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Vegans don’t always have it easy when it comes to baked goods. Because even if some bakeries now offer vegan alternatives, many cakes, biscuits and even breads still contain animal products such as butter and eggs. So how about just baking it yourself? This article will show you exactly how vegan baking works and what to look out for.

Why bake vegan at all? Being vegan means consistently avoiding products of animal origin. According to statista.de, more than 1.13 million people in Germany now live vegan – and the trend is still rising.

While a large number of meat substitutes and milk substitutes have long since found their way onto supermarket shelves, vegan baked goods are still the exception rather than the rule. Vegan baking is actually quite easy, is neither more complicated nor more expensive than traditional baking and the results are just as delicious. So why not just do it yourself?

Baking Vegan: Tips & Tricks

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been vegan for a long time, want to please vegans in your circle of acquaintances or simply want to try out vegan baking recipes – with our tips you can make your favorite baked goods without animal products.

Rely on vegetable fats: Butter is a dairy product – and therefore taboo in vegan baking. Instead, use purely vegetable, preferably palm oil-free (organic) margarine. Of course you can also use oils. The following applies: 100 grams of margarine are replaced with 75 to 80 milliliters of oil (e.g. rapeseed or sunflower oil). Nut butter, such as almond butter, is also an interesting alternative to conventional butter – make sure you use organic and fair trade quality. If you want to improve your ecological balance and save calories at the same time, simply replace 100 grams of butter with a mixture of 120 grams of oat yoghurt and a tablespoon of semolina. Another option is to make your own vegan butter.

Egg substitute instead of eggs: In traditional baked goods, eggs are used to bind the dough better. As you will quickly find out when baking vegan, this is often not absolutely necessary. If you still want to use an egg substitute, you can buy one in most organic stores and some supermarkets – or you can simply make your own egg substitute using simple ingredients that you probably have at home anyway: banana , applesauce or flaxseed can effectively replace eggs in baking. Read more: Make your own egg substitute: 6 ideas for vegan eggs
Plant-based drinks instead of cow’s milk: plant-based milk alternatives have long been found in every supermarket and most drugstores, often even in organic quality. Depending on what you’re baking, cow’s milk can usually be easily substituted one-to-one with milk alternatives such as oat milk, soy milk, or almond milk.
Plant-based cream: Plant-based cream substitutes can also be found in most supermarkets, for example based on oats, soy or rice. Alternatively, you can easily make vegan cream yourself. More on this: Vegan Cream: Recommended Alternatives
Aquafaba instead of egg whites: There are some baking recipes that use egg whites. This is the case, for example, with biscuit doughs. But there is also a vegan variant here: aquafaba. Aquafaba is the soaking liquid from chickpeas and beans. Aquafaba is whipped into the perfect vegan egg whites and is even suitable for mousse au chocolat.

Baking with vegan chocolate: What would chocolate chip cookies be without delicious pieces of chocolate in the batter? In general, many dark chocolates are vegan by nature, although you should pay close attention to the list of ingredients. Those who value sustainability and fair production conditions should choose organic and fair trade chocolate. In the (organic) supermarket you will also find vegan white chocolate and purely plant-based “milk” chocolate with different cocoa contents.
Agar-agar instead of gelatine: Anyone who bakes fruit cakes sometimes seals the fruit layer with a gelatine-based icing. However, since gelatine consists of animal bone and cartilage residues, among other things, this is not an option for vegan baking. Instead, you simply replace the gelatine with agar-agar, a purely vegetable powder made from red and blue-green algae. Here too, pay attention to organic quality in order to get a residue-free product. More on this: Gelatin substitute: vegan plant-based alternatives

What else should you keep in mind when baking vegan?

To ensure that the cruelty-free baked goods are 100 percent successful, you should not overdo it when mixing the ingredients, otherwise a vegan dough can quickly lose consistency and become tough. So sometimes it can be worth using the whisk, spatula or fork instead of the food processor to mix the ingredients.

Depending on the type of oven, your vegan pastries may also cook faster than traditional recipes state. It is best to set the timer 15 minutes before the regular end of the baking time to make sure that cakes, biscuits, rolls and the like do not become too crispy.

