We have recently received a number of emails from prospective food truck owners that are interested in starting up a food truck that caters to both vegetarians and vegans with their dessert menus. The problem many of these individuals have is they not familiar with the vegan lifestyle, and want to know what would be considered proper vegan desserts.
Vegan foods cannot contain any type of animal product. Poultry, fish, and meat are the most obvious items that must be eliminated from this type of diet. Eggs, honey, and dairy products cannot be eaten by vegans either, and create a bigger problem when finding acceptable vegan desserts.
Providing Vegan Desserts From Your Food Truck
For any baked good to be considered vegan, it cannot be made with eggs, milk, cream, or butter. Acceptable egg substitutes are soft tofu, applesauce, mashed banana, or cornstarch. Milk can be replaced with soy milk, nut milk, rice milk, or even water. For buttermilk, a mixture of soy milk and vinegar can be used as a substitution. Vegan margarine is available in some supermarkets and health food stores.
Placing several substitutions in a regular recipe can be tricky. Using vegan recipes for baked goods is the best option for making satisfying vegan desserts. Vegan recipes can be found for cookies, cakes, pies, and brownies.
Fruit crisps and cobblers are among the easiest vegan desserts to add to your menu. For a quick and easy crisp, simply pour oatmeal prepared with soy milk or water over fruit. Blueberries, sliced apples and peaches are great options. Fruit salads combined with vegan marshmallows and nuts are a simple dessert choice as well.
Nuts
Nut products, such as peanut butter are important to a vegan diet because of their protein content. Some vegans have trouble getting protein from other food truck menu options. Desserts containing nuts such as chocolate peanut butter pie, or macaroons made with coconut and dates can be used. Cookies are particularly easy to work nuts into, from peanut butter cookies to chocolate chip cookies loaded with extras such as pecans and almonds.
Dairy substitutes
By working creatively with dairy substitutes, nearly any traditional dessert can be converted into vegan desserts. If you purchase packaged mixes, double check the label to make sure that the contents adhere to vegan standards. Many products that aren’t labeled as vegan, still meet the appropriate requirements and can be used as delicious vegan desserts to be sold from your food truck.
The Bottom Line
The days of food truck’s reluctantly including a vegan item on their menu, seemingly, are gone. And the idea of meat-free dishes is becoming more appetizing to even the most voracious of meat-eaters. This trend is expected to continue to grow in the years to come.
Please do your part today and join the Meatless Monday movement? Signing up is fast and easy! Follow them on Twitter.
Mobile Cuisine looks forward to our continued coverage of Meatless Monday for our readers!
