Being Vegan While Your Family Isn’t

This question comes up A LOT. I’ve heard it many, many times and yet haven’t found a comprehensive answer. Let’s find some answers and hands-on advice.

What if you are vegan, want to go vegan (or even “just” vegetarian), but your partner or family is not on board?

First, let’s start with a bit of statistics. Globally speaking, Vegans (or even vegetarians), are in the minority. No wonder that often holds true in our own homes.

So one scenario would like this: You want to transition into a plant-based diet or you already follow a vegan lifestyle, and you’re flying solo with it. You buy your own ingredients, prep your own meals, and search for new restaurants with vegan options on the menu.

Let’s make peace with yourself: Living with an omnivore is not the end of the world. If your significant other, roommates, or family don’t fancy joining you on your plant-based journey, that’s okay! More about that in a minute.

Cooking your own meals on the one hand might not even cause much concern. Things get a little more complicated if you’re the cook in your relationship. Hubby wants you to chop raw chicken, make a steak or make a buttercream pie for his birthday to bring into the office.

Now, that’s something you need to deal with and here is some bullets of advice:

• Don’t make a fuss about it and don’t cook any meat or other animal products. Maybe your partner won’t even miss it.
• While I understand, the above mentioned point is unlike, you could try more openly:
  • Explain to your partner, why you’re vegan. You’re very personal story is likely to matter to him/her.
  • Watch some eye-opening documentaries focussing on health aspects, cruelty or environmental impact of animal consumption.
• Take him/her shopping. To the farmer’s market, to a specialized vegan store, to get take out from your favorite vegan restaurant. You’d be surprised how little people know about food variety if they’ve put the same products in their shopping carts for years.
• Ask your partner what ingredients he/she fancies for dinner and make a vegan meal with it. E.g. your better half wants sausages in bean stew, make The Best Vegan Green Bean Stew . Likely, he/she will be blown away by it’s taste and not even miss the sausages.
• Start slowly: If your partner decides to cook for him/herself instead of eating your plant-based meal, ask for one vegan meal a week. He/she can pick and you prep it together.
• But be careful with introducing vegan recipes. As a matter of fact, changing to a plant-based diet often causes digestive problems associated with increased fiber intake, such as gas, bloating and constipation. And you don’t want to scare off your partner with any of that.
• Trick him/her with vegan food that looks like meat. But be careful not to get caught ;-). My eggplant meatballs have passed the appearance test for meat many times, but everyone knows it’s not meat after the first bite.
• Make sure the vegan meals fill him/her up. You don’t want hubby complain about still feeling hungry after a meal. While we’re at the filling up part: You could try to serve dessert after dinner to make sure he/she is super satisfied after a meal. A bit of Mint Slice with its cashew base ensures he/she doesn’t leave the table still feeling hungry.
• Travel! Provided you have the time and financial resources, I strongly recommend hopping on a plane and visiting some typical “vegan” or at least vegetarian countries. The following countries are none for their spectacular vegan cuisine:
  • Israel
  • Indonesia
  • India
  • Malaysia

If you have more smart ideas to deal with omnivore family members or partners, tell me about it in the comments.

How to avoid having an omnivore partner altogether: Vegan Dating

If you’re single, I’m almost sure you’ve heard of Tinder. If not, Tinder is a location-based social search mobile app and Web application most often used as a dating service, that allows users to use a swiping motion to like or dislike other users, and allows users to chat if both parties like each other. As vegans usually talk about their lifestyle, many singles will but it on their Tinder profile. And if they don’t, you can chat with your counterpart and gather this piece of information right from the start.

Keeping an eye out for a vegan partner is not the worst of ideas. After all, relationships are based on shared values. While disagreement is healthy, opposite opinions on something essential as food could mean a bumpy ride. Maybe not during the first super romantic first months, but later on.

Luckily, the modern age makes life much easier in many aspects. Greensingles.com or Veggieconnect.com helps you find a matching vegan partner.