Incidentally, when baking bread and rolls, most recipes are already vegan – or can be veganized quickly. Instead of the honey used in some bread recipes, you can use some organic sugar beet syrup, for example, and replace the quark in quark rolls with vegan organic soy quark. Buttermilk is easily replaced with a plant-based milk alternative with a dash of vinegar.

Is Vegan Baking Healthier?

You can decide for yourself how healthy your vegan baked goods will be. For example, if you use whole grain instead of white flour and at least partially replace the sugar content in sweets with low-calorie sugar alternatives such as organic erythritol, you can definitely produce healthier baked goods.

In general, the major health benefit of vegan baking is that purely plant-based ingredients are virtually cholesterol-free, while animal products such as eggs, milk and butter contain a lot of saturated fatty acids and trans fats. With high and regular consumption, these can promote heart and vascular diseases.

Vegan is not always sustainable

While vegan ingredients are always free of animal components, they are not always sustainable, since some of the products have extremely long transport routes to the local shops (e.g. coconut oil, cocoa, chia seeds, Agr-agar) or come from conventional cultivation and are therefore are not free from environmentally harmful pesticides.

If you also want to implement the topic of sustainability in baking, you should therefore rely on fairly traded organic products and prefer regional and seasonal ingredients.

Veganized Recipes vs. Vegan Recipes

Veganized recipes are conventional recipes that are made with purely plant-based ingredients instead of the traditional ingredients. This is particularly recommended for vegan baking beginners and for everyone who would like to recreate the taste of baked goods they love. For example, have you ever baked vegan cheesecake, apple pie, vegan biscuits or purely plant-based stollen yourself? It’s easier than you might think – and the taste is in no way inferior to the original recipes.

Of course, vegan baking is also possible with a variety of more experimental, vegan recipes in which sugar is replaced with dates, for example, and unusual types of flour such as lupine, almond or coconut flour are used. These recipes are not replicas of well-known originals, but developed vegan from the outset and represent their own category. They therefore offer a less comparable, but precisely because of this, interesting taste experience. They are often all about “Clean Baking”. Due to the often exotic ingredients, you should pay close attention to the origin and, if possible, prefer regional products.

Vegan ramen is a delicious twist on the Japanese dish. Here you can find out which ingredients you can use to prepare the pasta classic without any animal products.

If you want to eat vegan ramen, you can easily modify the traditional noodle dish with a few ingredients. The combination of fresh wheat noodles, a spicy aroma and crunchy vegetables conjures up a tasty and healthy meal.

In this article you will learn everything you need to know about ramen and how you can easily cook vegan ramen.

What is ramen?

Vegan ramen is a twist on the classic ramen. Ramen is a traditional noodle dish from Japan. Translated, it means something like hand-pulled noodles. Ramen is the name for the thick wheat noodles made from wheat, salt and water. At the same time, ramen is the name of the classic soup dish that is prepared with noodles, broth and meat, fish or tofu.

Ramen also lives from a fine seasoning. The recipe uses miso: a flavorful paste made from fermented soy. It is suitable for seasoning various Asian dishes, or can simply be prepared as miso soup.

Vegan ramen with different toppings are particularly tasty. Serve with fresh seasonal vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli or edamame. In our Utopia seasonal calendar you can always read which vegetables are currently available from regional cultivation.

When buying your products, make sure that they come from organic farming. In this way you support sustainable agriculture that does not use chemical fertilizers and chemical-synthetic pesticides. If possible, buy at your regional weekly market to support the farmers of the region.

You can get the somewhat unusual ingredients, such as shiitake mushrooms, miso or smoked tofu in a well-stocked health food store.

Prepare ramen: A vegan recipe

The vegetables in this recipe are suggestions and can be modified as desired. Find out which vegetables are in season at the moment and cook with fresh ingredients from the region.

