Here are some of the best replacements that I’ve found (so far!) for items that are either expensive or hard-to-impossible to find in some rural or more industrial areas.
Many Whole Food Plant-Based ingredients are uncommon, expensive, contain allergens, and even ultra-processed ingredients and additives! I’ve tried many substitutions over the years so here are the alternatives that work best for me.
Published on:
Last Updated:
Table of Contents
All Substitutions At A Glance
I know that some vegan food is expensive, hard to find, and are not always the healthiest option. That’s the reason I started writing Plant Based Pleasures on Substack to begin with! I wanted to create science-based recipes that heal, not harm, but that also are still tasty comfort foods 😋
This table is a quick overview but below the table you’ll find more details and links and full recipes or videos for how to make many of these much more affordable and common replacements.
| Name | More $ or Uncommon | Cheaper & More Common Alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| 🍳 Scramble | JUST Egg, Moong Dal (Mung Beans), | Split (Yellow) Pea Scramble, Yellow Lentil Scramble |
| 🥚 Eggs & Baked Goods | Chia Seeds, Flax Seeds, Aquafaba, Silken Tofu, Avocado | Apple Sauce, Bananas, (White/Light or Dark/Black) Beans, Tangzhong method, Zucchini, Carrot, Potatoes, Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, Carbonated water, Baking soda & vinegar |
| ⬜ Tofu | Storebought | Burmese Home Made Tofu from: Lentils, (Split) peas, Oats, Grains, Rice, Cornmeal, Legumes, Lots more… |
| 🧈 Butter | Storebought | Equal parts Cornmeal & Nutritional Yeast, Cauliflower Butter, Corn Butter |
| 🍬 WFPB Sweeteners | Dates, (Maple Syrup), (Agave) | Raisins, Apricots, Prunes, Bananas, Apple Sauce, Fruit Puree, Banana Chips |
| 🥣 Hummus | Chickpeas | Cannellini Beans, Navy Beans, Lentils, Split peas |
| 🥣 Cashew/Cheezy Sauces | Expensive Cashews | Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Split Yellow Peas |
| 🥛Plant Milk | Store-bought plant milks | Homemade plant milks |
| 🫙 Nutritional Yeast | Nutritional Yeast | Garlic Tomato & Onion Powder, Cooked & Powdered Mushrooms, Corn meal |
| 🍔 Ground Vegan Meat | Vegan Ground Round | Lentils, Beans |
Help me fight disease by receiving new free
mouthwatering healthy-unhealthy recipes every week!
Please share this now so we can eradicate
chronic disease from the world, with tasty meals!
follow me on
🍳 Scramble Alternatives
Things like JUST Egg are amazing (not exactly WFPB) but expensive and only available at certain locations. Lots of people have started using split yellow Moong Dal (mung beans). Lots of larger chain grocery stores like Krogers, Safeway, Walmart, carry them as well as online stores like Amazon.
Split Pea Scramble
Yellow split peas can usually be found near the rice or dried beans. They can also be found in a can, but this is less likely. To make a scramble you just blend them up and cook them, usually with some kind of leavening agent (baking powder and vinegar or carbonated water etc) to make them light and fluffy.
Here is a recipe for a simple Sausage & Scramble.
🥚 Eggs & Baking Alternatives
Flax seeds and chia are great vegan egg replacements. But finding them is a different story as not all stores carry them and if they do they are often sold out—tip: grind them first to increase the gelification and bioavailability.
Apple sauce, bananas, sweet potato, fruit puree (I like raisins), and even pumpkin can help add moisture and air bubbles in your sweet baked goods. Whereas zucchini, beans, and carrots can work well in sweet or savory dishes.
For a bit of that eggy sulfur taste (without using black salt) then baking soda (not exactly wfpb and not recommended for avoiding added sodium) and vinegar create a similar taste as well as lift to raise your baked goods. Carbonated water is a great way to add lightness and lift, especially when mixed with citric acid or vinegar.
The Tangzhong method is an amazingly simple trick (ancient hack) used in China for centuries to make breads and buns lighter and fluffier without eggs, and also so they wouldn’t go stale as quickly. The technique is to simply pour equal-weight boiling water over flour and then to mix it in with the dough.
⬜ Tofu Alternative
Tofu is amazingly versatile and a common staple of plant-based and vegan cooking. Although it’s popping in more and more grocery stores it’s still not everywhere, and some places charge an arm and a leg for the stuff! Plus soy is one of the top food allergies in the world.
Whatever your reason, a cheap Burmese tofu can be made at home, usually in under and hour using whole ingredients, no waste, and simple equipment.
Lentil Feta without Soy – Burmese Tofu
This video shows the process of creating a lentil (soy-free) tofu in minutes using a simple spice grinder. I then add some herbs and vinegar to imitate a feta cheese from scratch in about 25-35 minutes with only water and lentils.
WFPB Lentil Feta Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Pot
- 1 Spice Grinder or blender
- 1 container to use as a mould
Ingredients
Lentil (Soy-Free) Tofu
- ½ cup lentils I suggest green or yellow
- 1 cup water add more as needed or if it's too grainy
Feta Ingredients
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- ¼ tsp garlic granulated
Feta Marinade
- ¼ tsp dry oregano
- ¼ tsp dry basil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Grind and sift your dry lentils (or blend them well with all the water in a blender). Sifting will make the texture more smooth and silky but isn't required.
- Cook the mixture on medium-high heat, stiring constantly to avoid any splatters or sticking. After about 10-15 minutes or when the mixture has started to thicken and become gloopy, add your vinegars and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Add the mixture to your mold/container and set it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes to set. It should be springy and a bit firm like a storebought feta cheese or a medium-firm tofu.
