For the Vegetarian with Soul  

 Creating a Vegetarian Soulfood Pantry & Shopping List 

Where to Shop

Once you've decided to espouse a vegetarian diet and you have some good veggie recipes in hand, you'll need to find your ingredients. For simple recipes, this may just mean a trip to your local grocery store. However, most grocery stores still don't stock a full selection of vegetarian foods, so for more complex recipes you'll probably have to head further afield. In this week's segment of our ongoing series Going Vegetarian, we'll discuss locating your nearest health food store or food co-op.

 Health Food Stores

Chances are, there's a small, local health food store right near your home. If not, or if they don't offer the selection you crave, head toward a city and you'll probably be able to find one of the large whole foods chains listed here:

• Whole Foods Market owns and operates a chain of 17 health food stores (under various names, such as Fresh Fields and Bread & Circus) across the U.S. -- use their locator to see if there's a store near you.
  
  
• Wild Oats Markets operates 53 stores across the U.S. If they don't have a store in your area, you can also place a mail order with them. (At the moment, their mail order business seems rather small -- they don't have a catalog yet, but you can visit their website, then phone in your order to 1-800-494-WILD.)

Food Cooperatives

Food cooperatives are a wonderful, community-oriented alternative to large health food and grocery stores. For a comprehensive, worldwide listing of co-ops, visit Food Coops and Other Coop Resources. There is also a usenet group devoted to co-ops -- alt.co-ops.

Finding a good health food store or co-op can be a very satisfying experience. Personally, I love gazing at the rows of organic fruit and vegetables and eyeing the freshly baked bread at my favorite health food store. Good luck in your search, and happy shopping!

Also, you'd be surprised what you can find in a regular o' store...

Being vegan doesn't mean you have to eat wheatgrass and alfalfa sprouts. Most grocery stores carry an array of great-tasting vegan options. Many products, including fantastic faux franks, veggie burgers, chicken-free chicken patties, flavored soy milks, nondairy ice creams, and other sensational soy-based snacks, are marketed to vegetarians and vegans. There's also an abundance of chips, dips, cookies, candies, frozen pies, soups, and other mouth-watering items by mainstream food manufacturers that are also vegan.

Take a stroll through your local grocery store, check some ingredients, and you'll see what we mean. You may even be surprised to find that a few of your favorite indulgences happen to be vegan! For example, did you know that Pepperidge Farm Turnovers, Murray Butter Cookies, and Cracker Jacks are all vegan? They may not all be "health foods," but they are great for the taste buds! Just remember, one cannot live on Goldenberg Peanut Chews alone.

Click above to see some vegan options for everything from soups to snacks.

There is also an abundance of chips, dips, cookies, candies, frozen pies, soups, and other mouth-watering items by mainstream food manufacturers that are also vegan.*

We are constantly updating this list, so if you know of a product that isn't currently listed here or if you find a product here that isn't vegan, please e-mail VegQuestions@peta.org.

Thank you, and happy munching!

*Items listed may contain trace amounts of animal-derived ingredients. While PETA supports a strict adherence to veganism, we put the task of vigorously reducing animal suffering ahead of personal purity. Boycotting products that are 99.9 percent vegan sends the message to manufacturers that there is no market for this food, which ends up hurting more animals. For a more detailed explanation of PETA’s position, please visit http://www.caringconsumer.com/labels.html.