Ingredients:

15 g shiitake mushrooms, dried
2spring onions
2 clove(s) garlic
50 g fresh ginger
100 g fresh shiitake mushrooms
1carrot
100 g edamame, peeled
1pak choy
4 tablespoons sesame oil
30 g miso paste
4 tbsp soy sauce
1.8 l vegetable broth
350 grams of ramen noodles
300 g smoked tofu
1 pinch(s) pepper, coarsely ground
50 g toasted sesame seeds
1 handful of fresh herbs of your choice

Directions:

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of hot water for 12 minutes.
Then catch the broth and cut the shiitake mushrooms into small pieces.
Wash and peel the vegetables. Chop the spring onions and garlic and finely grate the ginger. Cut the mushrooms, pak choi and carrot into fine strips.
In a wok or large saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons of the sesame oil. First stew the spring onions, garlic, ginger and the dried shiitake mushrooms in it.
Now add the miso paste and the soy sauce. Let everything continue to simmer for two minutes.
Deglaze everything with the mushroom decoction. Add the vegetable broth and let it simmer for 10 minutes on a low heat.
Now add the carrot, edamame and pak choi to the broth and let it simmer for five minutes.
Add the fresh shiitake mushrooms to the soup. Cook them for another five minutes.
Prepare the ramen noodles according to package directions.
Cut the smoked tofu into small cubes and fry it in a separate pan with the remaining sesame oil until crispy.
Serve the ramen noodles in a deep plate along with the vegetable broth and tofu. Decorate the vegan ramen with fresh herbs, ground pepper and roasted sesame.
Tip: Serve with the vegan ramen soy sauce and sesame oil. You can season the ramen as you like.

You can serve vegan Hollandaise sauce wonderfully with asparagus. We’ll show you how to prepare the classic sauce – without egg and without butter.

If you’ve ever tried to make the classic hollandaise sauce yourself, you know it’s not easy. Because if the water bath or butter is too hot, the sauce will curdle very quickly. You are on the safe side from the start with our recipe for vegan hollandaise sauce.

If possible, use regional organic products for the ingredients for your vegan hollandaise sauce. You can use seals such as Demeter, Naturland, and Bioland as a guide, which follow stricter criteria than the EU organic seal.

Vegan Sauce Hollandaise: The recipe

Ingredients:

250g margarine
200 ml cold (asparagus) water
3 tbsp cornstarch (level tbsp)
200 mloat cream
1 pinch(s) of salt some pepper
1 pinch(s) nutmeg
0.5 tsp turmeric (optional)

Directions:

Pour the cold (asparagus) water into a measuring cup. Stir in the cornstarch with a whisk until there are no lumps.
Place the vegan margarine in a medium or large saucepan. Melt them on low. Make sure it doesn’t start bubbling.
While the margarine melts, briefly bring the water and starch mixture to a boil. So the dusty taste of the cornstarch disappears.
Gradually pour the water mixture into the melted margarine while stirring with the whisk. Stir until you get a thick consistency. Warning: You may not need the entire starch mixture for this – depending on how thick you want your vegan hollandaise sauce to be.
Stir in the oat cream and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Optional: Use some turmeric at the end to give your vegan hollandaise sauce a stronger color.

This is how you can use the vegan hollandaise sauce

Sauce Hollandaise goes wonderfully with asparagus, but also with various other vegetables or potatoes.

Many products that we would classify as vegetarian contain animal ingredients, hidden as abbreviations in the fine print. Vegetarians and vegans should carefully study the ingredients of these products!

Carefully studying the ingredient list of ready meals and highly processed products is a must for vegetarians and vegans. Because animal ingredients are often hidden in apparently vegetarian products, as our list shows.

Fruit gum does not only contain gelatine

Gummy bears and Co. often contain gelatine – no secret for vegetarians and vegans. But there can be even more in red gummy bears: carmine is the name of the red dye obtained from scale insects. If you do not want to eat animal products, you should look out for the abbreviation “E120” in the list of ingredients of a product – behind it hides a carmine. Since the production of the red dye is quite complex, carmine is being produced more and more synthetically; At the moment, however, the following still applies: Keep your eyes open when buying products that draw attention to themselves with their beautiful red color. Dairy products, juices, and of course a lot of other sweets can also contain carmine.

Cheese: rennet from calves’ stomachs

A specific mixture of enzymes, rennet, is needed for the milk to curdle and make cheese. What many people don’t know is that rennet is traditionally obtained from the stomachs of young calves. To do this, the gastric mucosa is chopped up and the necessary enzymes are chemically extracted.

