Vegans leaving home for the first time to begin a degree in a different town or city may wonder how to be vegan at university. After all, there’s enough to contend with at this stage of your life without worrying about whether your dietary choices will be accepted or even possible to keep.
If this is something that’s been playing on your mind, don’t worry – it’s easy to be vegan at university and this article will show you how.
Join vegan groups and societies
At Freshers’ Week, you’ll be bombarded with people pestering you to sign you up to their groups, societies and events. There’s bound to be a vegan or vegetarian society at your university, so make sure you get involved. Not only will you make new meat-free friends, but you’ll also be introduced to the best places locally for vegans to eat, shop and hang out.
Make your kitchen vegan-friendly
Some universities offer dietary-specific student accommodation where you’ll be living with others who eat the same as you. However, if your student accommodation is mixed and you’re living with meat-eaters, it’s not difficult to make sure the kitchen is a friendly space for vegans.
Here’s how:
Designate vegan-friendly shelves and cupboards – If you’re in shared student accommodation, you’ve probably all got your own shelves in the fridge and a kitchen cabinet for your own food. To make sure your designated spaces are vegan-friendly, ask if anyone minds if you nab the top shelf in the fridge to prevent the risk of any meat juice dripping down onto your food and contaminating it.
You might also want to stick a ‘V’ sign on your kitchen cabinet door to show you only want vegan food stored in there.
Pots and pans only for vegan food – Your student accommodation might have a fully-equipped kitchen with enough pots and pans for everyone, but vegans should bring their own pots and pans and leave them in their cupboard so there’s always a clean pan that’s never had meat cooked in it.
The last thing you want is to grab a pan to cook in, only to find out it’s still got bacon grease in it from the morning or night before.
Cook for your housemates – If you’re worried you’ll look fussy and one of ‘those’ vegans by trying to make the kitchen vegan-friendly for you, cook your housemates a delicious vegan meal occasionally and they’ll have absolutely no problem at all with you being vegan.
After all, no student is going to say no to free food – even if it is vegan!
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
Batch cook
On the nights you’re not cooking for your housemates, batch cooking is the best way to ensure you’ve always got something tasty and nutritious to eat. It’s actually easier to cook a huge vegan chilli, pasta sauce or curry than it is to cook one portion, so portion out the leftovers into containers and leave them in the freezer so you always have a delicious vegan ‘ready meal’ to hand.
Eating out
Eating out as a vegan is easy. Even the budget chains student love such as Wetherspoons and Greggs have tons of options for the vegan student. Wherever you go these days, there are vegan options on the menu, so you’ll never be sitting alone staring into a salad while all your friends are tucking into a meaty feast.
Look for accidentally vegan products
Gone are the days when, if you wanted to buy vegan food, you had to go to an expensive specialist or wholefood shop. These days, even the budget supermarkets are bulging with vegan food – some of it their own-brand plant-based products or simply food that is accidentally vegan.
What does ‘accidentally vegan’ mean? ‘Accidentally vegan’ is simply a term used for products that aren’t actually labelled vegan but nevertheless contain no animal products. So, next time you see something you like the look of but it’s not labelled vegan, check the ingredients anyway – you may be pleasantly surprised!
Being vegan at university is easy
As you can see, being vegan at university is easy. No matter what your living situation, your budget or the town you’re in, you won’t have a problem being vegan at university.
In fact, there are so many vegans these days, you may even find you’re in the majority amongst your friends and coursemates, not the minority!