March 4, 2009
Recently, we here at Kindness received an urgent plea from an old friend. That plea read as follows:
OK! I have been following along with the blog and enjoying it. I have a question related to veganism that I would love to get your thoughts on. Maybe it’s something you can help me with via email, or maybe it’s something you can turn into a post for your site. That’s up to you, I just come to you in need of help.
My question is: what are some good vegan snacks? Vegan meals I can do; it’s the times when I’m sitting at my desk and starving in the middle of the day that I run into trouble. I KNOW about fruit and I KNOW about vegetables (boring) and I know there’s a list of vegan snacks on PETA’s website, but that list is also high in gluten and HFCS, so I was just wondering if there are some other good ideas out there? I don’t care if they’re healthy, I just want to keep snacking for fun and pleasure. Or is being vegan anathema to the idea of snacking?
Thank you! Good day sir.
Needless to say, we rushed to action last month. Er, rather, that is, we felt that such an important issue demanded intense thought over time. Precisely. At the end of our deep meditation, we decided the problem is that so many of us are unaware of the many, many quality non-meal foodstuffs that exist today for vegans. As our friend very eloquently put it, everyone does know about fruit and vegetables and they are totally boring. Thanks, but no thanks, nature. Just because we choose to spare the animals of the world an unnaturally short lifetime of agony in servitude to us doesn’t mean we want to miss out on filling our bodies with well-packaged, beautiful snacks full of sugar and fat. Mmmm. Sugar and fat.
So, being the organized people that we are, we decided to compile a brief list of our favorite vegan snacks, primarily for the purposes of creating an overly time-consuming grocery list, but secondarily to help out anyone who might be sick of those Food Lion brand snickerdoodles and (bleh) apples. These are in no particular order, but we do start with savory and end with sweet.
Commence listing!
Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos
Alright, now, if you’re a Stephen Colbert fan, you might already know about these. He partnered with Doritos to sponsor part of his campaign coverage last year and constantly plugged them on the show, calling them his favorite flavor. Well, it turns out, I assume by pure happenstance, that they’re also totally vegan. Which is both scary and awesome. Also scary and awesome, respectively: they contain MSG and taste amazing. Like, seriously. Amazing. It’s very hard for me not to walk up to the gas station at the top of our block and buy a bag every night. Very. Hard. Check out the kind of bizarre press release from PETA on the chips.
Eco Planet Cheddar Organic Crackers
Remember Goldfish crackers? Eco Planet Cheddar Crackers are basically those, but vegan, organic, and in the shapes of fuel-efficient cars, wind-powering windmills, smiling suns, and the earth. Really. Those are the shapes. Their deal is they want to both make a great tasting snack and teach kids to become environmental stewards. It might sound a little green-washy if it wasn’t for their super-basic site and the fact that they also donate a portion of their proceeds to environmental groups via 1% for the Planet. These are one of those snacks that we can’t really have in the house often because we’re lucky if they last through the day.
Primal Strips and Primal Sticks
I know. Terrible name. But don’t hold it against them. Maybe it was just me, growing up in southern Virginia, but I seriously loved beef jerky. So I was sad to find out, when I became a vegetarian in high school, that jerky didn’t come in not meat. Now though, it totally does. And it’s undergone quite an evolution over the years, from the chewy, dry, but, at the time, still impressive Stonewall’s Jerquee, to the realistically tough and super-tasty Tofurky Jerky, to Primal Strips and the Slim-Jim-like Primal Stick, which have a great consistency and come in a wide range of flavors. If you’re in NYC, you might notice cardboard bins of these sitting at the counters of various bodegas.
Snack Mixes
Alright, this might seem like a bit of a cop out, but it’s not. One of the things we’ve discovered that’s a superb snack for vegans is a great snack mix. I personally have become somewhat obsessed with snack mixes and often guide my bar-going by who may or may not have snack mix. And, by snack mix, I mean a mixture of nuts, crackery things, possibly some wasabi peas, sesame sticks, oat sticks, and that sort of thing. I’m strictly a no-fruit-in-the-snack-mix type myself. Many Whole Foods stores have opened up snack mix bars, which are pretty great in that you can grab a container and fill it up with any combination of snack mixy things. If you’re in Brooklyn, I highly recommend checking out the Nut Box (I know, they had so many other, funnier naming options…) on Smith Street. It’s a small shop that sells pretty much every variety of nut of snack mix item you can imagine, plus granola, spices, and a bunch of other stuff, all at fairly affordable prices. And then, in NYC again, there’s Bazzini, old-school nut snack heaven. You can go to their meat packing district headquarters and order in bulk from their snack mix bar. It’s kind of the best. We try to hit up one of these places before any party we have.
