12 Must-Try Homemade Vegan Kitchen Staples

Today I’d like to share a list of 12 homemade vegan kitchen staples that not only let you control what you’re putting in your mouth, but will also help you save money long-term.

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Cooking at home may be more labor-intensive than, say, picking up the phone and ordering takeout. But if we want to know exactly what goes into our meals, then making our own food at home is the way to go. Plus, let’s not forget that homemade food is always better! 🙂

If you’re interested in making food as healthy as possible, you’re probably aware that a lot of store-bought ingredients for our vegan home-cooked creations are either produced using questionable practices, or contain less-than-healthy components.

Case in point: carrageenan in some non-dairy milks, or hydrogenated oils in many peanut butter brands.

Thankfully, the vegan blogosphere comes to the rescue!

With some help from the adventurous vegan folk, we can create just about any vegan staple ingredients at home – from non-dairy milk and tofu to fermented vegetables and various sauces – and make them much healthier than their conventional versions.

I’ve done some digging to save you time on searching yourself – so here’s a list of 10 healthy homemade kitchen essentials, BECAUSE HOMEMADE IS ALWAYS BETTER!

12 DIY Homemade Vegan Kitchen Staples

#1. Homemade Peanut Butter

I make my recipe for homemade peanut butter at least a couple times a month – peanut butter is a big deal in our house! The addition of ground flaxseed makes this PB even healthier because it boosts its omega-3 fatty acids content.

The same technique can be used to make nut butters from other nuts of your choice.

#2. Homemade Non-Dairy Milk

Cathy Fisher of Straight Up Food blog shares 4 non-dairy milk recipes in this post on her blog.

She’ll show you how to make almond, pecan, oat and rice milks at home using no-fuss techniques.

#3. Homemade Non-Dairy Yogurt

Want to introduce healthy probiotics to your diet without breaking the bank on buying vegan yogurt at the store? Make your own yogurt at home!

Check out my recipe for easy 3-ingredient vegan yogurt in the Instant Pot. This soy-free, coconut-free yogurt comes out deliciously thick and creamy, yet it’s made without any add-on thickeners like cornstarch, agar agar, xanthan gum, etc.

#4. Homemade Vegetable Broth

I am generally averse to buying those little vegan bouillon cubes in stores because reading their ingredients lists often makes me hyperventilate.

Ever since I discovered this easy method of making your own veggie broth, I’ve probably saved myself hundreds of dollars. This veggie broth literally costs you nothing because it uses all of those veggie scraps that would otherwise go into trash.

Homemade and plant-based is always better than store-bought and processed, at least in my book.

#5. Homemade Mayonnaise

I’ve searched Pinterest far and wide, and yet most homemade mayo recipes either contain oil, or seem kind of suspicious.

Thankfully, one of my favorite vegan bloggers, Susan from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, posted a healthy tofu-cashew mayonnaise recipe that’s not only oil-free, but also has just 15 calories per tablespoon!

If you make too much of this mayo at once, you can even freeze the extras for later.

#6. Homemade Tofu, Tempeh, Seitan

These go-to plant-based protein sources don’t have to come from the store: you can make your own at home!

Check out these tutorials for making regular tofu, as well as hemp tofu and even chickpea flour tofu (a.k.a. Burmese tofu)!

Also see how to make homemade tempeh  and my easy homemade BBQ seitan recipe (pictured below).

#7. Homemade Barbecue Sauce

I prefer not to buy complex sauces or marinades in stores for the same reason as why I don’t mess with bouillon cubes.

This is why I love my recipe for easy no-cook BBQ sauce: it’s super flavorful, really easy to make (comes together in just 30 seconds!), and I don’t need to cook it before use!

I use this BBQ sauce recipe to make the BBQ seitan nuggets in the above picture, as well as in my baked BBQ tofu sandwich (pictured below), easy BBQ chickpeas and rice, and vegan barbecue portobello wraps.

#8. Homemade Pizza Crust

My go-to whole-wheat pizza crust recipe goes beyond just a pizza crust: it makes great breadsticks, rolls, and regular loaves of bread.

Looking for a reliable vegan AND gluten-free pizza crust recipe? Check out this one by Ela Vegan.

#9. Homemade Fermented Vegetables

Fermenting makes vegetables easier to digest and infuses them with gut-friendly bacteria, similarly to yogurt.

Fermenting at home is also cheaper and usually yields better-tasting results. Plus, you can sneak in some additional veggies that you wouldn’t find in traditional recipes, like beets in this sauerkraut recipe by Minimalist Vegan.

I’ve been long fascinated by Korean kimchi (napa cabbage fermented with this and that), but all recipes I found seemed too labor-intensive. However, this kimchi recipe is relatively simple and might be worth a try!

#10. Homemade Sprouts

Sprouting turns grains, beans, seeds, and even nuts into little nutritional powerhouses. It helps that it’s very easy and cheap to do at home!

You can either use a special jar like this GEO Sprouting Jar or do it old-school with a mason jar and some cheesecloth. Here’s more explanation on doing this right.

#11. Homemade Energy Bars

Okay, maybe energy bars aren’t an ingredient, but they’re definitely a staple snack in a lot of vegan households.

Most store-bought granola/energy bars are not much healthier than a candy bar anyway, plus they often use highly processed ingredients that may not be vegan.

Matt from No Meat Athlete developed a formula for an almost unlimited number of energy bar recipe variations. A lot of these are especially great for active people because of their higher protein content (thanks to beans).

#12. Homemade Granola

I almost didn’t include granola into this roundup because it’s such a cliché in the healthy eating world. But then I remembered my tropical banana-orange granola recipe (shown below) that’s surprisingly easy to make but tastes like a million bucks.

It’s all plant-based and refined sugar-free, plus there’s an option to make it oil-free if you like.

I had other thoughts for DIY kitchen staples, but this post was getting kind of long anyway, so my buck stops here. You’re welcome to add your own ideas for homemade kitchen staples though, so feel free to mention them in the comments!

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Alina Zavatsky - Vegan Runner Eats

Alina Zavatsky is a vegan of 11+ years, a passionate blogger, a YouTuber, and a mom. She helps new vegans and their families navigate a vegan diet and lifestyle in a sustainable and enjoyable way. This fall, she will be releasing a new vegan meal planning app designed to make following a vegan diet a breeze for everyone.

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