How was Veganuary?

a few thoughts after a month of eating completely plant-based

If you’re, new here, welcome! I write about following a predominantly plant-based diet, and I’m an illustrator so I also tend to throw in a bunch of pictures of food. I share illustrated recipes and have also shared some Veg Letters, which were printable fact sheets about a particular vegetable. If you’re not new, you’ll notice that I’m making quite a few changes here, which you can read about toward the end of this piece – and find out more about in next week’s paid post.

Foodie Morning Ink that I drew today, because I was thinking all about writing this post for you all. Would love to know if you prefer black and white inky drawings or colourful ones that I usually share. (And, of course, it’s OK to like both, or not have any opinion!)

Did you take part in Veganuary? Or are you already fully vegan? I chop and change every year on whether I’m going to take part or not. I think Veganuary is great in a lot of ways and has brought a much wider understanding of and love for plant-based diets to the general population. It also tends to bring new vegan offerings in shops and restaurants and even fast-food places, which is all positive.

This year I fully stuck to it and didn’t miss much at all. And I’ve kept going into February (with an accidental slip where I forgot that Sour Cream and Onion Pringles weren’t vegan!).

Milk

In the past, milk has been a big block for me, but it seems I love almond milk with tea, possibly (never thought I’d say this) more than dairy milk. Something that has also helped a lot for coffee, is that I have a milk frother (a cheap stick one that I got from Amazon, sorry) and all the plant milks, when frothed, look paler and extra nice – and also taste a bit creamier, I think. The one I’m liking the most in coffee is the Alpro oat milk (the barista one).

Do you like different plant milks for different things? Do you have an overall favourite?

Cheese

Cheese has historically also been a block for me, but throughout much of 2024 I have been swapping out grated cheese on top of pasta for a handful of rocket and a sprinkle of pine nut kernels, and sometimes some salted roasted cashew nuts¹. The pasta and aubergine sauce that one of my daughters and I both really love, I would normally smother with grated mozzarella and now I choose this alternative, very happily. The added crunch of the nuts and the combination of the freshness and slight pepperiness of the rocket are soooooo good! And I have been taking this direction a lot during these first weeks of 2025.

Macaroni cheese

My non-vegan comfort dish is macaroni cheese. I did have a go at seeing if I could come up with a vegan version that would be as comforting, using some tips from this Guardian article: The Secret to a Great Plant Based Cheese Sauce, by Anna Berrill. Unfortunately, I haven’t really nailed it, yet. I made one which used a béchamel sauce using soy milk and plant butter and nutritional yeast and miso paste and bouillon powder. It was OK in terms of texture, but the taste was too sweet. I suspect that may have been because I’d accidentally not got the unsweetened soy milk, so should probably have another try with that. The second one I tried was using roasted butternut squash, sweet potato and leeks. It as really quite nice, but absolutely nothing like a cheese sauce and I wanted to be tasting the lovely flavours from the vegetables not whizzed up into a sauce, but in actually pieces. So, I may try that one again but with no attempt to make it cheesy.

I came to the conclusion that my Plant-based Pasta Primavera is actually my plant-based equivalent comfort food. It’s moreish and filling and creamy and satisfying. And it tastes quite cheesy to me. I’m not sure if I’ve shared here, but here’s a little illustrated summary of it.

Pasta Primavera – a green creamy plant-based pasta sauce

I don’t think I’m giving up on the possibility of finding/making my perfect vegan macaroni cheese, but for now I am not feeling I need to chase it.

Some dishes I’ve been eating

Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see an illustrated recipe of any of these.

• Spicy Tomato and Tofu Noodles

• Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta (topped with rocket and pine nuts)

• Spicy Tomato and Sausage Pasta, served with air fried parsnip, carrots and sweet potatoes (and some rocket and pine nuts for me!)

• Kimchi and Tofu Fried Rice (I had this a couple of times and did the tofu two different ways - one of them felt really really like scrambled egg and the other was crunchier and air fried tofu)

• Pasta Primavera (see above)

• Aubergine Pasta (mentioned above and topped with rocket and pine nuts)

• Mushroom Mapo Tofu (made by Chris and it was very very nice)

• Quinoa, Buckwheat and Brown rice Mediterranean Vegetable ‘Risotto’

• Homemade pizza (went very off-piste and topped it with kimchi, air-fried tofu and mushroom reduction)

• American-style pancakes

• Baked potato with baked beans

• Bananas and custard (Birds custard powder is one of those accidentally vegan products and it’s also a huge nostalgia trip for me)

• Most breakfasts have been either one slice of toast and Marmite and one slice of toast and peanut butter, or leftover dinner from the previous day (my favourite breakfast leftovers are definitely rice dishes)

Some helpful products²

• Lurpak plant-based

• Richmond meat-free sausages

• Free and easy egg replacer

• Alpro soya cream

• Birds custard powder

• Lotus Biscoff biscuits

• Oreos

• Co-op Yum Yums

• Co-op plant-based cookies

I would love to hear about any new meals you tried during Veganuary and how it went for you (or just new dishes you tried last month if you were already vegan).
Tell me about them in the comments!

