Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes collected from alt.food.vegan - and beyond!

Vegan Question: How to Avoid Soy in a Vegan Diet?

Posted On: 2008/05/22 - 15:33

Karen Asks:

Thank you for having such an informative and wonderful website. I am a recent yet struggling vegetarian to vegan. I also have Hashimoto's disease which is an autoimmune disease of my thyroid, hypothalamus and pituitary gland. According to my doctor I must limit or exclude all soy based products from my diet. So do you have any suggestions for soy free/tofu free cheeses or ricotta's?

Veganfood Answers:

It's amazing how many more options there are in the store for Vegans compared to just a few years ago. Before I delve into some of the products that you can buy, remember that it's always vegan to eat raw! Fruits, vegetables, and nuts make great meals and snacks - especially for someone looking to cut something like soy products out of their diet. OK - Onto some vegan replacement products (feel free to bookmark this post to refer back)

Soy Free Milk

Just like with soy-milk, you'll most likely need to try many different brands in order to find something that you really like. Another thing to note is that if you are considering using any of the drinks for more than just taste or cooking, make sure that you look at the nutritional values.

Taste the Dream Rice Milk

Blue Diamond Almond Milk

Homemade Almond Milk

Living Harvest Hemp Milk

Soy Free Ice Cream

While there are tons of vegan ice creams available now, there aren't as many non-soy ice creams out there yet - But more and more companies are starting to add Soy Free products.

Taste the Dream Rice Ice Cream

Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss

Turtle Mountain Purely Decadent made with Coconut Milk

Good Karma Organic Rice Cream

Soy Free Cheese

I had a lot of trouble finding some soy-free cheese products for you (hopefully some of our readers can make some suggestions as well!) - so I've tried to include some homemade links as well.

Galaxy Foods Rice Cheese

Lemon-Pignoli Ricotta

Vegan Almond Ricotta

Soy Free Faux Meat Replacements

Here are some ideas and links for soy-free meat replacements. Also look into trying some fun Marinated, Sauted, or Fried Mushrooms - I just stayed at the Inn at Biltmore and they made me some really really good sauted Portabella Mushroom-steaks.

Seitan (Wheat Meat) (Scroll down to the sub-category listing)

Polenta

Garden Burger

Soy free vegan burgers

Soy free vegan Sausage - These are a lot of fun!

Additional Information

Many processed foods have soy in them in some manner, so it's important to look at the labels. Here are some tips for checking ingredients for soy I hope these tips help you and good luck on your journey to become a soy free vegan! Let us know if you have any more questions! Please send your questions to veganfood@gmail.com - we love to help!

Did I miss anything? Add your comments about your favorite soy free vegan foods below.

--mincus

[post a new comment]

[Reply] - [link] - Thanks for the link - [csuphil] - 2008/05/22 - 11:45

Hi there! Thanks for linking to my blog and recipe for soy free pine nut "cheese." Many of my readers are soy free (As well as gluten free) so I try to post some soy-free and other allergen-free vegetarian recipes sometimes. I was a little surprised when I saw that you had posted my photo as a thumbnail... it's ok this time, but could you ask before using any of my photos next time? Have a good day, and I enjoyed your article.

-Sea
at
http://www.bookofyum.com

[Reply] - [link] - SoyFreeVegan blog! - [soyfreevegan] - 2008/06/04 - 08:22

I have the same problem and my blog contains a lot of helpful info for soy allergic/intolerant vegans.

Hope you find it useful:

soyfreevegan.blogspot.com

peace

[Reply] - [link] - Ice Cream - [foodsparrow] - 2008/07/20 - 14:31

This ice cream is seriously the BEST so far!

