Vegan menu options. Easy as pie.

According to reports, the number of people identifying as following a plant-based vegan diet has soared from around 540,000 in 2016 to around 3.5 million in 2018. That’s a significant number of folk who have given up not only meat and fish but also cheese, eggs and milk. And who want to be able to eat out!

A quick look at the supermarket shelves shows that retailers are catering for this upward trend and even Great British Bake Off featured a vegan week – and the participants made some fantastic cakes.

So what about the caterer? What should you be offering your vegan customers? And how straightforward is it to put vegan meals on your menu?

Fortunately offering vegan dishes isn’t difficult (and remember they’re also suitable for vegetarians – but not always the other way round). There are many dishes where the traditional cuisine is already more plant-based. Flavoursome and well-known foods from all over the globe (vegans don’t want bland and boring) such as Indian daal made from lentils, Middle-Eastern specialities such as hummus and falafels or Mexican fajitas with spicy vegetables instead of sizzling chicken will all be good starting points (but remember to do any frying with vegetable oil, not lard or dripping).

It’s also simple to create classic favourites as vegan options too. Of course you need to replace the meat and dairy ingredients with plant-based alternatives, but by making some clever, but simple, substitutions even a burger, wrap, lasagne or mac ‘n cheese can be suitable for vegans.

Typical meat alternatives are already familiar for vegetarian recipes and include tofu, Quorn, mushrooms, aubergines, pulses, nuts and seeds. But what about the non-dairy options?

As GBBO fans learned, it is possible to make a cake without breaking eggs, by using commercial egg replacements or simply vinegar and baking soda as raising agents. And there’s a multitude of nut and seed milks and butters on the market – almond, coconut, cashew and soya – to name a few. Even non-dairy cheeses are available for that oh-so-essential cheesy topping.

Of course, as always, our aim at Total Foodservice is to make the caterer’s life simple, so we already stock a range of products suitable for vegans. To make things even more straightforward, we’ve created a 20-page brochure FULL of vegan-friendly dishes, from hot dogs to ice cream, so you can be confident of giving your vegan customers exactly what they want. And remember, your non-vegan customers will enjoy these just as well!

And if you’re unsure whether a product is vegan-friendly, a quick check of the ingredients list or a chat with a member of our sales team will confirm.