Vegan Practically

Maybe I’m the only one who has noticed that my two-posts-a-week schedule has faltered of late. I’m trying to ease back up to speed, and I’d really like to get back on track with Fun Fridays. When I first started blogging, my promise was that Tuesdays would be for thinking things through and Fridays would be for fun posts about foods to try, recipes, cookbooks, website recommendations. Nothing requiring anyone to confront the ethics of their choices. Just suggestions for those who are curious or stuck in a rut or trying to gather some new information.

To this end, I got a gentle nudge from Shelley the other day that “we desperately need a blog post about ‘junk’ food: potato chips, nachos, ‘cheesies,’ etc.!” This is something I can get behind and it seems just perfect for a Friday.

I like to think of treats as “fun food” rather than as “junk food” because for most of us, what they lack in nutritional value they add in bringing pleasure. If some food doesn’t serve either purpose, then there is just no point in eating it unless you’re hungry with no other choices at hand. But fun food is part of a good life and without any of it we’d feel deprived (I’m sure I’m not only speaking for myself here!). I confess that I’m not an expert on this genre. I have my favourites but I don’t have a huge commitment to expanding my repertoire. I’m going to assume that when we choose these foods we are not seeking nutritious options, so ingredients that might not be the most healthy choices for all the time are given a pass in the fun food. I’m not here to judge.

If it’s vegan it goes without saying that it won’t involve animal products. But there are other things to keep an eye on, such as palm oil, that might give some guidance beyond taste. I’ll start with my favourites and go from there. In future posts I might zero in on one type of thing (like a whole post about potato chips), but for now I’m highlighting a few things that are (or have recently been) in my pantry.

Twizzlers (“strawberry” flavoured). I like and have always liked strawberry-flavoured Twizzlers. The main ingredient here is sugar. And there is something wonderfully comforting yet artificial about the texture of fresh Twizzlers. I confess that I didn’t look at the ingredient list closely before I bought a jumbo bag of strawberry Twizzlers when they were the “deal of the week” for $2.49 where I buy my groceries. They had various flavours on offer, and they had to go searching for the strawberry (“cherry” is not an acceptable substitute for me — quite possibly my most detested artificial flavour of anything is the so-called cherry).

I knew that they were vegan but I didn’t read the ingredient list, so I didn’t see that they contain modified palm oil. I’ll say a bit more about palm oil below, but if you care about sustainability, then palm oil is a terrible choice. I know many-a-vegan who will not buy anything that includes it. And typically I avoid it too.

Full ingredient list for strawberry Twizzlers: Sugars (corn syrup, sugar), wheat flour, corn starch, modified palm oil, salt, artificial flavour, citric acid, mineral oil, allura red, lecithin (soy). If you’re wondering, allura red is a chemical dye, not the insect-based red dye that you want to avoid when you see carmine, cochineal extract or natural red 4 on an ingredient list.

Chocolate. In my pantry now is a President’s Choice Dark Chocolate with Candied Orange Peel chocolate bar (52% cocoa). Yes, it is as good as it sounds. And it seems to be perpetually on sale. I can’t remember the last time I paid more than $2.50 for one of these. A lot of people think chocolate isn’t vegan. It’s true that most milk chocolate isn’t vegan because it’s made with dairy milk. But a good deal of the darker chocolate does not contain milk products (though they are often made in a facility that does, so you will see “may contain” milk as their due diligence at the end of an ingredient list — I do not worry about “may contain,” but some people take a harder line).

My other favourite line of chocolate bars comes from Green & Blacks. Their organic dark chocolate (60% cocoa) with crystallized ginger pieces is amazing.

Full ingredient list for President’s Choice Dark Chocolate with Candied Orange Peel: sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, orange pieces (orange peel, sugar, glucose-fructose syrup, dextrose, citric acid orange natural flavour, sulphur dioxide), natural flavour, sunflower lecithin. May contain: tree nuts, milk, egg, soy, wheat.

Full ingredient list for Green & Blacks Organic Dark Chocolate with Crystallized Ginger Pieces: Dark chocolate (cocoa mass, raw cane sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), crystallized ginger (ginger, icing sugar). Contains: soy. May contain milk, tree nuts.

Potato Chips. Pictured above is a bowl of President’s Choice Loads of Barbeque Rippled Chips, which are among my favourite potato chips. It has a lot of ingredients, but palm oil is not among them. Still, you can see why these chips are fun food and not a primary source of nutrition.

Full ingredient list for President’s Choice Loads of Barbeque Rippled Chips: Potatoes, Canola And/or Mid-oleic Sunflower Oil,seasoning [corn Maltodextrin, Sugar, Salt, Inactive Yeast, Dried Onion,spices (including Chili Pepper), Dried Tomato, Fructose, Potassiumchloride, Fancy Molasses, Citric Acid, Natural Flavour, High Oleicsunflower Oil, Spice Extracts, Yeast Extract, Silicon Dioxide, Calciumsilicate, Calcium Stearate].