The good news: only 35 percent of cheese worldwide is still made with natural rennet (source: Vegetarian Association). As an alternative, enzymes from molds are used. Unfortunately, the cheese packaging does not state whether the rennet is natural or synthetic. A prominent example of a cheese that is still made from calf rennet is the Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan. Vegetarians will find Parmesan substitutes under the name “hard cheese”, for example, Alnatura’s “Montello”. If you want to be sure, ask the manufacturer directly.

Chips: lactose and a lot of undeclared

Many crisps not only contain lactose, but also a whole lot of animal products. A large chip producer told the organization Foodwatch that large parts of its range contain animal ingredients, depending on the variety, game, fish, poultry, beef, or pork. This does not have to be stated in the list of ingredients. Because if animal components are used as carriers for flavors and vitamins in the food, they, unfortunately, do not have to be declared under current law.

Peta made a list of vegan kibbles which you can check out here.

Baked goods: Supple thanks to L-cysteine ​​from bristles and feathers

To make flour easier to knead, the addition of L-cysteine ​​is often used in the bakery. This amino acid, which bears the abbreviation E 920, is made from pig bristles and bird feathers. According to current German law, E 920 must be declared on the packaging of baked goods. However, this case law is interpreted differently: “Wissensforum Backwaren e.V. comes to the conclusion that the addition of L-cysteine ​​in flour on packaged bread is not subject to labeling,” says the website www.lebensmittelklarheit.de. The labeling obligation does not apply to rolls sold loose anyway. Vegetarians and vegans, therefore, have to ask their trusted baker. Fortunately, quite a few chains now have vegan bread and vegan rolls on offer.

Wine and vinegar

It is now known that gelatine or proteins from the fish bladder are used in wine production. This method is also used for balsamic vinegar. However, many winegrowers now rely on vegetable proteins to clarify their wines. Vinegar can also be filtered through bentonite, silica, or fine filter paper, for example. Unfortunately, a reference to gelatine as a filtering agent on the packaging is not mandatory. If you are unsure whether a dash of vinegar is vegan or not, it is worth asking the manufacturer directly.

Muscles need protein to grow. The body, therefore, needs protein from food to build muscle. Researchers are now answering whether the protein source plays a role in this: When it comes to building muscle, it doesn’t matter whether the protein is of animal or vegetable origin.

Protein is necessary to build muscle. Many recreational athletes drink protein shakes after exercise and eat mainly quark and lean meat. They want to build up as much muscle mass as quickly as possible. But what about vegetarians, vegans, and those who just don’t want to eat as much meat or dairy?

Protein source plays no role in muscle building

Whether you consume animal protein from meat, for example, or vegetable protein from legumes, for example, makes no difference to muscle building. This is what researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the Hebrew Senior Life Institute found. A higher protein intake promotes muscle and strength gains, regardless of the source of the protein.

More protein, more muscle

Participants in a study were asked about their eating habits and divided into six food categories: fast food and high-fat diets, fish, red meat, chicken, milk, and legumes. At the same time, the muscle values ​​were recorded.

The result shows higher protein intake – more muscles and strength. However, no difference was found between the individual food categories with regard to muscle building. It is, therefore, possible to build muscle mass from animal protein in the same way as from vegetable protein.

Even if the protein source plays no role in muscle building, it does affect bone density. This is what another study found. People who eat more red, processed meat, therefore, have lower bone density and therefore a higher risk of osteoporosis.

Good news for non-meat eaters

The results prove: that muscle building is also possible with meatless diets. When it comes to building muscle, vegetarians and vegans have the same options and opportunities as meat-eaters. When it comes to muscle building, the primary factor is the amount of protein and not the protein source.

The Deutscher Tierschutzbund e.V. calls for a price increase on meat to improve animal welfare. There are various solution models for this – among other things, raising the VAT rate on meat products is under discussion.

Animal rights activists are calling for an earmarked price increase

The Deutscher Tierschutzbund e.V. would like to achieve a meat tax, the income from which will improve the welfare of livestock. Due to the earmarking, the money would benefit farmers who are willing to change their animal husbandry and advocate animal welfare.

