A Novice’s Guide to Crafting Vegan Meals | Knorr

Mastering Essential Vegan Ingredients: A Novice's Guide to Culinary Excellence

Vegan Pantry Staples: Elevate Your Cooking with Essential Plant-Based Elements

There’s a delicious beauty to a well-crafted vegan meal. And when it comes to putting them together, there’s one thing above all else that’s absolutely key: a well-stocked pantry filled with essential vegan ingredients.

You can look at them as the building blocks of a successful plant-based kitchen. They provide the foundation for creating diverse, satisfying and wholesome meals, and contribute to a vibrant and sustainable lifestyle.

So let’s take a look at what a well-stocked pantry might look like and the vegan ingredients that can help elevate your cooking game.

Legumes: The Protein Powerhouse

Rich in protein, fibre, and essential nutrients, legumes – your lentils, your chickpeas, your black beans – are a great bunch to have to hand. They’re versatile, perfect for creating hearty stews, burgers, and salads. They come canned or dried too, which is brilliantly handy as you won’t have to worry about them going to waste; keep them in your pantry, they’ll happily wait until called upon for when you’re after a bit of lovely protein.

Whole Grains: The Foundation of Vegan Meals

For vegan ingredients that are nutritious as well as incredibly versatile, turn to the likes of quinoa, brown rice and oats – the whole grains. They make a great base for all sorts of dishes like grain bowls and porridge, and they’re right at home in your veggie stir-fries. With whole grains in your pantry you’ll always have some vegan ingredients that bring a wholesome and filling element to your vegan creations.

Plant-Based Proteins: Tofu and Tempeh

Tofu and tempeh. A pair of vegan ingredients that every pantry should be stocked with. They’re vegan protein powerhouses, and one of the most enjoyable things about them is that they can absorb flavours extremely well, which makes them excellent for marinating and stir-frying. Having this plant-based duo to call on allows you to experiment with different textures and flavours in your cooking, and that’s what keeps things deliciously exciting.

Nutritional Yeast: The Vegan Cheese Alternative

Giving your food a cheesy, umami flavour can be a little tricky without dairy, but that’s where nutritional yeast comes in. Consider it your secret weapon in the vegan kitchen. This is a vegan ingredient that’ll up the savoury level of your meals, whether you’re mixing it into sauces or using it as a topping for pasta.

Plant-Based Oils and Spices: The Flavour Enhancers

Sauces, dressings and marinades are key to taking your vegan dishes from the ordinary to the extraordinary, and for those, you need two things: oils and spices. Olive oil and coconut oil are trusty flavour enhancers – a drizzle here, a glug there, they can work wonders.

When it comes to herbs and spices, individual taste comes into play, so you’ll most likely find a different array from pantry to pantry. But you can give yourself a strong foundation with the following: oregano, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, thyme, rosemary and marjoram.

Nuts and Seeds: Crunch and Nutrition

What’s food without texture? For your plant-based meals, it’s nuts and seeds that’ll give you this all-important element. The likes of almonds, cashews, and walnuts, along with seeds like chia, flax, and sesame. These vegan ingredients won’t just deliver that terrific texture, but they’ll provide healthy fats too. For creamy sauces, adding crunch to salads, or boosting the nutritional content of your breakfast smoothies, nothing gets the job done like nuts and seeds.

A well-stocked pantry, filled with these vegan ingredients, and you'll be well on your way to rustling up delicious and hugely satisfying plant-based meals. But there’s one more thing that’ll really help you up your vegan cooking game… the stock cube.

Elevate Everyday Vegan Meals Using Veggie Stock Pots

Taking your vegan culinary creations to practically gourmet levels doesn’t have to be hard work. In fact, with veggie stock pots to hand, it’s nothing but easy and the results are incredibly delicious.

The Magic of Vegan Stock Pots

You can think of veggie stock pots as concentrated flavour bombs. They’ll instantly turn up the taste of your dishes, adding depth and richness to your soups, stews, and sauces. Melting a stock pot into your cooking is a total game-changer.

Building Flavour Foundations

Giving your meals a savoury base means the overall taste and aroma of the dish will be instantly taken up a few notches. With a veggie stock pot, it’s as easy as melting it right into your cooking. But you can also melt it into some boiling water – do that and you’ll have mighty flavourful broth, which can serve as the foundation for a wide range of dishes, from creamy risottos to hearty veggie soups.

Sautéing with Stock

Here’s a little tip that you’ll never knew how you lived without: when sautéing veggies or tofu, try using a little bit of a veggie stock pot instead of plain oil. This’ll infuse your vegan ingredients with a deeper layer of flavour and also helps prevent sticking to the pan. The result is beautifully caramelized and savoury goodness in every bite.

Marinades and Glazes

Want to take your marinades and glazes to the next level? Simply add a veggie stock pot into the mix. Dissolve a pot in water, add some spices, and let your ingredients soak in the flavourful mixture. Now, your grilled or roasted tofu, tempeh or veggies will have a tantalizing taste that's hard to resist but easy to achieve.

Risotto and Pilaf Perfection

For risottos and pilafs, it’s all about the base you start with, and not many other vegan ingredients will provide the rich and savoury base that a veggie stock pot does. With next to no effort you’ll have restaurant-quality depth of flavour running through your plates, that’ll impress even the most discerning of palates. Paired with fresh herbs, sautéed mushrooms, or roasted veg, you’re serving up heavenly luxury.

Quick and Flavourful Sauces

A veggie stock pot will make your sauces and gravies better. It’s that simple. And there’s not much to it: just melt one into your sauce or gravy and it’s an instant flavour boost. Whether you're making a creamy mushroom sauce or a savoury vegan gravy, the addition of a veggie stock pot will add restaurant-worthy complexity and depth.

Top of Form

These clever pots may be small but they’re big in flavour. They’re versatile, convenient, and a must-have vegan ingredient in the pantry for anyone looking to take their plant-based cooking to the next level. Work them into your cooking repertoire and let them effortlessly transform your everyday meals into gourmet experiences.

Be inspired and check out our vegan recipes.