Your Whole-Food Vegan Grocery List: Oil-Free Breads, Sauces, and Other Go-To Products

Going plant-based is easier than you’d think, especially once your fridge and pantry are abundantly stocked with healthy vegan foods and staple ingredients. While whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are the foundation of a healthful plant-based diet, that doesn’t mean you have to make everything from scratch. We’ve put together a vegan grocery list of the minimally processed products that the Forks Over Knives team relies on. Read on for the full list of oil-free vegan brands, or click to jump down to a specific category.

• Baking
• Breads and Tortillas
• Crackers
• Hummus and Dips
• Instant Grains
• Nondairy Milks
• Sauces, Condiments, and Broth
• Seasonings

Editor’s Note: Companies frequently change their ingredients and recipes. If you see something on this list that is no longer compliant with a whole-food, plant-based diet, please let us know.

Baking

Steer clear of excess sodium, fat, and sugar with these healthier takes on baking staples.

• Crofter’s Just Fruit Spread
• Ener-G Foods Baking Powder
• Hain Pure Foods Featherweight Baking Powder
• Kirkland Signature Creamy Almond Butter
• Laura Scudder’s Natural Peanut Butter
• MaraNatha Natural California Almond Butter
• New England Cranberry Fruit-Sweetened Dried Cranberries
• Smuckers Natural Creamy Peanut Butter No Salt Added
• St. Dalfour Fruit Spreads
• Trader Joe’s Creamy Salted Peanut Butter

Breads and Tortillas

Breads are often loaded with sodium and refined sugar, and some contain whey, a milk derivative. Fortunately, you can find wholesome alternatives at most supermarkets (sometimes in the freezer aisles).

• Alvarado Street Bakery (Sprouted Wheat Flaxseed Bread, Sprouted Wheat Rye Seed Bread, Sprouted Wheat Everything Bagels, Sprouted Wheat Sesame Seed Bagels)
• Dave’s Killer Bread Power Seed, 21 Whole Grains and Seeds, Good Seed
• Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Burger Buns
• Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Whole Grain Bread
• Ezekiel Sprouted Whole Grain Tortillas
• Food for Life Sprouted Corn Tortillas
• Guerrero Yellow Corn Tortillas and White Corn Tortillas
• Mission Yellow Corn Tortillas and White Corn Tortillas

Crackers

Most store-bought crackers are long on calories and short on fiber and other health-promoting nutrients. Snack smarter with these brands.

• 365 Gluten-Free Oat & Seed Crispbread
• Edward & Sons Brown Rice Snaps (Unsalted Plain Brown Rice Snaps, Unsalted Sesame Baked Brown Rice Snaps)
• Finn Crisps (Thin Multigrain)
• La Reina Unsalted Baked Organic Corn Tortilla Chips
• Mary’s Gone Crackers (all varieties)
• Ryvita Original, Sesame, and Pumpkin Seed & Oats
• Streits Whole Wheat Matzos
• Wasa Whole Grain Crispbread

Hummus and Dips

Dips are often loaded with oil and sodium, and sometimes they contain dairy. These dips are all low in sodium, free of animal products, and free of oil!

• Cedar’s Fat & Oil-Free Hummus
• Oasis Zero Fat Black Bean Dip
• Oasis Zero Fat Lentil Dip
• Oasis Zero Fat Original Hommus
• Roots Oil-Free Original Hummus

Instant Grains

Many manufacturers add oil, salt, and animal-derived ingredients (such as chicken fat) to pre- or par-cooked grains. These products keep it simple.

• 365 Yellow Polenta
• Annie Chun’s Sprouted Brown Rice
• Minsley Organic Cooked Brown Rice with Quinoa Cup
• O Organics Brown Rice Cup
• O Organics Frozen Brown Rice
• Success Boil-in-Bag Whole Grain Brown Rice

Nondairy Milks

When it comes to plant milks, the fewer ingredients, the better, so shop accordingly. These are some of our favorites, organized by type.

Soymilk

• Pacific Foods Organic Soy Plant-Based Beverage Original Unsweetened
• Unsweetened Edensoy Organic Soymilk
• Westsoy Organic Unsweetened Plain Soymilk

Oat Milk

• Elmhurst Milked Oats Unsweetened
• Thrive Market Organic Oat Beverage

Nut Milks

• Elmhurst Milked Almonds Unsweetened
• Elmhurst Milked Cashews
• Elmhurst Milked Walnuts
• Elmhurst Milked Hazelnuts
• Three Trees Organic Almond Milk

Sauces, Condiments, and Broth

While some of the sauces on this list are less pure than homemade, they are all vegan, oil-free, and substantially lower in sodium than competing products. And the Worcestershire sauce is vegan.

• 365 Organic Fat-Free Marinara
• DeLallo Fat-Free Marinara Sauce
• PLANTSTRONG Organic Vegetable Stock (formerly branded as Engine 2)
• Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
• Great Value Less-Sodium Soy Sauce
• Kitchen Basics Unsalted Vegetable Stock
• Miso Master Organic White Miso
• Primal Kitchen Organic Unsweetened Ketchup
• Robbie’s Natural Products Worcestershire
• San-J Tamari Light
• Simple Truth Tomato Ketchup
• Simple Truth Organic Yellow Mustard
• Tabasco
• Whole Foods Red Enchilada Sauce

Seasonings

Keep these salt-free seasoning blends on your spice rack to add flavor without adding sodium.

• Bensons Table Tasty
• Bensons Supreme Garlic and Herb Seasoning
• DAK Everything but the Salt Seasoning
• Kirkland Signature Organic No-Salt 21 Spice Blend Seasoning
• Mrs. Dash Seasoning Blends

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.

This article was originally published on March 3, 2016, and has been updated.