Coimbatore: Gone are the days when vegans in the city struggled to maintain a diet without animal-derived ingredients.
Manav Mehta, co-founder of Humane Animal Society, who began adopting vegan lifestyle three years ago, says options in Coimbatore were negligible. “We were confined to replacing ghee with oil and googling ways to replace curd, also an essential in our diet.”
While the vegan community here is growing, options available to them have also spiked in the last 18 months. “While our Facebook group has 120 people, we have started Vegan Transition Group on WhatsApp to help the growing number of people, who are curious and wanting to adopt this lifestyle,” says Mehta.
Thanks to such initiatives, new adopters of the lifestyle do not have to struggle much. For Selvi, a retired doctor, adopting the vegan lifestyle for six months was ‘simple’. “When I turned vegan, giving up cow’s milk which I used in my filter coffee and also curd, was difficult. Nothing worked for coffee, including almond milk and cashew milk. But once I began using Goodmylk and curd, which are peanut-based, I was alright. I now make vegan curd at home.”
Earth Story, the city’s first plant-based convenience store, offers vegan ghee, cheese, five varieties of plant-based milk, curd, mayonnaise, ice creams, marshmallows and varieties of tofu like smoked tofu, plain tofu, tofu patties and Himalayan tofu. “They vary in texture and thus can either have a cheesy or meaty texture depending on the dish being prepared,” says one of the founders, Indu B.
For those with the sweet tooth, there are a few vegan home bakers in the city. Rozat Abbas Calcuttawala, under her brand Nourish, has introduced eight varieties of vegan cakes. “I make strawberry dark chocolate cake, chocolate cake muggings and pineapple upside down cake by replacing maida with almond, oats or millet flour, eggs with flax seeds, oil and butter with cashew and almond and white sugar with jaggery or dates powder,” she says.
Sai Sathvigaa, another city-based vegan baker, launched her desserts-- peanut butter cocoa cupcakes, Oreo brownies, vegan blondies and banana walnut cake last October.
There are several ice cream stores and brands with vegan options including Gelato Factory, Whitecub, Papacream and Cocolicious.
Many Coimbatorians adopt vegan diet for reasons besides taking a stand against animal cruelty, says Indu. “We get a lot of customers who adopted the vegan diet because they have allergies, lactose intolerance or can’t digest animal protein after an age or health issue.”