HDavidH

He suggested corn tortillas. They are made with masa harina and water. Of course they may be cooked in animal fats so care would need to be taken there.

dpwmid

I'm vegan for 2 years now and did a short 5-day tour on the west coast of Ireland last August. I cooked cous cous with veg and stock on a stove once or twice, bought chips (french fries) from a takeaway, ate at a restaurant that made me a vegetable stir fry with rice and had some Clif bars, fruit and other items for snacks. So I survived pretty well.

In 2018 I'm going on a long cycle tour from Ireland to India though and for this I'm a little bit worried. Countries with unknown products and languages are not going to be helpful to my vegan diet. For main meals I plan to mostly buy and cook vegetables and rice/pasta/cous cous on a stove and then buy other food when I find it. But I think, inevitably and unwittingly, I will probably buy and eat something not vegan. It's something I have accepted, but will try to minimise as best I can.

I'm interested in any stove-top recipes people have. Cous cous and veg can get boring very quickly!

veganbikes

There is a lot of stuff out there. If you plan ahead you can have drop shipments of stuff and if you have a dehydrator at home you can make your own meals and ship them to various locations. If you ever need any advice let me know? I can generally whip up a recipe from my head most of the time.

Try different grains and vegetables and use different spices and sauces when you are cooking for yourself. In other countries do some planning with Happy Cow and you can eat out quite well. Also figure out different phrases to help you out in different countries.

khyricat

THis- as an RD I so agree.. there are a few medical conditions where I specifically worry about protein intake (my dialysis patients, anyone going through chemo for example), but otherwise most people thats not the concern- it's balancing the rest. People have a tendency to eat too few veggies, or to either have too many or too few carbs from my experiences (WE NEED SOME CARBS!), and also the same with fats- our bodies need fat, just not in exteme excessive amounts.

andrewclaus

I'm a no-cook vegan when I travel. I eat a lot of nuts and nut butters, dried fruit, and processed grain such as rolled oats and couscous that can be soaked in cold water. (Muesli is a staple--I soak for a few minutes in cold water.) Bulghur may be available in part of your travel area (think tabbouleh), and that doesn't have to be cooked either.

Ramen noodles are already cooked (in nasty commercial oil) and can be eaten out of the package like some kind of hard tack. Smear peanut butter on it. Instant mashed potatoes and instant beans (go very well with corn chips) also work with minimal soaking, but may be hard to find in your travels.

Flat breads are usually available (mainly as a vehicle for nut butters), and pack well. Many are made with dairy products, but I can accept that and don't question it.

I often remind myself that beer and chips is a vegan diet, but not a good one, and try to pick up as much fresh veg as I can carry. But when I'm calorie deficient on a difficult trip, it's hard to do sometimes.

boomhauer

Salad in a bag is one of the greatest inventions of the modern bike touring era.

dpwmid

Some good options there if you're just looking to get extra calories in, though not particularly appetising, especially for a long period. I'll definitely be eating grains, though I'd prefer to cook them rather than just eat them raw or soaked.

Nut butter is something else I plan to use, but spread over uncooked ramen!? You obviously have a tougher stomach than I do I'll be spreading mine on bread instead, maybe with a bit of jam for extra flavour and calories.

dpwmid

Happy cow is pretty helpful alright. I've used it before with great results. I'll be trying to keep my spend on fine dining low though, due to the duration of this trip and the amount of money I've managed to save, so I'll only use it sparingly.

andrewclaus

It's weird what one will eat when calorie deprivation starts setting in on an extended difficult trip, say on the third month. At least I don't crave meat any more. That took over a decade. Another decade and the thought became repulsive, which made travel more difficult. In some cultures, meat is more a garnish than a course, but it's still difficult to avoid when it's a broth or stew.

(I prefer to describe my diet as plant-based--the term does not have the same connotation that "vegan" does. Where I live (close to Boulder, CO), "vegan" often gets a roll of the eyes. We have a joke--How do you know if someone's a vegan? Don't worry, within ten minutes they will tell you.)

I never was any good at camp cooking--my efforts would result in warm glop and a difficult clean-up, and sometimes used too much precious water. Resupplying with fuel took too much time away from things I enjoyed doing during town stops. Everything got better when I shipped the stove home one trip, and I haven't carried one for nearly fifteen years now.

Happy New Year, and best of luck in your travels.

veganbikes

If you are just dieting then "plant-based" would be correct. That or vegetarian which originally meant someone who doesn't eat animals or their products.

