The best vegan dishes aren't the meat dish with the meat taken out. They're built to be vegan from the start, with protein, plenty of flavour and something that makes them feel like a proper meal. The good news is that most of them need nothing unusual.
Here are ideas that work well in cafés and pubs. Pick two or three that suit your kitchen, rather than trying to do everything. If you're not sure where your menu stands today, start with the free 10-point vegan-friendly menu check.
Check every ingredient. These ideas are vegan when they're made with vegan ingredients. Always check stocks, sauces, bread, pastry, curry pastes and anything bought in, as butter, milk, egg, honey and fish sauce turn up in surprising places.
Start with what you already stock
Most kitchens already have the basics of good vegan food: tinned chickpeas, beans and lentils, coconut milk, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, rice, dried pasta and good olive oil. Add a vegetable stock, a dairy-free spread, a vegan mayo and one or two plant milks, and you can make most of the dishes below.
Dried pasta is usually egg-free, but fresh pasta often contains egg, so check the packet.
Café ideas
Breakfast and brunch
- A vegan full English: plant-based sausages, beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, hash browns and toast with dairy-free spread
- Tofu scramble with spinach and spring onion on toasted sourdough
- Smashed avocado on toast with chilli, lime and toasted seeds
- Porridge or overnight oats made with oat milk, topped with fruit, seeds and maple syrup
- Peanut butter and banana on toast
Lunch
- Soups made with vegetable stock, such as red lentil, tomato and red pepper, or spiced carrot
- Falafel or roasted vegetable wraps with hummus and pickled red onion
- Jacket potatoes with three-bean chilli or baked beans
- Grain bowls with roasted vegetables, chickpeas and a tahini dressing
- Sandwiches such as hummus and roasted pepper, or a coronation chickpea filling made with vegan mayo
Cakes and bakes
- Vegan brownies, banana bread and flapjacks made with golden syrup instead of honey and dairy-free spread instead of butter
- If you buy bakes in, ask your supplier for a vegan range, and keep vegan bakes on their own plate with their own tongs
Drinks
Keep at least two plant milks, such as oat and soya, and don't charge extra for them. Check hot chocolate powders and flavoured syrups too, as some contain milk.
Pub ideas
Mains
- Three-bean or lentil chilli with rice, tortilla chips and guacamole
- Mushroom and ale pie with vegan pastry. Some ready-made puff pastry is made with vegetable fat rather than butter, so check the label
- Chickpea, spinach and potato curry with rice
- Thai green curry with tofu and vegetables. Check the curry paste, as many contain shrimp paste or fish sauce
- A plant-based burger in a vegan bun with vegan cheese and burger sauce
- Battered tofu or banana blossom and chips (see the fryer note below)
The Sunday roast
A good vegan roast brings in whole families. Try a nut roast or a lentil and mushroom wellington, with roast potatoes cooked in vegetable oil rather than goose fat or dripping, vegetables without butter and a gravy made from vegetable stock. Some gravy granules are vegan and others contain milk, so check. Yorkshire puddings can be made vegan too, with plant milk and an egg-free batter.
Sides and bar snacks
- Chips, if your fryer allows (see below)
- Onion rings, but check the batter, as it can contain milk or egg
- Olives, and bread with olive oil and balsamic
- Roasted nuts and crisps, but check the flavours, as honey-roast nuts aren't vegan and some crisp flavours contain milk
Desserts
- Fruit crumble with oat cream or vegan custard
- Vegan sticky toffee pudding
- Chocolate brownie with vegan ice cream
- Sorbet, which is often vegan, though some contain egg white or honey
Drinks
Some wines and beers are filtered using animal products such as isinglass, gelatine or egg white. Ask your suppliers which of yours are vegan, and mark them on your drinks list.
About your fryer. If your chips share oil with fish or meat, many vegans won't order them. Use a separate fryer if you can, or say clearly on the menu that it's shared. Our guide to avoiding cross-contamination has more on this.
Make your vegan dishes sell
- Name each dish by what's in it, not what's missing: "smoky three-bean chilli" rather than "vegan option"
- Give it the same care as the rest of the menu: a proper garnish, a good sauce and something crunchy
- Price it in line with the rest of the menu
- Label it clearly with a VE symbol. Our guide on labelling vegan options shows how
- Ask your vegan customers to try new dishes, and listen to what they say
Frequently asked questions
Here are the questions café and pub owners ask me most about vegan dishes.
Are vegan dishes expensive to make?
Often the opposite. Beans, lentils, chickpeas, vegetables and grains are some of the cheapest ingredients in your kitchen. Plant-based meat alternatives cost more, so use them for one or two dishes rather than everything.
Which plant milk should we offer?
Oat is the one I see asked for most, and soya is a good second option for coffee. Offering both, at no extra charge, covers most customers.
Can we just take the meat out of an existing dish?
Sometimes, but it rarely makes a satisfying meal. A dish needs protein and flavour to replace what you've removed, so building it to be vegan from the start works much better.
How many vegan dishes should we have?
A vegan starter, at least two vegan mains and a vegan dessert is a good target. That gives vegans a real choice and a reason to come back.
Want it all in one place?
The Vegan-Friendly Business Toolkit takes you step by step through understanding vegan customers, building your menu, training your team and getting found, with a full 40-point audit and printable staff pages.