I’ve been trying to become a vegan for the past 5 months. It hasn’t been the easiest or the toughest journey – to be honest! I have been a vegetarian for half my life now but I also love a lot of dairy products like cheese, chocolate, yogurt and cold coffee (with regular milk!). My goal over the past few months wasn’t to go a 100% vegan. My target has been to live 5 days/week as a vegan and cheat a little on the weekends. When I started off – I choose to cut out my must have dairy products instead of finding alternates to it mainly because I haven’t been a fan of the vegan alternates I ad tried and also because these alternates are very heavy on the pocket. But this didn’t work for me since I cannot live without a piece of dark chocolate or cheese in my pasta. I finally decided to give some products a try over the past 5 months. and here are the ones that I loved and helped me adapt to being a vegan without hurting my pocket too much-
Cheese Alternate
Urban Platter Cheddar Cheese Powder – This is all the cheesiness I need in my pastas! I do love myself a nice goey cheesy sauce which this doesn’t give (obviously) but this powder works to give me that cheesy flavour that I crave. It is pocket friendly too.
Buy it HERE.
Vegan chocolate
I tried A LOT of vegan chocolate brands available in India but only these two won me over – DARKINGS and Didier & Frank. They aren’t the cheapest chocolates available but they are okay for a piece of chocolate treat every day. My preference is for dark chocolates so my recommendations only include them. Try the coffee chocolates from both the brands – if you love coffee!
Buy the Darkins HERE.
Buy the Didier & Frank chocolate HERE.
VEGAN milk
This has been the trickiest alternate for me. I just don’t like how soy, almond milk taste. Soy doesn’t feel like real milk and almond has this bitter aftertaste that I just don’t like. Then I discovered Goodmylk Cashew & Oat Milk. Again I don’t LOVE the taste of it as much as I like dairy milk – but it is as close to the real deal as possible. It has the thick consistency and a very slight after taste but if you choose their chocolate variant – it tastes as good as the real deal. (Please note their chocolate variant has added sugar!) The milk is cheaper in comparison to almond milk, expensive in comparison to soy milk and WAY more pricier in comparison to regular dairy milk.
Buy it HERE.
VEGAN YOGURT
Yogurts are such an amazing replacement for dessert and these flavoured coconut milk yogurts from Epigamia are amazing. Fair warning: if you don’t like coconut flavour – you may not like these. I personally enjoyed these quite a bit! They are more expensive than regular yogurt but decently priced for a once-twice in a week treat.
Buy it HERE.
Bonus – vegan cosmetics
Disguise Cosmetics is a local, woman led, Indian brand started by my sister’s friend. Their products are vegan and cruelty free. So if you believe in buying vegan cosmetics – definitely check out this brand. I’ve ordered this liquid lipstick in the shade Nostalgic Rose. They are easy on the pocket and priced as much as products from popular drugstore brands like Maybelline, Loreal, NYX etc.
Buy it HERE.
Have you considered going vegan? Why am I going vegan? I am trying to be more sustainable in my ways. What are some alternates or tips or tricks you have for people going vegan?
I have recently launched a sustainable brand – check out the details HERE. Please support me!
Check out my other posts on sustainability –
My Experience With Sustainable Shampoo & Conditioner
Sustainable Lifestyle| Changes I Made to My Lifestyle in 2020
Sustainable Living | 3 Easy Ways To Start
10 ways to be “SUSTAINABLE” on the cheap!
Moving To Alternate Menstrual Products
Checkout my sustainable brand Moksha. (Available in India)
Happy Panda 
wow, cheese powder😀😀😀 vegan or no vegan i want this 😂😂
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hahah! It is amazing! Definitely try it 😀
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This is such an important topic. I’m not vegan but I have tried to lower my consumption of animal products but find that many replacements are not that tasty and it takes a while to find those that actually work for you.
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That’s very true! A lot of vegan products are not tasty or are too expensive! I’ve been experimenting with a lot of products and it hasn’t been the easiest.
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When I first went vegetarian 16 years ago, there were not many options for vegetarian alternatives. You could get veggie dogs and burgers, but not much else. I’m happy to see so many choices now for veggie and vegan options.
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I am sure it must have been hard! Being vegetarian in India isn’t the most difficult but vegan products are hard to come by. I see new companies experimenting and launching products now! But I’m glad I found a few things that work for me on a daily basis. 🙂
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I’m vegetarian too and I tried being vegan for like three months which went pretty well but yes it is heavy on the pockets and also some alternatives need some fixing up like most vegan cheese is nasty and sticks to your teeth! But I have so much hope cause just in the past couple years, vegan food have improved soooo much!
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I agree! I really wish there was some pocket friendly-tasty vegan milk available in India. That has been my biggest challenge these past few months! But there has been a HUGE improvement in the past year or so. Vegan cheese powder – who would have thought? 😀
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Yeah even here, nut or plant based milk is always more expensive than normal milk. And I want to try cheese powder 😂
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Good for you, I commend you for your major efforts 👍i tried going vegan once for a week as a experiment and it was surprisingly very tough bc while I am a pasture type of ester (love all my greens lol), I missed cheese and all my other dairies way too much! I do plan to sub some items out eventually for health benefits more than anything else! Thanks for the inspo 😁
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I’ve heard so many benefits of quitting dairy that I really want to do atleast 30 days without dairy but I haven’t been able to. On weekends I just give in and order in from my favourite restaurants without bothering whether the food is vegan or not! But these alternates are definitely making it a lil easier and I’m hoping that I can be 100% vegan in May. 🙂
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Good. Keep going on.👍
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Thank you so much 🙂
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Good alternatives really make the switch sustainable. Well done on giving it a go. Wonder why plant-based products are often really expensive.
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SAME! Like I just want affordable vegan milk but it’s crazy how expensive it is in India. Dairy milk costs X, the cheapest vegan milk (same quantity) costs 4X.
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Being vegan is one of my dreams! Wish me luck!
All the best in vegan-ism to you too <333
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For me, once I learned how milk and dairy is produced, I was a-okay with not having it. Also, lactose intolerant so I can’t have large doses of the stuff anyway without stinky consequences. Sorry! Hahahhaa. But the alternatives are only getting better, and soon there will be no excuses. Until then, enjoy the journey!
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I think as of now the only replacement that I haven’t found and is dampening my effort is just finding a pocket friendly milk alternate. The other replacements are sorted! 😀 But I’m proud that I am doing my best.
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Good. You should be proud, we do the best we can every day and you’re making the effort – which counts!
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https://kyrasinha.com/2020/11/23/real-leather-or-faux-leather-the-sustainable-dilemma/
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Hi Kyra! Thanks for sharing your blog link – I will check it out.
If I could give you a suggestion – I think people will read your posts and connect more if you read their posts and leave comments related to the posts. It automatically generates the bloggers interest in checking out your blog too. Just leaving your blog link doesn’t generate that kind of interest. Just a friendly blogging tip. Good luck! 😊
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Hello! Very nice information. I have reblogged it to my blog. Thank you!
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