Tyrrell’s Sweet Chili + Red Pepper Potato Chips
Alright, if you forget for a moment that these chips had to cross an ocean to get to you, Tyrrell’s Sweet Chili + Red Pepper chips can be consumed rather gleefully and guilt-free. Unlike the Doritos above, these chips taste like the thing they came from: potatoes. According to their bag, they are the only small chip maker in the UK to grown their own potatoes and make their chips right there on their farm. They also claim that it’s not unusual for a potato to be dug in the morning and made into chips by lunchtime. Those brits. Point being, this particular flavor of chips is vegan and wonderful, as are a number of other ones they make. Though be sure to steer clear of the Ludlow Sausage and Roast Lamb with Shrewsbury Sauce flavors…
Dr. Cow Nut Cheese
I know. You don’t want to hear “Dr.” and “nut” and “cheese” in the same sentence. That aside, let me tell you a short tale, friend, of the millions and millions of vegan who cry every night for want of cheese. It’s a sad fact, but, for whatever reason, cheese is the one thing the vegan-friendly food industry just cannot get down. That said, there have been recent strides, both in technology and creativity. We’ve written before about Teese from Chicago, which they’re constantly improving and works insanely well as a substitute on any dish that calls for hot, melty cheese (god, why did I write this before dinner). But, if you, like me, miss the days of a lovely cheese plate, complimented by some shelled nuts, a nice arugula salad, and a cut apple, then give Dr. Cow’s Nut Cheeses a try. They’re made in tiny, old-world style wheels out of 100% raw, organic nuts, then aged with pink himalayan salt and acidophilus, which mimics the ripening of milk-based cheese. Fancy, right? And good. These wheels are pricey, but they’re great on a cracker or a slice of apple, which is a lot more than can be said for most vegan cheeses out there. Plus they’re made in Brooklyn. Wait, no, that’s a good thing.
Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
This is another one that’s been around for a while, but it’s also another great basic that can play into a quick snack. Our favorite: BTCC on an everything bagel. As far as we can remember, the stuff is pretty spot-on. I’m sure it’s missing that straight-to-my-arteries dairy jolt that real cream cheese has, but I’m good without that. We’ve also discovered that it works really well as a substitute for crème fraîche in a vodka pasta sauce. Photo courtesy of My Zoetrope.
Purely Decadent Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert
On to the sweet! This is another thing that the industry has had down for a while: vegan ice cream. We tip our hats to their years of service, but we recommend steering clear of Tofutti’s vegan ice creams. Not nearly as tasty as others out their and chock full of not-so-fun stuff like high fructose corn syrup. Instead, opt for Purely Decadent’s new line of coconut-milk-based desserts, or their regular line’s fun new flavors Blueberry Cheesecake, Dulche de Leche, Cookie Dough, or Snickerdoodle. Also recommended if you can find them at a local Whole Foods or the like: Temptation vegan ice cream from the people who bring us Teeze vegan cheese.
Sweet + Sara Marshmallow Treats
I’ve met a number of people who, weirdly enough, aren’t nearly as miffed about the lack of vegan cheese as they are about the lack of vegan marshmallows. I was never a huge, huge fan myself, but Sweet + Sara is here to help, nonetheless. They hand make these delicious, square marshmallows that taste absolutely no different than the best of the standard hooves and bones type. On top of that, they also make…wait for it…Smores. Er, ‘smores. S’mores? You know what I mean. Marshmallow on top of a graham cracker cookie and wrapped in dark Belgian chocolate. Kind of the best. And, again, from NYC! You go, giant city.
Allison’s Gourmet
Got an insane vegan sweet tooth? We’ve tasted a lot of vegan sweets over the years, and there’s absolutely no doubt that northern-Callifornia-based Allison’s Gourmet is among the best that’s out there. Not only does she make make mind-blowingly awesome standards, she goes above and beyond, cornering the gourmet, artisanal vegan market by creating to-die-for Butterscotch Pecan Cookies, Pumpkin Spice Cookies, Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies, Amaretto Almond Brownies, Crystalized Ginger Fudge, Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate Peppermint Stick Bark, Peanut Brittle, and Chipotle Caramels. Yes, vegan caramels. Honestly, you have to taste her treats to believe them.
So, the real question: where do you find all this stuff. Yes, yes. I know. I live in New York, so a lot of this is an easy, though potentially smelly train ride away. Honestly, a lot of these can be found at your local health food store or Whole Foods. And, if they don’t have what you’re looking for, get them to order it. They love that kind of stuff. And things like Tofutti Cream Cheese, nut mixes, often enough the Purely Decadent ice cream, and, obviously, the Doritos can usually be found in a run of the mill large chain grocery store. Failing any of that, try
Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe (Atlanta, GA) or Food Fight Grocery (Portland, OR). They’ll get you what you need.
Now I seriously need to eat.
