I did Veganuary and there’s one food I really struggled to give up – and it’s not meat

Both and have become ways for people to start the new year with a health kick – and this year, I was among those giving Veganuary a go.

Having a number of vegan friends and a partner who went vegan towards the end of last year, I was quickly given advice on how to make tofu scramble and how nutritional yeast is a must-buy.

I gave up meat when I was 19 and then fish a year or two later, so I wasn’t a complete newbie to completely overhauling my – but there were a few things I knew I’d struggle to give up this time, including cheese and chocolate.

While giving up meat wasn’t particularly difficult for me at all, fish was slightly harder (hence why it took me a couple of years longer), but both of these completely paled in comparison to the struggle of giving up

As it turns out, I apparently eat quite a lot of cheese – something I’m certainly now aware that I should cut down on, even after Veganuary comes to an end.

Usually, when making pasta, I would sprinkle some cheese on top or add some cheese into fajitas, and one of my favourite lunches is to fry an egg in some feta cheese – all of which I would have to stop for the month of January.

And while I did have some delicious vegan parmesan for pasta dishes, it didn’t taste quite the same and had a much more nutty taste than the cheese I would usually eat.

I tried a number of other vegan cheeses to very mixed results, with some not good at all, while others were great in sandwiches or sprinkled on pasta, but they weren’t so good when opting for a cheeseboard.

Similarly, as soon as the vegan cheese was melted on the pizza, it gave it a rather plastic-like taste, meaning if ordering pizza I would opt for cheese-free ones, which did taste nice but I can’t wait to order a regular cheese pizza very soon!

Surprisingly, while cheese was difficult to give up, chocolate was not. Like cheese, chocolate has a number of vegan versions which doesn’t taste exactly like their non-vegan counterpart.

While vegan chocolate certainly tastes nice, I didn’t find myself craving it at all, and perhaps more surprising is that I didn’t feel myself craving any chocolate at all when I’d typically have maybe one bar a week.

All in all, I found it fun to try new foods and recipes, although there were plenty I thought could be improved with the addition of some cheese. I also realised that this is one of the foods I perhaps need to cut down on.

Although I don’t think I’ll be going completely vegan anytime soon, I’ll definitely be opting for more vegan options when cooking for myself or enjoying a meal out.