"The word 'veganism' denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to end the idea of animals as property and exclude all forms of intentional exploitation of, use of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, research or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, including humans and the environment.

It's handy to have a meal every so often so you don't go crazy eating similar stuff all the time. I always vary my meals but still sometimes eating something too similar for a long time can get old.

dpwmid

Yeah definitely true. I'm hoping I can find variations in supermarket food from the various countries to liven up my meals a little.

nickw

Honest question - hunting wild game seems to align to some of the 'veganism' philosophy; ending animals as property and intentional exploitation....at least hunting seems MUCH closer to veganism than processed products.

I've toyed with vegan / veg in the past, the one argument I always got from folks was bike related, specifically tires / plastic:

https://www.treehugger.com/green-foo...gredients.html

N

veganbikes

Very far from it. When you are taking someone else's life without their consent it is wrong. It is still a form of exploitation in this case a very quick ending but you are intentionally taking someone's life and believing that life exists for you to take.

Yes rubber and other things can have animal ingredients in them and yes one could make the argument that you don't really need them but for the sake of being realistic in this modern society you likely need a car or bike to get from point a to point b. Plastic grocery bags we can do without and there are tons of household and personal care products on the market that do not contain animal ingredients or testing. We tend to use animals because it is easy and if we can do what we can to avoid using them we can be better off in this world.

We don't need to use animals in all these products and there are certainly natural and synthetic sources that don't come from animals or it might just be a product we don't need at all. Testing is also something we can easily do without or if we feel the need to test something we can easily find consenting humans however many of these products we test because someone is willing to pay money for them or the government requires them so they can make money off of it as well.

People love to make arguments about how you aren't a vegan because x, y or z but those people aren't vegan and aren't trying they want to poke holes at you instead of changing themselves to be better. They don't care about the issue they are talking about they just know something is wrong but aren't ready in themselves to change or they don't understand the issue but need to feel some superiority. I was there many times and I understand it well. Nobody wants to feel bad about themselves or something they are doing they want it to befall someone else.


However I don't want to say that one needs to immediately eliminate everything from their lives. One should take it at their own pace but just keep moving forward and learning more. There are tons of great resources and people who are willing to help. I am one of those people and I assure you will not judge you for where your at in life. I was not always vegan and I cannot change the past but I can certainly try to make the future better.

veganbikes

Some of those places have some neat vegan foods. Even in the US I love going to ethnic markets because you can find such interesting stuff. Cool fruits and vegetables that you won't find at your more generic supermarket. For instance I found canned spaghetti recently from the UK that didn't have cheese or other animal ingredients like most of the American counterparts, granted it is still canned spaghetti but still neat.

bikenh

Actually this idea of veganism on a bike tour could be rather interesting. I haven't tried it on tour but I do it most of the time anymore in normal life. The past few months has seen me start eating things I haven't even heard of until the past few months...and learning a few things that I had always thought was a veggie is actually a fruit

Last winter I spent pretty much 12-18 hours a days, everyday, working on a computer program that I still needto finish off and get the database updated to that shows were all the normal services I use on a bike trip/could possibly want to use are around the country. One of the big ones were the grocery stores. Initially it started out just focusing on three biggies services, Walmart, McDonalds and bike shops, but has expanded to all semi major grocery store chains(small chains like Tops/ Big Y, on up to the major chains). Since I didn't do a bike trip this summer I instead finally managed to figure out another way to use the program. One of the key feature is as you scroll over the map and scroll across a store you can, whatever the key combo is, hit the keys and it will take you directly to the stores weekly ads. I started looking at the weekly ads and going on long rides, 200 milers, just grocery shopping for the best price. 10 ears of corn 1.99(nice ears compared to anything I saw locally and it was local to the area where I bought the ears at) and grapes .79/lb were two of the best bargains I got. That all happened right before I lost my mind and started eating everything. Right now beside me I just came from the grocery store and bought zucchini, summer squash and mangoes. Always thought mangoes were a veggie...oops Hadn't ever one until a few days before Christmas.

Actually for me it would be a nice way to slow things down. Doing the veggie tour would give me something to do with my spare time other than ride the bike. That is my chief complaint about the veggie lifestlye...boy does it take forever to prep meals. The nice part about it is you don't have to carry a stove as I never have cooked anything as of yet, just always eat it raw.