Albert Stegemann from the Union parliamentary group also welcomes the idea of ​​​​the animal welfare association: He also sees the solution in earmarking, because the resulting income “must be used as an animal welfare premium to support animal owners in Germany with the conversion,” said Stegemann.

Increase in VAT as a simple solution

Both the SPD and the Greens advocate raising the VAT rate for meat. This is currently 7 percent – the increase would result in a tax rate of 19 percent.

SPD politician Rainer Spiering is counting on increasing the VAT rate “for the sake of simplicity”. The only drawback: the solution would primarily affect the consumer, but less on meat producers and food retailers, who should also be involved.

There is also opposition from EU budget minister Günther Oettinger: he is of the opinion that the tax increase would not help to reduce meat consumption.

Is taxation idea not legally possible?

Increasing VAT seems like a simple solution, but it is unlikely to bring the expected benefits. The Federal Ministry of Finance conceded that the earmarked use of VAT revenue for more animal welfare is not legally possible.

The general secretary of the farmers’ association, Bernhard Krüsken, is also critical of the taxation model: “Not the tax authorities, but the farmers need funds and support for the further development of animal husbandry”.

Lots of useful tips, tricks, and home remedies for removing annoying pet hair in the home. Cleverly remove animal hair now and better avoid it in the future.

You are just as dear to us as family and friends, maybe even more so. Cats, dogs, and Co. are popular and have probably been since the beginning of mankind. Nobody really wants to be without their animal roommates and as different as they are, all pet owners share the same fate: the fight against animal hair.

Clever removal of animal hair in the household

Basically, in a certain sense, you simply have to accept that your own home will never be completely free of animal hair. But nobody has to succumb to the constant supply of hair without a fight. With a few tips, tricks, and home remedies, it is possible to curb the hairy invasion at least noticeably.

Maintain regularly with a hairbrush

Apart from a few exceptions, all animals with fur tend to lose hair more or less evenly. Hair is constantly being lost to be replaced by new ones. In cats and dogs, there are also phases during the change of season in which there is an increased loss of fur from the summer coat to the winter coat and vice versa. There are different types and options for fur care in pet shops. Here it is worth getting advice and investing in a suitable hairbrush or special gloves with which loose hair can be brushed off directly. Most pets enjoy daily brushing, plus so much of that loose hair ends up in the trash before it even makes it onto the couch.

Blankets for all skins as the lesser evil

Most hair can be found in places where pets like to hang out. You should therefore prepare frequently used places accordingly in advance. A comprehensive collection of blankets and towels makes life easier for pet owners. These can be placed on sofas, armchairs, carpets, and the like. It is far more practical and easier to clean hairy ceilings than furniture and carpeting. In addition, blankets are used to protect furniture and floors from claws and other dirt. Other felt and coarse cotton have proven to be particularly robust and easy-to-clean fabrics that can withstand a large number of wash cycles.

Quick help with animal hair on clothing

A huge help in the battle between clothes and pet hair is to use a clothes dryer. This not only avoids cumbersome ironing but also dust, lint, and animal hair end up in the dryer sieve. If you don’t have a dryer, you should dry your clothes outside of your home if possible, or at least in a room that is not accessible to the animals. It would also be good if clothes that are currently being worn disappeared into closets and drawers. Also, wipe dust regularly and clean hair and other dirt regularly.

Lint rollers with removable adhesive strips

For clothing that is to be worn, lint rollers with removable adhesive strips have proven their worth. They are very thorough, easy to use, and can also be offered to guests when they say goodbye. However, if you want to avoid waste and constant shopping for adhesive strips, you can use a home remedy. To do this, collect old nylon stockings. If you put it on like a glove and rub it over hairy clothing, you can remove hair and dust very easily. With coarse and very fine fabrics, it helps to soak the tights in water beforehand and wring them out.

Adhesive tape and microfiber cloths for emergencies

In an emergency, classic clothes brushes, strips of wide adhesive tape, and clean, dry microfiber cloths also help, albeit not as well. In this way, even long hair can be removed from the carpet without much effort.

