The Ultimate Vegan Resource List

Goodman Fielder Food Service
The Ultimate Vegan Resource List

The Ultimate Vegan Resource List

Posted on 16th February 2018
Trying to jump on-board the vegan dietary trend? We've tracked down some of the most reputable vegan-food retailers, events and resources to make your transition an easy one.

Summary

Veganism isn’t going anywhere. In fact, Australia is the world’s third fastest growing vegan market. Even better, businesses are starting to see the opportunity too with the vegan packaged food market alone expected to hit $215 million by 2020. We’re just following trends happening elsewhere in the world. Like the fact that the largest US meat company (Tyson Foods) took five per cent stake in vegan meat company Beyond Meat and Bill Gates and other high net worth individuals invested $108 million in Impossible Foods.

We’ve spoken to the experts and brought together a whole range of vegan food related, community and other learning resources so you never have to go looking anywhere else!

Image showing vegan friendly foods in a bowl

Food, Recipes, and Restaurants

Vegan food is indeed a growing trend, however, it can be difficult to fully understand the intricacies and how delicious it can actually be! Get the low down on our favourite recipes, restaurants and dishes that are vegan and really, really tasty.

Recipes

  • PETA: These guys are the original animal rights activists. They’ve been around for years. Here, you can browse by cuisine or meal types.
  • All Recipes Random Recipe Spinner: We think this one is pretty cool. It does what it says on the box – click a button to spin the wheel and get a vegan recipe instantly.
  • Good Food, Taste, SBS, Best Recipes and Jamie Oliver: These aren’t vegan specific sites but they all have subsections for vegan-friendly recipes and because so many people visit them, they’re more likely to have been trialled and rated by other users.
  • Vegangela: This is a site by a Canadian expat living in Sydney and she does some pretty awesome recipes that are worth checking out.

Vegan Restaurants and Eateries

Our top vegan picks every side of Melbourne City:

City CBD

South Side

  • Monk Bodhi Dharma: Order the Zucchini Hotcakes or Hungry Jimbo.
  • Sister of Soul: Try the Massaman Curry.
  • Matcha Mylk Bar: Get the Vegan Eggs with mushroom bacon, corn fritters, almond feta, and spiced avo guac and the Charcoal Chai (important note: you often have to wait one hour).

North Side

  • Shakahari: Menu changes regularly, so we don’t have specific faves here but everything is great.
  • Smith and Daughters: Get the Picante Panquetes and the Breakfast Burrito. You can actually buy their whole menu as a recipe book too.
  • Vegie Bar: A Fitzroy institution, the food is renowned but there can be a queue.
  • Yong Green: Nachos and they do great non-milk smoothies (they have a bunch of healthy stuff as well worth eating).

Vegan Products, Grocery Shops & Online Stores

  • Accidentally Vegan Products by PETA: Supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths stock a huge range of products that aren’t necessarily labelled vegan but are in fact safe for Vegans to eat. Hence the name Accidentally Vegan. This list is specific to Australian brands.
  • Vegan Products you can buy at Woolworths and Coles: This is similar to the above list but it also contains product images which make it easier to identify them in the supermarket if you’re not familiar with the product.
  • The Vegan Easy Cheat Sheet: This cheat sheet that covers recommended lists of all vegan-friendly products (including non-food products) as well as a list of product ingredient numbers to steer clear of right at the end.
  • Vegan Grocery Shops in Australia: This is a list of some grocery shops in each state that focus on vegan food and products.
  • The Cruelty Free Shop: This is the main vegan go-to when it comes to online shopping. They have over 1500 vegan food items and cruelty-free products including meals, mock-meats, egg and dairy replacers.
  • Dayia Foods: This brand is particularly important because they do amazing dairy-free cheese, yoghurt and cheesecake alternatives. They’re available in most vegan-friendly grocery stores.
  • Flora and Fauna: They are Australia’s largest cruelty-free and vegan shop with exclusive eco-friendly products.

Photo shows people gathering at an event promoting the vegan diet

Communities and Entertainment

Vegan meet-up groups and communities can be a great way to learn more about veganism and the community – get all your questions answered, including information on the belief systems and ideals.

Meet-up groups

Vegan Events

Forums

  • Unleashed Community Forum: Run by Animals Australia, the Unleashed Community Forum encompasses a broad range of topics and is also focussed on Australians and Australian content.
  • Happy Cow, Veggie Boards, Vegan Forum and Philosophical Vegan: These are all global forums. Facebook groups are normally the first place to go if you have specific vegan questions, however, these forums are a good alternative if you’re not getting specific questions on social media.

