We all have our moments, when we crave that old family recipe that just doesn’t fit into our vegan lifestyle. But with just a little revamping, you can turn that family recipe into a delicious vegan meal.

With the right ingredients, you can change an egg or meat heavy recipe into a vegan delight. Let’s take a look at 5 ways to turn any recipe into a delicious vegan masterpiece.

1. Cheese Change

There are a lot of vegan cheese choices out there, but to achieve a true cheesy flavor turn to nutritional yeast. Try adding coconut milk or cream to mimic that buttery cheesy flavor. Combining coconut milk with nooch and cashews, you can replicate any cheesy sauce.

To replace cottage cheese, feta, or ricotta, pulverize walnuts and nooch together in a food processor.

2. Exchanging eggs

The best replacement for eggs in almost any recipe is Tofu. Try adding garbanzo bean (or chickpea) flour to tofu to create an unforgettable omelet.  

3. The great fish fake out

To achieve a great fishy flavor, try using seaweed. You can also marinate mushroom stems and tofu pieces in a veggie broth to create a briny taste and mimic seafood.

4. Meat-free magic

It is not difficult to find fake meat in your local grocery store. You can easily substitute any meat with vegan chicken cutlets, “beef” burgers or non-seafood... seafood. If you don’t want to deal with fake meat, try using mushrooms, chickpeas, or tofu, flavored the way you would flavor meats. Remember that marinating tofu overnight will produce maximum flavor.

5. Always keep these items in your pantry and/or fridge

To create dishes with unforgettable flavor always keep the following ingredients in your pantry:

• nutritional yeast
• reduced sodium soy sauce
• tomato paste
• cornstarch
• silken tofu
• veggie broth
• milk alternatives
• plain vegan yogurt
• liquid smoke
• applesauce
• legumes
• black salt
• textured vegetable protein
• gluten flour

Happy Cooking!