Jude

Tahina is good stuff. It comes in concentrated form, which you add water to to make it a thinner consistency, and it makes a great dip for bread and vegetables. It was one of the staples of my 2 month backpacking trip across Israel. You may not be able to find it in small town grocery stores, but if you can, it rules.

TransitGeek

Most people don't realize that vegans get plenty of protein. In fact most people get too much protein and it's usually the bad kind (animal sources). Beans are so full of protein that you could live on rice and beans for months -- and the price helps!

SFGary

This is just my ignorance but outside of CA, do you get Tofu, Soja protein, soymilk etc in other States? like in smaller towns along the ACA routes?

Lake_Tom

Is the protein bad or is it the cholesterol, antibiotics, and growth hormones that you fear?

TransitGeek

Yeah, you're right.

Clem von Jones

To cook beans while camping you'd need something like a tiny pressure cooker. I wonder if there are any on the market. It would be a good way to cook beans and rice instead of relying on those awful dehydrated rice-a-roni packets that are full of MSG and other scary stuff.

In addition to instant hummus you can buy chickpea flour from Indian grocers and add it to rice and vegetables to make a meal-in-one-pot. I'm wondering if it's possible to make your own bean-flours using something like a coffee grinder. I'm going to experiment with this at home and try to perfect the high-protein meals-in-one-pot concept.

Grace Johnson

You might try checking out Sonya and Ali’s website www.tour.tk. They are both vegetarians and have been cycling around the world since 2006. Their country information pages contain advice on finding vegetarian food and Sonya is even planning on putting together a vegetarian cookbook for bicycle tourists.

amckimmey

I am a vegetarian and my girlfriend is vegan, so a lot of the time I eat vegan. On a 2 day tour we baked some potatos at home then reheated them on the fire at night, along with corn and other things. That only works for short trips.

You can always look for "accidentally vegan" foods, you can find dozens of list and items online; here is one I found. (HERE)

I eat lots of peanut butter based items, and pasta. I make my own treats for rides, And you can find "vegan" jerky more, if you want to be "one of the boys".

Advice from my girlfriend:
You could also use the boxed 5 minutes rice, and just boil water for it, as well as using canned beans.
Vegan food is pretty easy to get a hold of, even Wal-marts carry non-dairy milks (as well as Krogers, and some gas stations).
Cans of soup are easy to reheat over a fire.
Making granola bars is a good plan. Carrying nuts and dried fruits is as well.
Primal Strips make delicious vegan jerky.
There are so many options out there for vegan/vegetarian cyclists on their travels!

ScottNotBombs

The previous posts are great.
When I'm touring, I love Aldi fruit pies. They're 50 cents, 400 calories and come in boxes, so they are less likely to get crushed in a pannier and Aldis are relatively easy to find. Aldi has a suprising amount of vegan food if you look.
Hormel vegetarian chili is easy to find and is vegan. It costs about $1.25 a can. I usually opt for this instead of beans if its available since it's already seasoned.
The 5 minute boxed rice is good, but if you don't feel like cooking at all, you can buy the microwave pouches of rice and just mix them with some beans or chili and eat them cold.
I bring a small bottle or packages of soy sauce or braggs liquid aminos instead of salt. I also bring Nori (flat sheets of seaweed) since it weighs less than a sheet of paper and roll rice up into it and dip it in soy sauce. No cooking required unless you buy uncooked rice.
Oatmeal is good. Just soak it over night and eat.
Like other people have said, trail mix is great.
Of course there's also PB&J, but I prefer Hormel on bread if I can get it.

If you're riding through any bigger cities, find out where the best vegan restaurants are and stop at them. It's worth the while, especially if your new to veganism, to discover new vegan foods and replacements.

xChrisZx

Protein powder packets!
Companies like Vega, Sun Warrior and other make individual packets that taste good just mixed up with water.

AdamDZ

Meat is a lousy source of calories anyway. That's why a Lion needs to eat a whole freakin antelope and then spend all day laying around conserving energy for another hunt, LOL Anyways... You're constantly hungry because you burn 2x-4x the number of calories in a day. When riding, meat is the last thing I crave and, actually, meat would make me sick during physical exercise, some turkey maybe at most. Oatmeal is the bomb, except I don't like it that much and I don't like cooking it. I am not a vegetarian normally and enjoy some meat for lunch, but on long rides or hikes I don't eat any meat.

clasher

Red split lentils cook quickly and can be used in some bean recipes... I make quick burritos out of lentils.