January’s just around the corner and for the seasoned vegans, you know what that means: Veganuary is back!
If you’re not vegan, but you want to still take part in 2025’s Veganuary challenge, read on to find out more about what it is, how it works and what to know if you’re giving Veganuary a go.
What is Veganuary?
Veganuary is a yearly challenge to encourage individuals to eat more vegan foods and less meat and dairy in the first month of the year, January. The first time Veganuary started was the month of January 2014, from then on, the vegan community has made it a yearly tradition to further encourage people to give Veganuary a go.
The original challenge was promoted by a UK-non profit, who happens to also be called “Veganuary”.
How to participate in Veganuary
It’s best to dive in and try out vegan options, explore milk substitutes and some simple vegan recipes to start out. You don’t need to fully go vegan on Veganuary to take part, but it is a better way to immerse yourself and truly understand what the world of vegan options has to offer.
We recommend to first do some research into potential options, maybe get some reviews, but honestly just explore the options, how bad can a vegan alternative to your favourite meal be anyways?
Not only can a well planned vegan diet provide various health benefits, it can also further open up your world of what you think good food is, and add a little more variety.
Be sure to check out my past post on how to make veggies taste good if you’re struggling to think of options to cook.
Where do I start with Veganuary?
First, it depends how you eat on a regular basis. What are your go to’s?
Cooking vegan meals
Do you eat mince and love a Spag Bol? Maybe you can start with a plant-based mince alternative.
Love bangers and mash? Substitute the milk in your mashed potatoes for oat (or any other) milk, as with your butter, and trade the pork sausages for the various plant-based options.
Don’t know how to find milk, cheese or vegan meat substitutes? Check out our past posts:
You can also experiment with Tofu, Tempeh and Seitan, but it would be good to have some recipes ready for that.
Want a more in-depth guide to shopping for a vegan diet? Check out our past post on vegan staples to add to your shopping list.
Understandably, not everyone messes with vegan substitutes, or fake meats, however you slice it. Soy doesn’t have the best reputation and let’s be real, not everyone wants to eat it.
Are you more of a whole food person? Don’t really care for meat substitutes and prefer a good old bean stew or pasta dish? There are various go-to recipes you can work with that incorporate rice and beans (and variations) as the main star of the show.
Here are a few recipes that don’t contain any soy, and are whole foods based:
Seriously, don’t limit yourself, you gotta try some of these recipes first then say whether or not you mess with vegan food.
Veganuary and eating out
Not much of a cook? Not everyone is the best chef to suddenly master the art of cooking plant-based food. You can always order a takeaway.
Filter your delivery apps by “vegan” and see what you find, you should get decent a mix of options from meat substitute dishes or whole foods depending on where you’re located.
Luckily, Veganuary has been around for a decade and various restaurants have adapted, creating options for the rise in demand around this time. I’d recommend trying out a vegan restaurant if you’re really diving in, but you can also opt for the vegan options that are more than likely to crop up during this month.
One of my personal favourites is the Greggs vegan sausage roll, which was rolled out Veganuary 2019, and remained as a staple and plant-based favourite ever since.
Best cuisines to order for vegan options
Not all takeaway spots provide vegan options.
Some cuisines are a little more vegan friendly than others, below I’ve summarised the cuisines that I’d say are the most vegan friendly:
- Ethiopian
- Japanese
- Indian
- Thai
- Chinese
You can also try your luck by exploring the menus of your favourite takeaway spots, you could be pleasantly surprised with a new vegan option and your local Nando’s, for example.
Why do Veganuary?
You might want to do Veganuary to potentially lose weight, get more vegetables in your diet or lower your meat intake overall.
The challenge calls for participants to try out a vegan diet for a month, but for those who can’t fully make the change, try some vegan milks, cheeses, butters, in place of their non vegan counterpart.
If not, give it a go to eat more veggies and fruit for the sake of your own health, despite the common misconception, not all vegans are doing it for the sake of health!
The impact of Veganuary
There’s no real way to truly measure the complete impact of Veganuary.
That said, there are various angles we could go on the impact that Veganuary has to bring to the world. One could argue that the adoption of a plant-based diet could lead to a 50% difference in their carbon footprint according to studies.
Other impacts of the challenge is the rise in adoption of vegan products, in 2019-2022 having risen by up to 113%!
Considering the amount of animals that die per year are in the trillions, if theoretically everyone were to do Veganuary it could spare around 83 billion animals a year.
All of this is purely hypothetical though, but that Meat Free Monday is where it starts!
Last thoughts
If you’re not vegan and you’re thinking of taking part in Veganuary, just know that you’re making a conscious decision to eat less animal products.
And whether its for the sake of health, the animals, your wallet or the environment, just know that you’re making a change that is beneficial for yourself and others, whether or not you choose to fully adopt the vegan diet.
We appreciate you choosing Veganisingit for your vegan lifestyle inspiration, be sure to share this post with a friend if you learnt a thing or two. Stay well and stay blessed!