Still on the topic of chips though: If you care to, you can do better if you choose plain chips. Plain Lays and Plain Miss Vicki’s, for example, have a very simple ingredient list: Specially Selected Potatoes, Vegetable Oil, Salt (or in the case of Miss Vicki’s “sea salt.” I should also caution you that some flavoured chips contain milk ingredients where you wouldn’t expect them to. Yes, we know to avoid sourcream flavouring and cheese flavouring, but many brands include milk ingredients in their salt and vinegar flavouring (Miss Vicki’s, President’s Choice, Pringles, and Lays all indicate milk ingredients or lactose, which is a sugar sourced from milk). If you like salt and vinegar (as I do), then Hardbite brand is a good option. But to be 100% sure that your potato chips are vegan, plain is the way to go.

Cheesies. This range of items is not comfortably within my balliwick, though I have tried the Organic President’s Choice Plant-based Cheddar Puffs before. They’re as expected from this type of thing — puffy and sort of crispy, with a little flavour zing. Earth Balance makes a similar product. If they’re advertised as “plant-based” or “vegan” then you are at least halfway home. You can sure that the lactic acid is not from lactose, at least. Neither of these products has palm oil. I am really not sure what to say about other oils and need to do some further research in that regard.

Full ingredient list for PC Organics Organic Plant Based Cheddar Baked Corn Puffs: Organic Cornmeal, Organic Canola And/or High Oleicsunflower Oil, Organic Plant-based Cheddar Seasoning [organic Tapiocastarch, Organic Cheddar-style Powder (organic Rice Syrup Solids, Salt,organic Yeast Extract, Natural Flavour, Organic Evaporated Cane Syrup,lactic Acid, Citric Acid), Salt, Organic Evaporated Cane Syrup, Organiconion Powder, Organic Natural Flavour, Organic Garlic Powder, Organicspices, Lactic Acid, Organic Annatto Extract, Organic Rosemary Extract].

Full ingredient list for Earth Balance Aged White Cheddar Puffs: Cornmeal, navy beans, expeller pressed sunflower oil, maltodextrin, salt, onion powder, non-bone char sugar, garlic powder, lactic acid (vegan source), yeast extract, natural vegan flavors.

Pretzels. To me, pretzels are the unsung, oft-overlooked heroes of snack foods. They are almost always vegan because pretzel dough for the crunchy snack kind is pretty basic. If you’re going for soft baked pretzels you want to watch for butter. But in the snack aisle at the grocery store, that’s not what you’re going to get. They’re crunchy, salty, and close to fat-free (if that influences you at all). Yes, you can sometimes get flavours, but mostly pretzels are plain, and that means less to worry about on the ingredient list (as we learned with potato chips). I have two favourites: the Snack Factory’s Pretzel Crisps (original) and Rold Gold Tiny Twists. They’re both great for dipping in hummus or guacamole and equally good for just eating on their own.

Full ingredient list for the Snack Factory’s Pretzel Crisps: Wheat Flour, Sugar, Salt, Malt Syrup (tapioca Syrup, Malt Extract), Sodium Hydroxide. Contains Statement: Wheat, Barley.

Full ingredient list for Rold Gold Tiny Twists: Enriched Wheat Flour, Salt, Vegetable Oil, Sugars (corn Syrup, Barley Malt Extract), Ammonium Bicarbonate, Active Dry Yeast, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide. Contains Wheat, Barley Ingredients.

Pâtes de fruits. Now we’re getting fancy, because really you can only get this in Europe. But having recently purchased these from three different fancy sweets places — in Bruges, Honfleur, and Paris — I just have to give a shout-out. To say that pâtes de fruits are little fruit jellies doesn’t really do them justice. As this article says, “they take gummies to the next level.” They have a lovely texture — soft and luxurious. And one of their other defining features is that they use pectin (a fruit-based thickening agent used in jam) not gelatin (a thickener made of boiled animal bones and hoofs and so on), so they’re vegan. If you see gelatin on an ingredient list, you are not looking at the genuine article.

If you want to try making your own, here is a recipe for strawberry pâtes de fruits. They are candy, so yes, there’s a lot of sugar. I like this recipe because you prepare the fruit from scratch. Other recipes, such as this one, call for fruit purée. Reading over the recipes, which look fairly easy, I would say it is important to have a thermometer to get it to the right temperature or you risk it not setting properly.

The last package I picked up as I left Paris fell into my hands quite unexpectedly when I went into Ladurée (not a vegan bakery–the pâtes are probably the only vegan item) at the Charles De Gaulle airport while waiting for my flight. They came in a cute little box that screamed “French delicacy” and I promised myself I would not touch them until I got home. I followed through on that promise and made the 12 pieces last for four days after my return.

