The Easy-To-Make Mistake You Need To Avoid When Turning Vegetarian Recipes Vegan

Gone are the days of sad side dishes and bland tofu concoctions — these days, foodies who have eliminated meat from their diets have a bevy of delicious alternative proteins and flavorful plant-based recipes to choose from. However, though they both avoid meat, there can be a world of difference between a vegan and a vegetarian diet. While vegetarians may still consume animal byproducts like milk, cheese, and eggs, vegans steer clear of these foods entirely, which means that even the most well-intentioned vegetarian dish might not be suitable for the vegan guests at your dinner party.

If you're just starting to get the hang of vegetarian cooking, you might be intimidated by veganism. However, by avoiding a simple mistake, you'll be cooking like a plant-based pro in no time. It might seem easy to turn a vegetarian recipe vegan, but the alterations do require some finesse. To help break down the secrets to great vegan cuisine, Chowhound turned to chef Priyanka Naik, a cookbook author, Food Network champion, and TV host, who takes an eco-friendly, plant-based approach to South Asian cuisine.

According to Naik, the number one mistake to avoid when converting a vegetarian recipe to a vegan one is "just [substituting] dairy or egg elements with equivalent amounts or direct match products." Instead of making one-to-one substitutions, she recommends that home cooks instead consider the specific textures and flavors they are trying to achieve, and adjust their ingredients accordingly.

If you're standing in the kitchen looking at a recipe that calls for a cup of cheese or a couple of eggs, it's easy to assume that to make the recipe vegan, you should simply replace the non-vegan ingredients with equal amounts of their vegan alternatives. However, this is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ingredient substitution and food science operates. For instance, chef Priyanka Naik says, "Sometimes vegan cheeses tend to be saltier than dairy cheese, so how much we use will affect the dish." Vegan cheeses can be notoriously tricky to cook with for those of us used to dairy, so don't make the mistake of treating them exactly the same in your recipes.

In fact, in some cases, you may not need to use a direct replacement for certain ingredients. "Many-a-times, it's the texture that we need to emulate, not the exact ingredient," says Naik. "So, using crushed, salted roasted almonds can make for a great substitute for [Parmesan], for instance." Another great option to achieve the same umami flavor is nutritional yeast. Or, if your baked dish calls for an egg wash but you don't have a vegan egg substitute on hand, there are a number of vegan egg wash alternatives you could try instead, like plant-based milks or even maple syrup. With an open mind, a creative approach, and an understanding of food chemistry, there's a wide world of vegetarian dishes turned vegan available for you to experiment with.