Vegan Blogs

  • Vegan Sparkles: Run by Bec Weller, a Health and Life Coach, Author, Speaker and contributor to The Australia, News.com.au, Good Health and Elle Magazine
  • Passionately Keren: Foodie, photographer and video producer Keren documents her life as a passionate vegan.
  • Veggieful: Married power-couple Maddi and Jerome post reviews, how-to’s, recipes, giveaways and more!
  • Like a Vegan: Food, fashion, and travel. Not to mention a funny Madonna related pun.
  • The Minimalist Vegan: Canberra based couple meld the worlds of veganism and minimalism to lead a healthy, simple, cruelty-free lifestyle.
  • My Goodness Kitchen: Amanda, her daughter, patient husband and dog Scout are a team of recipe testers.
  • Keepin It Kind: Join animal lover, travel fanatic and chickpea devotee Kristy and her husband as they blog about their favourite recipes.
  • The Raw Food Institute of Australia: Find out more about the health benefits of raw, whole, plant-based food and diet. Vegan recipes, culinary online courses, nutrition coaching, weight management and more.

Facebook groups

Apart from the groups below, it’s also really worth searching for local groups in your area such as Sydney Vegans or Melbourne Vegans or Tasmania Vegans, etc. There are usually sub groups on a local basis that are particularly useful for sharing information about new vegan restaurants or finding hidden places that cater to vegans even if they don’t have a fully vegan menu.

  • Vegan Revolution: Promoting veganism through kindness and respect.
  • Vegan Australia: VA’s vision is a world in which people treat animals with respect, ensure justice for them and enable them to live their lives free of human exploitation, use and ownership.
  • Vegans in Australia: Vegans helping other vegans with information, advice, event information and a sense of community.
  • Animals Australia: Over 1.5 million followers can’t be wrong. Animals Australia is a must like a page for any vegan.
  • PETA Australia: The easiest way to stay up to date or get involved with PETA in Australia.
  • Vegan Easy: Stay up-to-date with other 30-day challenges! Vegan Easy post awesome videos and photos of Vegan events.
  • Australian Vegan Foodies: Fancy yourself a bit of a foodie and need some like-minded taste testers? They just love vegan food.
  • Vegans United: For those that want to live as deliberately vegan as possible to bring as much change for a peaceful planet.
  • Vegan Bodybuilding and Fitness: Who says you need to eat meat to be ripped. Get your daily fitness and bodybuilding inspiration.

Instagram

  • Best Aussie and Kiwi Vegans to Follow on Instagram: This is a comprehensive list of animal lovers including Peter Siddle, Liam Hemsworth, Stephanie Lange and the Vegan Dancer Girl.
  • 10 Vegan Instagram Accounts You Should Definitely Be Following: Add some diversity to your Instagram feed, follow these vegan accounts that have really nailed the whole foods lifestyle.
  • The 20 Best Vegan Instagram Accounts to Follow: Our favourite from this list by far would be Mississippi vegan. His food is just unbelievable to look at. Unfortunately, he is based in the US, although he does do food photography courses in Hawaii once a year.
  • Saveur’s 15 Favorite Vegan Instagrams: These 15 feeds show off some of the prettiest of the plant-based food world.
  • These are a list of the best and most widely used vegan hashtags on Instagram which you can use to tag your photos: #vegan #veganlife #veganfood #veganfoodie #veganlifestyle #veganfoodshare #veganfoodporn #veganforlife #vegannoms #vegansofinstagram #veganfriendly #plantbased #veganbreakfast #vegansmoothie #veganthickshake

Image of a lady searching vegan resources on her mobile phone

Learning Resources

If you’re looking for education or inspiration, there are plenty of resources to help you get going.

Best Books/Magazines

How-to Guides

Cool Vegan Apps

  • Happy Cow on the Go: For checking vegan-friendly places wherever you are.
  • Do Eat Raw: Easier to cook a meal with recipes you can access on your phone in the kitchen. These are raw/vegan.
  • Is It Vegan?: This app allows you to scan the barcode and figure out if what you want to buy or eat is vegan.
  • VegEMOJI: This one’s a bit silly, but not everything needs to be serious all the time… great for marketing too.
  • Bunny Free: You can use this app to search for companies by name and see whether or not they test on animals.
  • Fair Food Forager: Fair Food Forager changes the way the world eats by assisting with everyday ethical food decisions.

FAQ

This is a list of good frequently asked questions which either a transitioning vegan may ask, or the family and friends or even diners.

  • Vegan Easy: There are lots of questions that friends and family ask new vegans and this is a particularly good one for Aussie vegans because it refers to Australian sources of health information such as the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
  • 7Day Vegan: Another good source of Q&A.
  • Vegan: Less information here although does cover a bit of philosophical thinking as well.
  • Melanie Joy: Carnism: This is longer and in our opinion, better than her Ted Talk because it goes into more depth and provides a more convincing overall argument for veganism as a result.

Here are just a few insights on Veganism in Australia as of 2016:

  • 80 per cent of vegans are females
  • 80 per cent of vegans are under 40
  • The main reason people go vegan is for ethical reasons
  • Approximately 50 per cent of vegans were already vegetarians before going vegan
  • 60 per cent of participants said they have influenced or convinced someone to go vegan

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