Best Vegan Food Near Me
Making the transition to a vegan lifestyle isn’t as difficult as some people might think. Sure, it takes a lot of changes to habits and some additional diligence to pay attention to what goes into our body, but the benefits far outweigh the costs when you think about the impact on our livelihood.
With this extra diligence also comes the necessity to find vegan food near me so you know where to shop and eat out in order to cater to your new lifestyle.
Vegan Food Near Me – Use The Map
Hopefully this map will help you locate the best vegan food near me. Use it to find retailers and restaurants and find the best vegan food in your area.
Be sure to call ahead though because supplies are often limited if you are dealing with a store that is not vegan only. The phone numbers, along with websites and business hours should be available in the map as well.
What type of vegan food should I be looking for?
Before we dive into finding the best vegan food in your local area, we should touch quickly on the types of food you will need to look for. This will depend a lot on the type of diet you are eating, what your preferences are and how you prepare you meals.
All that said, there are a few staples that you will find in any Vegan household.
Tofu and Tempeh near me
The trick when buying Tofu and Tempeh is to make sure you are getting organic and non-GMO certified. You might be paying anywhere from $2 to $4 per block of Tofu and a little more than that for Tempeh.
Finding Tofu near me is fairly simple. Your everyday grocery store will have tofu blocks in their vegetarian/vegan and/or natural foods section.
Finding Tempeh near me can be a bit more difficult as it is not as popular. You might need to go to a whole foods or another organic shop, or find a vegan retailer specifically. However, it is important to note that Tempeh is a little healthier than Tofu as it has gone through the fermentation process – but that’s not a discussion for this article.
Beans, Lentils, and Legumes
The legumes family – beans and lentils specifically – are one of the best carbohydrate sources for anyone (especially vegans) and they are a must for a vegan diet.
Canned or dried beans are fine and cooking in bulk will always save you time.
Spices, stocks, and nutritional yeast
I remember the first time I discovered nutritional yeast. A delicious, cheesy, complete protein that packs as much as 8g of protein per table spoon of nutritional yeast.
Getting familiar with not only nutritional yeast, but other spices and vegetable stocks will let you create wonderful dishes at home.
Learning to cook vegan food
Cooking vegan food isn’t that much different than cooking non vegan food. The fundamentals are all the same but there are some alternatives you will way to pay attention too.
Make sure all your stock that you use when frying food or in soups is vegetable-based and not chicken or beef based.
There are some great cooking classes that you can take that might help you increase you comfort in the kitchen when cooking vegan dishes.
Where to find good vegan food near me
Finding good vegan food locally doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are some of the more popular locations:
Whole Foods / Organic Markets / Vegan markets
This is one of the best options to find excellent organic vegan food in a wide variety.
Each major city will have a handful of locations that you can find lots and lots of vegan food, however, if you live outside of a major city you might have to look in other areas.
Local farmers markets
I love picking up fresh produce at local farmers markets. This will really help you cut costs on high quality produce as you can usually get it much cheaper than going through a grocery store.
Local grocery store
Almost all grocery stores will have a selection of vegan food in their natural foods section. While all fruits and vegetables are vegan, most carbohydrate sources such as rice, sweet potato, and beans and lentils, these sections will have some vegan alternatives for every day foods such as protein sources (tofu), “fake meats” and “fake cheeses” which may be great if you have children.
If you need to ask an associate don’t be afraid – the store will have some vegan food somewhere.
Walmart
Walmart is surprisingly a great location to find some hidden gems of Vegan food. Mainly frozen meat-alternatives, which while they are processed, they are delicious and are often a great substitute for the everyday tofu.
Vegan restaurants near me
In addition to shopping for vegan food in your area, you might also be interested in vegan restaurants near me. Check out our post here to find local vegan restaurants.
Take your time to find vegan food near me
The more time to spend learning where to find the best vegan foods the easier it will be for you.
