The cruelty free lifestyle is empowering and liberating but doesn’t come without its own hurdles.
Most of us have been raised “traditionally”, without much consideration for what impact our food choices may have for the planet.
This means that going cruelty free later in life inevitably requires breaking some old habits, with food preferences being one of the most persistent and difficult to change.
A few years ago, it was much harder to navigate produce stores and online offerings for cruelty free products.
Fortunately, much has changed since then, and today we’d like to share a selection of mouth-watering cruelty free meals ideas that don’t cost the Earth!
Quorn is a true pioneer in many ways. Their range of meat free meals products offers something for everyone, with breakfast, lunch and dinner items ranging from healthy options to indulgent street-style feasts.
Quorn also caters for special dietary requirements such as gluten allergy and lactose intolerance, and every product is clearly labelled, making the range easy to navigate.
Important note: whilst Quorn products are meat-free, some contain eggs, meaning not everything in the range is suitable for vegans.
Fortunately, all vegan products have a giant VEGAN label on packaging – so if you eat exclusively plant-based foods, look for those.
Like Quorn, The Fry Family products feature an extensive range of environmentally-friendly meat free products, and the selection is set to please even the pickiest eaters.
The business is still run by a few members of the Fry family, along with some awesome collaborators.
These days, 100% of The Fry range is vegan and, according to information on the official website, is endorsed by the Vegan Society of the UK.
Linda McCartney was not only Paul McCartney’s wife, musician and passionate animal rights activist.
Linda has also created a fantastic range of delicious ready-to-eat vegetarian meals which are delicious enough to convert even the most stubborn meat eaters (or at least persuade them to try Meatless Mondays).
Since not all meals are vegan, watch out if you are – however, vegan products are clearly labelled, forming their own sub-range. Yum!
If you’d prefer to buy from the meat-free mass production pioneers, VBites is your guy, since the group is the world’s leading manufacturer of meat free, vegan meat substitutes.
They are 100% vegan, make some of the best meat-like textured yummy foods and have the largest variety of offerings divided between the 6 sub-brands of the VBites group. Delicious and nutritious!
Sainsbury’s have introduced a brand new product; Pulled Jackfruit- a UK supermarket first, as part of its next-gen plant based range.
If you’re looking for vegan or vegetarian meat alternatives, either to fill your lunchtime sandwiches or bulk out your evening chili-con-carne (or should that be sin-carne?) then it’s here that you’ll find them.
… according to top chefs and culinary journalists, indistinguishable from the real thing. Ferran Adria (El Bulli) was convinced that he was dealing with chicken thigh of excellent quality and Mark Bittman, culinary reviewer of the New York Times couldn’t find enough superlatives to describe his experience.
• Tofurkey sandwiches are finally here!
These delicious vegan sandwiches that are arguably better than “the real thing” can now be found at Whole Foods across the country.
• If you’re craving a tasty pie, try one from the Young Vegans range – party foods have never been better!
• And finally…This is not a drill: although not available yet, Beyond Meat confirm The Beyond Burger is coming to the UK in 2018, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Hope we made your meal prep game a little bit easier and see you next time!
This list is just a start! I’m bound to have missed loads of fantastic products, so I need your help to build this list.
So get those comments coming and tell me what your favourites are!
Do you know that World’s best burger is vegan !