Hi Lucy,
Vegan on Female First
I have a really bad reaction to soya and wondered if you could recommend any vegan foods that don't contain it as it rules out quite a lot of stuff!
Hi Gaby,
It is true a lot of vegan substitutes are made from soya so if you are allergic or have a negative reaction to it, it can seem tricky to find some convenience food alternatives. Luckily you have come to the right person because I also suffer with soya.
I have recently discovered Quorn Pieces and Quorn Spicy Burgers both of which are vegan and made from Mycoprotein instead of soya protein. You can rustle up a chicken style curry with the pieces or a stir-fry and the burgers go great in a bun with some Violife cheese (also soya free), a bun and some homemade fries.
Another option is V Bites- they have a few products that are made from wheat, not soya, like their Southern Fried Chicken Burgers and Southern Fried Chicken Pieces if you fancy a vegan version of KFC.
A lot of supermarket own brand frozen veggie foods don't contain soya either- Asda do some delicious veggie sausages and burgers that are made from wheat and they are cheap too. If you don't shop at Asda, I would suggest you pull up the website of your favourite supermarket and check out the ingredients in their veggie options- you might be pleasantly surprised.
Another suggestion is that you make your meals as you would but replace your soya protein source with another plant based source. For instance- spaghetti bolognaise can be made with red lentils, you can leave out the mince in your chillies and replace it with another bean (or multiple beans) along with the kidney beans.
It might be worth investing in a cooking book so you can experiment with all the dishes that usually contain soya and add in different protein rich foods so you're not reducing your daily intake by omitting the soya.