7 Vegan Cooking YouTube Channels To Help You Make Plant-Based Meals During the Coronavirus Outbreak
Many people are adjusting to a new lifestyle, and a new relationship to food, due to the coronavirus outbreak. For vegans and vegetarians, cooking at home might be even more difficult, with many ingredients in scarce supply and fewer shopping hours.
But you don’t have to give up your plant-based diet because of COVID-19. These seven YouTube cooking channels offer easy vegan and vegetarian recipes, grocery hauls, and how-to guides for self-isolation. Many of the plant-based meals here are freezer-friendly and easy to whip up with just the staples in your pantry.
RainbowPlantLife
RainbowPlantLife’s all-vegan lifestyle YouTube channel features vegan recipes, creative meat- and dairy-free meal ideas for every day of the week, and grocery hauls.
Several recent videos focus on vegan eating during the coronavirus quarantine, including easy pantry meals you can whip up in isolation, instant pot recipes, and ideas for how to cook all those beans you probably bought at the grocery store a few weeks ago.
Edgy Veg
Edgy Veg’s popular vegan channel focuses on the usual plant-based diet topics—like “what I eat in a day,” recipes, and grocery hauls—but also includes plenty of creative ideas for meat- and dairy-free substitutes for all your (former) favorite foods, like eggs, bacon, corn dogs, and fried chicken.
Recent quarantine-themed videos include several how-to guides for vegan shopping and meal prep during weeks-long COVID-19 lockdowns. There’s also a vegan alternative for cream cheese that you can probably make with what’s already in your pantry, making for easier breakfasts and lunches while you’re stuck inside.
Sweet Simple Vegan
This vegan couple’s content includes plant-based cooking hacks, as well as fun foodie challenges and humor (eating like Michael Scott for a day, anyone?).
Make sure to check out their recent video on simple five-ingredient vegan meals and treats you can make with no prep or shopping—like vegan cookie dough, homemade refried beans and guacamole, stuffed peppers, and potato and bean quesadillas.
Cheap Lazy Vegan
Cheap Lazy Vegan’s ultra-popular YouTube channel focuses on “eat with me” videos, mukbangs, hacks to make your vegan foodie lifestyle more fun, and Korean food.
Try her quarantine-friendly recipes for three different dairy-free milks, teriyaki eggplant stir fry, and creamy butternut squash pasta. The full recipes are available on her blog, or you can cook along with her as you watch.
Avant Garde Vegan
Vegan cooking expert Gaz Oakley is well-known for his creative, irreverent approach to plant-based eats. The flavorful recipes you’ll find on his channel—like sticky umami eggplant, pancake waffles, Jamaican curry, and Yorkshire pudding—aren’t just the run-of-the-mill, mundane healthy dishes.
His “quarantine content” during the coronavirus outbreak has included tasty meals you can make with what’s already in your cupboard, a simple recipe for homemade bread, and a guide to what he eats in a day.
Caitlin Shoemaker
Caitlin Shoemaker’s plant-based cooking and lifestyle channel offers cozy vegan comfort food recipes, breakdowns of common diets, and affordable, simple meal ideas. Check out her video of easy 10-minute vegan meals (like barbeque jackfruit sandwiches, quinoa salad, or beans and cheese quesadillas) you can prepare for yourself and your partner or family during coronavirus isolation.
You can also head to this channel for ideas on vegan pantry staples and efficient, long-term meal prep to keep your cupboards and freezer well-stocked during the crisis.
Damn Tasty Vegan
Damn Tasty Vegan gets a spot on this list because it’s ultra-practical and focused. The content on this channel consists almost entirely of easy vegan recipes (especially batch cooking and family-friendly meals) to make your life easier—which would be more welcome than ever during the coronavirus pandemic.
You might want to try some of the plant-based comfort foods, like baking sheet fajitas, instant pot chili, four-ingredient homemade bread, or instant pot vegan mac and cheese, to cure the COVID-19 quarantine blues.