Full ingredient list for Ladurée’s pâtes de fruits: sucre, fraise, framboise, abricot, citron, cassis, banane, sirop de glucose, gélifiant : pectine (E440), acidifiant : acide tartrique (E334). (all fruity plant-based ingredients, with the gel agent identified as pectin).

Nacho/tortilla chips and salsa. If I had to choose a favourite tortilla chip for eating with salsa or guacamole, it would be the very ordinary Tostitos Multigrain Scoops. For someone who likes a good haul when scooping salsa, the scoop design is nothing short of inspired.

I also like the thin crispness of Que Pasa’s Thin & Crispy Sea Salt chip, which puts itself out there as a vegan product. It’s thin. It’s crispy. And it scoops up salsa nicely too. They also have a blue corn chip, and though I rarely buy blue corn, I do like them. Same ingredients are listed.

Full ingredient list for Tostitos Multigrain Scoops: Corn, Vegetable Oil, Whole Brown Rice Flour, Whole Buckwheat Flour, Sugar, Toasted Corn Germ, Salt, Calcium Hydroxide, Natural Flavour. May Contain Wheat Ingredients.

Full ingredient list for Que Pasa’s Thin & Crispy Sea Salt and Que Pasa’s Blue: Volcanic Stone Ground Corn, Sunflower And/or Safflower* Oil, Sea Salt, Calcium Hydroxide (hydrated Lime). *organic. Vegan

Popcorn. I’ve blogged about popcorn before. I love the simplicity of it. You buy your own kernels. Pop them. Add what you want to add. It’s easy and economical and you have total control over the ingredient list. Of course, you may not want to pop your own. If that’s the case, then a number of different companies have got you covered. I personally love the French Canadian brand CanCan. Even their Double Butter flavour contains no animal products. I have tried their Movie Popcorn and their Sweet & Salty. Both delicious and short on additives. Their ingredient lists include “Flavour” but their website lists that their popcorns are all “free from the main food allergies” and the double butter makes a special point of saying it contains no dairy. Not only that, the website “about” page explicitly states their product line is vegan.

Full ingredient list for Cancan Sweet & Salty: Non-GMO popcorn, cane sugar, sunflower oil and/or canola oil, sea salt.

Full ingredient list of Cancan Movie Popcorn: Non-GMO popcorn, sunflower oil and/or canola oil, sea salt, flavour, beta-carotene.

Things to watch for or wonder about: palm oil, carmine, cochineal extract, natural red 4, “natural flavours.”

Palm oil is, as this article from the National History Museum in the UK says,, “in everything.” Okay, not literally, but it’s in way more than you think. It’s controversial primarily because of its impact on the rainforests, which have been cleared for plantations in order to keep up with global demand. That in turn has an impact on the wildlife that depended on the rainforests. And while it’s true that plantations support some wildlife, many animals have become endangered through loss of habititat. “On Borneo, these include iconic animals such as Bornean orangutans, Sumatran rhinos and Bornean elephants. They’re all now classed as Endangered or Critically Endangered, with habitat destruction for palm oil thought to have played a key role.”

That makes it something people have started to take note of, and many vegans recognize that it ought to be avoided. While strictly vegan, the palm oil industry has had a major impact on the environment and on animals. There is now a Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. Products certified by the RSPO will be labelled with the logo, which indicates that the producers have “signed up to pledges like zero deforestation in producing their palm oil, as well as many other social and environmental commitments.”

The article further recommends an app, Palm Oil Scan, that its developer says will allow shoppers to scan product bar codes to find out how they score on sustainable palm oil scale: “Use the app to check your favourite product’s barcodes to see how major manufacturers are sourcing their palm oil ingredients. It also gives you the opportunity to alert companies that you’re checking out their scores and may be changing your buying habits as a result!Thousands of products, including chocolates, sausage rolls and crisps have been scanned and scored, with companies worldwide ranked as excellent, good, poor or having made no commitment to sourcing palm oil sustainably.”

Carmine, cochineal extract, and natural red 4 involve crushed bugs. Bugs aren’t vegan, and lots of people want not to eat bugs for other reasons. So that’s something to keep an eye on when reading labels.

A lot of labels, and not just of fun food, say “natural flavour(s).” Those may or may not be plant-based. It’s impossible to tell for sure without drilling down to do some research. The Vegan Foundry has a nice article on natural flavours, and says in response to “Should vegans avoid natural flavours?” that: “There are literally hundreds of natural flavors in foods. And while you may be able to find a given number of animal derivatives in animal flavors, the majority of natural flavors are extracted from plant-based sources. If you’re in a bind, you can always make an educated guess.”

Have I taken the fun out of Fun Foods? I hope not. And I haven’t addressed all the questions people might have. For example, Shelley wanted me to talk about canola oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil. But I have nothing to say about those at the moment. That could be a post for another day.

Meanwhile, I hope my foray into Fun Foods has helped you keep them in perspective. They’re fun, not particularly nutritious, and not always great choices from an environmental perspective. But everything listed here is vegan. So that’s something.

Bon Appétit!