Vacuum cleaner against animal hair

Anyone who does not want to hide their own furniture from animal hair infestation with cloths and plastic covers should at some point deal with the perfect removal method. Sooner or later it is advisable to invest in a high-quality, powerful vacuum cleaner for pet hair anyway. Special attachment nozzles are available for most models, with which furniture can be thoroughly cleaned of hair and dust. This purchase is definitely worth it.

Upholstery brushes help remove pet hair

However, you cannot clean all surfaces with a vacuum cleaner. Special upholstery brushes help to remove pet hair quickly and effectively when cleaning upholstery. These aids are available in pet shops and specialist shops, and many pet owners swear by different products. However, the offers for the supposedly perfect cleaning result are quite extensive. Also, some removal options may work better than others on certain fabrics. Exchange with other “affected persons” and advice in retail can prevent expensive bad purchases and frustration.

Damage control as a daily challenge

No matter what advertising and product manufacturers promise, anyone who keeps pets has to accept that their own home will be covered with a “basic amount” of animal hair. Daily vacuuming, regular changing of blankets, and cleaning of pet beds and pillows will greatly improve the hairy catastrophe. But if you don’t go through an excessive cleaning regiment, you just have to get used to encountering different amounts of animal hair more or less everywhere. However, with a good vacuum cleaner, an adequate selection of blankets, towels, pillows, and bedding, and a habit of dusting where you stand and go, the hairy problem can be contained to manageable levels.

Animal rennet is found in many foods where you wouldn’t expect it – always a challenge for vegetarians. We tell you what rennet has to do with cheese and what alternatives there are.

If you eat vegetarian or vegan, it is particularly interesting for you to know which foods contain animal products – and whether they come from dead or living animals.

What is animal rennet?

Animal rennet is a mixture of different enzymes that occurs naturally in the gastric mucosa of young calves and other ruminants. The special enzymes break down the milk protein so that the milk thickens. This is the only way the calves can digest their mother’s milk. Since this is also true for humans, animal rennet is often added to dairy products to make them easier for us to digest.

If you eat vegan and completely avoid dairy products, animal rennet is not a problem for you, as it is only used in dairy products. If you follow a vegetarian diet, you must decide for yourself whether obtaining animal rennet is compatible with your lifestyle.

How is animal rennet obtained?

In order for animal rennet to be processed into food, it must be extracted from the stomachs of ruminants.

Since rennet is naturally there to make breast milk digestible, each mammal has a special rennet enzyme that is tailored to its own breast milk. In Europe, most dairy products come from cows, which is why rennet from young calves is often used in our food, but also from sheep or goats. The rennet quality is better the younger the animal was. This is because young animals drink a lot of breast milk and produce more rennet.

In order to use animal rennet for food, the animal stomachs are placed in a special solution – this is how the enzyme is released from the mucous membrane. It is then cleaned and preserved in several steps. All that remains is the enzyme and no stomach or other meat parts – the stomachs themselves, however, can only be taken from dead animals. The calves are not killed specifically for rennet – instead, the stomachs of animals slaughtered for meat production are used.

Animal rennet in cheese

Animal rennet breaks down milk proteins and allows milk to thicken without turning sour. It is precisely this property that is needed to produce sweet milk cheese – this includes most types of hard and semi-hard cheese. Many types of cheese only get their typical consistency with the help of rennet – without rennet they probably would not exist.

Are there alternatives to animal rennet?

There are some plant enzymes that work in a similar way to animal rennet. They are found in so-called rennet herbs, but also in the juice of papaya, pineapple or fig trees. However, they are only used for a few types of cheese because they affect the taste too much.
Rennet substitutes are often used in cheese production. These substances are often obtained by fermenting certain molds with microorganisms. In addition to moulds, however, these microorganisms also feed on other nutrient media that are not always vegetable.
Another alternative to animal rennet is an enzyme produced by genetically modified microorganisms. The genetic information from the mammalian stomach is implanted in the microorganisms so that they produce enzymes that are as similar as possible to animal rennet. However, there are currently no long-term studies on how GM foods affect our bodies – so GM foods should be treated with caution. This rennet alternative is not approved for organic food.