"frozen cashew creme made from raw, organic soaked and rinsed cashews (reduced phytates) and free of refined sugar, dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, glutens and GMOs"

http://shop.organicnectars.com

http://foodsparrow.blogspot.com

[Reply] - [link] - Lots of Protein out there! - [spudnik] - 2008/09/17 - 20:06

Because of the potential health risks from too much soy, my girlfriend and I try and limit our soy entree intake to three dinners a week. We love Seitan and find it more versatile than soy (especially for "meat" dishes like enchiladas) and eat that a couple of nights a week as well. Some of our other favorite protein sources are things like rice, beans, pasta and potatoes. To change things up try mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy (mash your potatoes with a vegan friendly margarine and rice milk), beans and rice (like they do in New Orleans, just no meat!), veggie fried rice, a potato & carrot curry with brown rice or some yummy pasta marinara. How about adding a side salad of spinach, almond slivers, olives and avocado slices? All good sources of, often overlooked, protein. Whole grain flour is another good source of protein and nutrition and things like zuchini bread and vegan blueberry muffins are easily made, even for a novice like me!

[Reply] - [link] - yay! - [IJecsMommy] - 2008/09/18 - 09:43

Thank you so much for this information!!! Our family has been wanting to switch slowly to vegan, but our seven year old is allergic to soy. I thought we wouldn't be able to do it, now I know that in time we will!!! thanks so much!!!

[Reply] - [link] - Yes!! - [JenniferWS] - 2008/09/25 - 14:10

Thank you SO much for the public service of posting non-soy options. I don't tolerate soy, and it seems to be everywhere! I love the idea of almond ricotta, will have to try that soon.

[Reply] - [link] - a day in the life of a vegiterian/no soy products - [jenny727] - 2008/10/27 - 06:39

ok, now that everything has soy, dairy, gluten in it, what do I eat.
Can you give me an exapmle of a day or two menu starting from breakfast to dinner? I stopped eating beef, pork, chicken three weeks ago and have been fine doing that. Now I dont want to eat soy because of the conterverses regarding its toxins if not fermented....should I just not eat anymore..desperate...and hungary

[Reply] - [link] - Soy is EVIL and very tricky! - [jenniferC] - 2008/11/13 - 07:55

Watch out, soy is so tricky! I'm soy intolerant and it is hard to find anything without soy/soy lecithin, vegetable starch, vegetable gum etc. Look it up, soy has many aliases. The only milk I can drink is rice milk (not the heart smart version)everything else has soy in one form or another. Also,I noticed rice cheese was listed as a substitute for soy cheese, well, this is sooo depressing, but some rice cheeses are not vegan! They have milk protein in them!

[Reply] - [link] - GO MORE RAW!! - [vegan2raw] - 2008/11/22 - 22:31

We have been switching up vegan and raw and are usually 70-85 percent raw (we love lentils, rice and potatoes still) But it was the easiest way for us to get off soy and corn. All that we felt missing vegan really showed up in green smoothies and a high raw incorporation into our veganism. I totally agree with other posters on this subject that Raw pumpkin seed cheese or pine nut or whatever nut you love is amazing and there are many recipes for cheese replacers so take a sunday make a bunch and freeze and take it out as needed. The more you try it the more fake cheeses squezzed from machines sound groossly unnapealing.

Peace

[Reply] - [link] - Lots of Protein out there! - [agcomm] - 2008/12/02 - 10:02

Impressive information!!! Our family is trying to switch slowly to vegan

<a http://www.agcommoditiesinc.com Syrup Corn Protein Agave Quinoa</a>

[Reply] - [link] - Protein ritch soy free - [iporridge] - 2008/12/03 - 15:33

Thank you for sharing! We're also switching to vegan!

http://amaru.com - Hemp iPorridge a delicious, high protein vegan food and prepared in just 1 minute.

[Reply] - [link] - Daiya Cheese - [Marley0904] - 2010/03/10 - 15:54

Both my husband and I are vegan, and finding a cheese substitute was the hardest thing ever, b/c they all taste like crap in my opinion! But, I did find a cheese made out of casava root, that is free of soy and gluten, and it is delicious! It is the closest thing I have ever come across, and it even melts! It is called Daiya cheese, and you can find it on Veganessentials.com. Good luck!!