vegan as far as I can tell. I don't know if they are available in the UK or not...here is the website for more info:

http://www.kelloggs.com/brand/msfarms/home.html

[harpy]

Ecovert do a couple of handwashes which are approved by the Vegan Society - one is a liquid soap in a pump action bottle thingie (available from Waitrose supermarkets among other places) and the other is a heavy-duty one in a tube which I have only seen offered on-line (but I haven't been looking for it).

Is tomato sauce not normally vegan then? I'm not sure what kind you mean but I think I've seen ketchup type sauces in health food shops so that avenue might be worth exploring if your regular brand isn't vegan. Also they usually have soy mayonnaise which might do instead of salad cream (you might have to water it down to get the same consistency though )

I tend to use lentils and stuff in curries rather than fake meat but perhaps you could experiment with TVP chunks - also available from health food shops. However if the stuff you've got is Realeat Vegemince it seems to be vegan - I just looked on www.animalfreeshopper.com

[Gorilla]

hi, always happy to help a fellow vegan
Sainsbury's always used to do a vegan salad cream, it's their 'Be Good To Yourself' low fat version which didn't seem to have any animal ingredients, although i haven't bought any for a while. if the Animal Free Shopper doesn't help Sainsbury's usually say on their website if the products are vegan. i've heard Tesco's low fat salad cream is also vegan. but there are many vegan mayonnaises too. i don't know for sure about ketchup, but you can get versions made by people like Whole Earth in health food shops.

i tried some meat-style chunks like TVP (again from Sainsbury's - dried chunks) at first, but soon decided i didn't need them in my cooking. i still occasionally use Vegemince which is vegan, you can get it in places like Holland & Barrett, supermarkets, wholefood shops etc. if you like tofu, that makes a good chunky ingredient in curries, stir-fries etc. if you cut it into cubes, it's very versatile, Cauldron make a really nice marinated one and smoked one.

you can buy things like handwashes from Veganstore for example or some supermarkets, Co-op are good for labelling their own brand products with regard to animal testing and ingredients.

[St George]

Thanks everyone for your help
I will have a look for your suggestions. I hate having to ask this type of quetsion,but the amount of products that i need to change over is quite daunting,lol.
Thanks again.

[Gorilla]

hey it's no problem. i found it quite daunting at first, and it put me off going vegan for a little while, but i started phasing out dairy about 3 years before i went fully vegan, so i think for some people it helps to do it slowly. take your time, and then you'll be less overwhelmed, it does get easier i promise - i've been vegan just under a year and it's pretty effortless most of the time now. we're quite lucky in the UK that even supermarkets are making it easier to buy vegan food