You can read more about how I’ve been embracing Veganuary in next week’s paid piece. Which is a nice segue into telling you about what’s changing here on The Illustrated Plant Kitchen for 2025 (and a bit about my other Substack publications, too, along with my general direction for 2025).

Changes to The Illustrated Plant Kitchen for 2025

This publication has only been going for half a year, so I’m sure it’s probably too early to make sweeping changes. In business terms, at least. But in terms of how it works for me, and it has to do so, really, to have any potential for longevity, I need to and want to make some changes. I think these will be positive for you, too, as it will widen what you get from your subscription, especially if you’re a free subscriber.

• First of all, I have removed the paywall on last year’s posts, so you can go back and read and look at the illustrated recipes and Veg Letters which were previously paywalled. And you can print them out, if you like (for personal use only, of course).

• Second of all, the Veg Letters is going to change and will no longer be a printable fact sheet. Instead, it will be used to showcase mini collections of illustrations of a particular vegetable (or fruit, etc.) Some of those may be shared as a (personal use only) printable again. Many of them will be used to create patterns to go on Spoonflower, and possibly other PODs. Some of them may be provided as prints to purchase³. Some of them may be provided to purchase as downloadable graphic assets for food writers (etc.) to use. I might still throw in some fun facts in those posts, but I’m not going to guarantee it. And they’ll be available to everyone.

• I will continue providing illustrated recipes but not on a specific schedule. Some of them will be in the printable format I have previously mostly only shared with paid subscribers. But most of them will just be as illustrations within the newsletters, similar to some that I have shared previously with free subscribers (a bit like the Pasta Primavera one above).

• I will continue to write posts about various aspects of living a (mostly) plant-based life, with examples of things I’ve been trying. For example, I want to try some more plant-based baking and I would like to try making my own sourdough and fermenting some kimchi. I will share about new plant-based products I’ve come across, or nice plant-based meals I’ve enjoyed out and about.

• A new regular feature I’ll be starting, will be sharing my thoughts on an illustrated cookbook or food-related illustrated book of some kind. It might sometimes be books which mostly feature photos, but have wonderful illustrated covers and chapter openers or end pages. This will be more about the look of the book than how good the recipes are, but I might well talk about that, too.

• What will go behind the paywall then? The theme for my Substack presence in 2025 is going to be paywalling the personal. That doesn’t mean I’ll never share any personal experiences or thoughts at all. Frankly, most of what I share will still come deeply from within me and hopefully continue to authentically show the maximalist person I am⁴. I would seriously struggle to keep everything impersonal. But the more introspective and raw thoughts and experiences will be behind a paywall. These will mostly come as separate posts, rather than putting a bit behind the paywall at the end, so that everyone can comment on the free writing/art. At the end of the year, I’ll assess how that’s gone and whether to continue like that into 2026, or not. (And you can read more about this decision in a paywalled post coming later this week.)

I’m really looking forward to discussing food with you all this year and showing you my food illustration. I love drawing food a lot, but I am also really enthusiastic about nutritional and delicious plant-based home-cooking.

Do leave your thoughts in the comments and share with people you think would like this publication.

See you next week!

I also write Illustrating Life, where I write about illustration business and freelance life (and sometimes digital nomady working while travelling) and Authentic Maximalism, where I will be writing about the culture I enjoy and things that make me think, as well as starting to share some new raw (i.e. unedited) creative writing.

1. I tried air frying my own but they were nowhere near as good as the packet they sell in the Co-op. I am determined to get to a point where I make my own that taste as good, though, because that would save a lot of money and also I am all about making things myself as much as possible.

2. These are available in the UK and may not all be available elsewhere.

3. I know I’ve been promising that for a while; I will be working out how I am going to do this and providing a shop on my website again soon.

4. Talking of maximalism… do consider subscribing to my new (currently empty) Substack publication, Authentic Maximalism, where I will be writing about the non-illustration and non-foodie side of me, particularly sharing culture I’ve been enjoying, but also writing about a variety of things that spark my interest and make me think.