By Julia Comino, VRG Intern

As a low-income plant-based teenager, I am always on the lookout for delicious vegan dishes that won’t break the bank. Thus, I tasked myself with finding out the favorite low-price vegan foods of my fellow interns.

Lucia Rivera, a current intern at The VRG from California, has been vegetarian for ten years and vegan for one. Like me, some of her favorite cheap vegan foods are beans. Beans are a nutritious staple that can be the base of a meal or added as a side to any dish. No matter if you buy beans dry in bulk or canned, they are an inexpensive and nutritious food to stock up on. Lucia also offered some advice for finding low-cost vegan groceries, “Choosing certain places to shop can be helpful. For example, a grocery store like Grocery Outlet often offers the same vegan meat substitutes for a lot cheaper than a store like Sprouts or Whole Foods does.” I have found this to be true as some of my go-to items, vegan pasta, soups, frozen vegetables, and even cans of beans, are cheapest at stores like Dollar General or Family Dollar.

Callie Showalter, a current intern from Washington who has been vegetarian for nine years and vegan for four, and Rachel Eldering, a dietetic intern from Virginia and vegetarian of six years, are also fans of beans. Callie’s favorite inexpensive go-to vegan dish is Spanish beans and rice, and Rachel dishes out rice, beans, and vegetable dinners.

When it comes to finding cheap vegan snacks, I recommend thinking about what snacks you already eat that happen to be vegan. Callie Showalter snacks on carrots and hummus, popcorn, and apples with peanut butter. Lucia Rivera goes for a classic, peanut butter and jelly. Ksheetisha Bhat, an intern from Michigan and a vegetarian since birth, loves snacks such as vegan fruit gummies or chips with salsa. And I’m a fan of nuts, dried fruit, and granola. When you stop looking for foods labeled as vegan, and start looking for plant-based foods you already love you will find that you already know of a lot of cheap vegan food options.

I hope that hearing some of the low-cost vegan favorites of The VRG interns ensures you that so matter your financial situation, there are vegan foods that can fit your budget.

For information on other low-cost vegan foods and menus, see: https://www.vrg.org/nutrition/#nutrition-meal-plans https://www.vrg.org/blog/2011/09/21/i%E2%80%99d-like-to-be-vegan-but-i%E2%80%99ve-heard-it%E2%80%99s-expensive-is-this-true/

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