Resources for caterers
General guidance on catering for vegans
The first place to start if you are unsure or need help expanding your vegan offering is the excellent Vegan Society caterers pack. This contains clear guidance on what vegans eat and what they don't, details of how to get further help plus meal ideas and recipes.
Un-obvious non-vegan ingredients
Most ingredients are either obviously suitable or not in a vegan diet. However there are several ingredients which always surprise people as being non-vegan;
- Honey
- Cochineal - a red food colouring derived from insects
- Shellac - food coating derived from insects
eNumbers and other additives
There are hundreds of permitted additives added to cooking ingredients and most are acceptable in a vegan diet, many of them can be vegan depending upon the source of the additive but the following are always animal derived and hence not suitable for use in a vegan diet;
- E120 - Cochineal, Carminic acid, Carmines, Natural Red 4 (Colouring)
- E441 - Gelatine (Emulsifier, Gelling agent)
- E542 - Bone phosphate (Anti-caking agent)
- E901 - Beeswax, white and yellow (Glazing agent)
- E904 - Shellac (Glazing agent)
- E910 - L-cysteine
- E913 - Lanolin, sheep wool grease (Glazing agent , animal origin)
- E920 - L-cysteine hydrochloride (Improving agent)
- E921 - L-cysteine hydrochloride monohydrate (Improving agent)
- E966 - Lactitol (Sweetener)
For a full explanation of which additives are suitable in a vegan diet see the Vegan Society dietary criteria
Its not just for vegans either!
Vegan food can be enjoyed by a wide variety of people whether vegan or not because most diets include all the food that vegans eat. This includes many people who abstain from certain foods for religious reasons. By offering vegan options you will be catering for the widest possible audience.
Recipes and menus
Finding vegan recipes has never been easier and there are hundreds of books and thousands of internet sites with suggestions from snacks to full gourmet dinners. Remember many traditional recipes can be made vegan by substitution of one or two ingredients (see below).
Our favourite recipe sites are;
Substitution and replacement
Many recipes can be adapted since they only contain one or two non-vegan ingredients which can be readily replaced using a traditional trick or one of the modern vegan substitutes;
Techniques
Vegan cooking is general simple since for most ingredients the preparation is a lot easier. However there are some techniques that are useful to know about which will make your vegan dishes not only taste good but look good too.
The best websites we can find on vegan techniques are;
Nutrition
Many people think that a vegan diet cannot be nutritionally balanced which is of course not true. The first item people normally think of is protein but providing you eat a varied vegan diet you should be meeting your protein needs.
The following websites should help you with nutritional queries on a vegan diet;
Cookery schools
The Vegetarian Society have an world renowned cookery school based near Manchester where you can take courses to improve your capabilities. Although it is vegetarian they can run vegan adapted courses.