I know I could open up the computer program and do a search in the direction of where I'm heading for the day and find out where the best buys are located and then do the shopping as I ride along for the day and either eat on location or save it for the end of the day salad.

dpwmid

Canned spaghetti and canned beans in tomato sauce are staples for any poor student in the UK and Ireland They might be canned but they're pretty good for you. Some have added sugar, but that's not so bad when you're cycling every day.

nickw

I guess my point was on a spectrum of whats right, if we say Vegan is a 1.....blindly eating processed meat from McDon is a 10, hunting seems to be someplace in the middle, may be closer to the veg spectrum. I've always struggled being 100% veg and always got **** for not doing a good enough job...aka fair weather veg, but my argument was it was a process and I'm better than 99.9% of folks, perfect, no....but close, it's a spectrum and maybe I'm a 2. Hunting, as controversial as it is, tends to be much more in line with animal rights (IMO) than not and does abide by some key tenants of being a vegan. Of course you are still killing, I get it, but not being willing to kill...and still eating meat while advocating for animal rights seems hypocritical, at least to me.

Now I don't hunt - but it seems that the folks who do generally have more respect for animals rights....

veganbikes

Unfortunately it is not at all in line with animal rights. If you were to make a spectrum of right and wrong hunting would be wrong not any different than McDonalds or animal testing or anything like that. We should never assign more or less value to someone's life it is not our job and not a rational or ethical thing to do. Nobody's life is more or less important than anyone else's life.

Hunters don't really care about animals, they will say they do as will many in the animal exploitation industries. A lot of people say they care about animals but when it comes down to it they only care about what animals can provide for them. They view animals as commodities, something to be used and not someone. They go into someone else's home and kill members of that family for their own selfish purposes.


What is your issue that you are struggling with to go vegan? Is it a product you can't give up or you just need more encouragement? I am happy to help you out rather than trying it on your own and failing, let's try it together and succeed!

veganbikes

Let's not say they are good for you in a general health sense. Yes they taste good and might be comforting and certainly are good in the sense of your wallet but in the end they are canned foods. A touring cyclist or someone doing a lot of riding daily could easily burn that stuff off but it would still be good to eat fruits and vegetables : )

Happy Feet

What's wrong with canned food?

DropBarFan

I find some of the health-food canned vegetarian chili is pretty good if a bit expensive. But standard stuff like Chef Boyardee spaghetti is pretty awful even for meat-eaters. Salty & tasteless & doesn't seem to give much energy.

BTW andrewclaus mentions instant beans--I thought those were only available in the expensive backpacking foods but I read that some Walmarts sell instant refried beans.

Happy Feet

Well, taste is an individual thing and can't really be argued but as far as fuel is concerned the body doesn't know any difference between canned food and fresh, all things like calories and food groups being equal. Just as plants cannot tell between organic manure and bagged fertilizer salts.

andrewclaus

Yes, the instant beans are hard to find in the US at least. In addition to the Walmart packages, I've also seen them in bulk at a few health food co-ops. I tried making it myself once and gave up.

It's certainly a matter of acquired taste, but after a few decades of eating as much fresh food as I can, I cringe at the thought of canned food. "Something" gets lost in the canning process and you can't get it back. My dog, however, loves the stuff.

When I soak beans, I can see and hear them sprouting. That's living stuff that will grow if I throw it in the dirt. Then I cook it and kill it, but at least it was growing just an hour before I eat it.

I brought some hummus to a party where of course there was another bowl of hummus. Mine got eaten, the other bowl barely touched. The person who brought the other bowl complimented me on my hummus and we discovered we used the same recipe. But she used canned beans and bottled lemon juice--a world of difference.

Happy Feet

Meh.

I see it as being analogous to a discussion about staying in hotels or camping while touring.

One could say one prefers all the emotionally based benefits of staying in hotels and create a negative view of camping by saying "but their dog loves sleeping on the ground" but I, at least, am still able to do both depending on the situation. Same with canned, dehydrated, pickled or fresh food. At its base - food is fuel. I like cooking also but prefer to maintain a flexible mindset in that regard. I think it is the more "mentally" healthy and socially aware option. Physically, I'm also kicking butt so it doesn't hurt there either.

indyfabz

Heh. Back in 2012 I bought a couple cans of Beef-a-Roni after a long day because I was tired, still had a few miles left to camp and I was wary of eating anything from the grocery store that was NOT canned. The stuff was terrible and did not energize me for the next day.