- Dice your feta into cubes and add to your marinade.Great on salads, crumbled in pasta, or even eaten plain.
Video
🧈 Butter Alternatives
When cooking whole food plant based and without added salt, oil, or sugars we also avoid butters/fats/lards.
Cauliflower Butter
But the flavor and mouth feel of butter is still desired for comfort foods like pierogies covered in butter and onions where a liquid (cauliflower) butter coats the food.
Another way to eat butter is as a spread, usually on cooked grains like toast or bagels. While cauli-butter can work for spreading. I personally like to use either a whole corn kernel butter, which is a bit sweet and savory, or cornmeal butter.
Cornmeal Butter
The cornmeal butter is almost a Burmese tofu also, but you don’t want to cook it as long so that it’s still soft and spreadable.
Cornmeal Butter Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Spice / Coffee Grinder
- 1 Pot
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp cornmeal
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast unfortified is recommended for the right taste
- ¼ tsp sunflower seed butter or other seed butter or 1 tsp whole, ground, seeds
- ¼ cup water or more or less depending on how runny you want it.
- ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar optional to bring out salty flavor
Instructions
- Grind or blend all the ingredients and cook on low for about 4 to 7 minutes or until it is the right consistency for you. Add more apple cider vinegar and cook if it's not salty enough.You can also omit everything but the cornmeal and nutritional yeast for a great butter powder for popcorn or chips.
Corn Butter
Corn butter is similar to cornmeal butter in preparation and ingredients, but instead, you use whole corn kernels.
Whole Corn Butter Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Pot
Ingredients
- ¼ cup corn sweet corn, fresh, canned, or thawed
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast optional, unfortified is recommended for the right taste
- ¼ tsp sunflower seed butter optionl or other seed butter or 1 tsp whole, ground, seeds
- ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar optional to bring out salty flavor
- ¼ cup water or more or less depending on how runny you want it or your blender.
Instructions
- Blend all the ingredients and cook on low for about 4 to 7 minutes or until it is the right consistency for you. Add apple cider vinegar and cook if it's not salty enough.
🍬 WFPB Sweeteners Alternatives
Dates are great but they are often expensive, hard to find, or unpitted and a lot of work. While maple syrup and agave do have some health benefits, they are liquid sugars without any fiber and not many nutrients compared to whole foods.
I find that simple raisins are a great affordable and commonly available ingredients for making all sorts of sweet dishes from everything to tarts, to cinnamon rolls, and even WFPB drinks. My favorite is Sunbutter Raisin Cookie Drop Cookies though. A simple raisin syrup/paste is a great WFPB SOS-Free sweetener and it’s simple to make. You can also make what I call oat sugar, which is oats and raisins ground together to make a sweet flour for baked goods.
Other sweet sauces like a caramel sauce, berry jam, or even a powdered chocolate can all be used as sweeteners.
The like raisins (or dates) you can also use dried apricots, prunes, or banana chips and grind or blend them for a healthy sweetener packed with fiber and nutrients.
🥣 Chickpea Alternatives
While chickpeas (garbanzo beans) are fairly common, they are not as common or as affordable as white kidney beans (cannellini beans), navy beans, split peas, lentils and many other kinds of beans and legumes.
In most recipes, you simply just swap out the chickpeas for the bean of your choice. Easy. If you don’t have a soy allergy or aversion then I also really like edamame bean hummus.
I added these mostly because I have a chickpea allergy and these are the ones I eat often.
🥣 Cashew Alternatives
Cashews are crazy expensive! Plus the conditions for the people that usually end up picking them are less than idea to say the least. Sunflower seeds are so much cheaper and also have a very neutral flavor. Hulled pumpkin seeds also work but are much more than sunflower seeds and can give your sauces a green hue.
Yellow split peas also work well as a replacement, but you will need a small amount of seed or nuts to add more fat to make the sauce nice and smooth.
Tip: buying jars of seed butters is a great way to leave the blender in the cupboard when making sauces with seeds or nuts.
🥛Plant Milk Alternatives
Storebought milks are expensive, filled with gums, oils, dangerous additives, and emulsifiers, and are often produced in factories that process unwanted foods or that have a high potential for contamination or foodborne illness.
Plant based milks are highly processed ingredients with very little fiber so they should be used sparingly and eaten with fiber-rich foods.
If you want plant milk to drink without any grit that’s similar to store bought plant-based milks, including recipes for soy milk, then check out this article by Plant Based Times on Substack, and subscribe and follow them if you don’t already!
Here are some of my older, quick and dirty, WFPB recipes for plant-based milks. But be warned they will have some grit (unless you’re using a high-powered blender), are more likely to separate, and are best for cooking or mixing, not drinking plain.
🫙 Nutritional Yeast Alternatives
Nutritional yeast is a whole food vegan staple, and a must for anything cheesy. If you can’t get hold of it there are a couple of different alternatives.
A simple replacement is a mix of tomato powder, granulated garlic, and onion powder (mixed at a 4:1:1 ratio) If you can get tomato powder then cornmeal is another option at the same ratio. Another option is to cook/caramelize and then dry out simple button mushrooms.
🍔 Ground Vegan Meat Alternatives
Vegan ground meats are great, but expensive and often filled with additives and highly processed ingredients.
Lentils or beans can make an amazing substitute that can even fool meat eaters when done correctly.
I suggest starting with a Lentil Bolognese or a black bean burger (recipe coming soon)
This document is a living document so checkback soon for changes and updates, or connect with me and let me know you want new and updated content here.
If I’ve made any mistakes, or something doesn’t make sense, or if you want more/less details, please let me know in the comments.
Stay healthy and nourished! Happy cooking!
Chef Robert Leigh.
A Guide to Cheap Alternatives for Whole Food Plant Based Vegan Ingredients
