7 Snacks You'd Never Guess are Surprisingly Vegan

7 Snacks You'd Never Guess are Surprisingly Vegan

Word Count: 1588

Time to Read: 8 minutes


Want to try a vegan diet?

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Why is veganism so beneficial?

A healthy, balanced diet can help you out with physical health and other aspects like:

People often focus on the planning and sacrificial part of veganism, but that isn’t what veganism is about. It’s a healthy type of diet that can benefit you and the global environment around you.

To prevent a feeling of regret, we’ve included a guide on 7 surprisingly vegan snacks that can help you get through each day.

As everyone knows, snacks are important to a healthy, nutritious diet. These vegan snacks, though not the most healthy, in moderation can help you curb any snack attacks or nonvegan thoughts that you may have.

Why Eat Snacks?

Snacks can benefit anyone, regardless of whether or not they are vegan. Snacking can help you maintain your weight or lose weight as desired, and even help out your overall health through:

Prevention of Overeating

Snacking can help prevent you from getting too hungry between meals, which can sometimes result in overeating at your next meal.

Instead, snacks can help tide you over until your next meal, so that you have the energy and calories to be productive throughout your daily life.

Keeping Blood Sugar Levels Steady

Snacking can also help keep your blood sugar levels even, which is beneficial to diabetics and everyone else.

As long as you eat a consistent amount of carbs at your meals and snacks, you can prevent large spikes or dips in blood sugar levels. This can help prevent a range of health issues, such as:

  • Insulin Resistance
  • Type 2 Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Heart Disease
  • High Blood Pressure

Providing Nutrients

Snacking can also help you meet your nutritional goals for the day, which can further benefit your health and energy levels.

The key to this success is to make sure that you don’t snack right before a meal. Only snack when you are actually hungry. Small snacks are also essential, out of nutrient-dense foods.

If you’re having cravings, however, less-healthy snacks can be helpful from time to time, especially if you’re vegan.

7 Snacks that are Surprisingly Vegan

Now that you understand the importance of snacking, check out these surprisingly vegan snacks that are delicious, even if they weren’t created specifically for vegans.

Sometimes it can be difficult to even find vegan snacks, especially if you’re a vegan on a budget, so check out these common foods that you can find almost anywhere:

1. Nutter Butters

A surprisingly vegan cookie snack is the popular Nutter Butter.

A part of the Nabisco brand, these peanut-shaped sandwich cookies contain a peanut butter filling, with the texture of a real peanut.

Just remember, Nutter Butters are not healthy cookies, even though they are vegan. While low in saturated fat and cholesterol-free, they are caloric at 130 calories for only 2 Nutter Butters.

Regardless, these cookies are perfect for your next peanut butter craving or as a smaller dessert treat.

2. Betty Crocker’s Bac-O’s Bacon Flavor Bits

It may be hard to believe, but Betty Crocker’s Bac-O’s Bacon Flavor Bits are actually vegan.

This surprisingly vegan snack can fill in when you’re missing an authentic bacon taste, as they are actually flavored with a crunchy, chewy feel like the real stuff.

If you aren’t sure what to do with your Betty Crocker bacon bits, consider adding them to:

  • Salads
  • Sandwiches
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Soups
  • Pizza

And if you’re desiring that unique sweet and salty combination, consider adding them to your next bowl of vegan ice cream or treat for a delightful snack.

3. Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Chips

If you’re craving a salty snack, consider yourself lucky. Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Chips are surprisingly vegan and delicious.

These aren’t your boring, crunchy tortilla chips. Instead, the flavor of sweet spice offsets the spicy factor, creating a mouthwatering flavor.

It is important to note here that this type of Doritos can be an acquired taste, especially if you are vegan. If you aren’t the biggest fan of Doritos chips as a standalone snack, consider adding them to vegan recipes like:

  • Nachos
  • Dips
  • Casseroles
  • Salads
  • Burger Patties

4. Duncan Hines Cake Mixes and Frosting

If you’re a vegan with a sweet tooth, you will be happy to know that specific types of Duncan Hines Cake Mixes and Creamy Home-Style Frosting are surprisingly vegan.

As long as you follow the recipes with vegan-friendly swaps for the eggs and butter, you can make a delicious cake out of the following cake mixes:

  • Classic Carrot
  • Moist Deluxe Butter Golden
  • Classic Yellow
  • Dark Chocolate Fudge
  • Devil’s Food
  • Fudge Marble
  • German Chocolate
  • Red Velvet
  • Swiss Chocolate

But don’t stop there, you’re even allowed to add these vegan frostings to the top of your cake as well:

  • Butter Cream
  • Caramel
  • Classic Chocolate
  • Vanilla
  • Coconut Pecan
  • Dark Chocolate Fudge
  • Lemon Supreme
  • Strawbetter Cream

Honestly, a vegan snack has never tasted so good until now.

5. Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Pillsbury Crescent Rolls are the quick-to-bake rolls that you probably ate during at least one family holiday. They’re light, flaky, flavorful, and even surprisingly vegan.

While they may be pricier than other premade biscuits or rolls, Pillsbury Crescents are an indulgent snack for a quick fix.

They can be substituted in appetizers, sweet treats, breakfast meals, or even quick dinners. If you’re looking for a great vegan dinner on a budget, these handy Crescent rolls can certainly lend a hand.

Sometimes life will require a vegan substitute on the fly, especially when bread products are involved, so make sure you have these on hand.

6. Jell-O Instant Pudding Mix

If your sweet tooth still isn’t satisfied by this list, consider a Jell-O Instant Pudding Mix.

Surprisingly vegan, consider these pudding mixes for your next snack or add them to recipes:

  • Vanilla
  • Chocolate
  • Lemon
  • Pistachio
  • Banana Cream

7. Ritz Crackers

While Ritz Crackers pride themselves on the essential buttery flavor, they are also surprisingly vegan.

Ritz Crackers are light and delicious and perfect when paired with vegan cheese or dips. They’re also delicious on top of vegan comfort food and soup!

7 Snacks that are Surprisingly NOT Vegan

To further help you out, here are 7 snacks that are actually not vegan, that you may have thought were vegan. Looks can be deceiving, and this entire snacking guide can help you out the next time you’re grocery shopping.

1. Sugar

White sugar often goes through a refining process, that can involve the use of bone char. While not directly an animal-based food, this is definitely not vegan.

Brown sugar, powdered sugar, and raw sugar can all be made from refined white sugar as well.

To figure out your best option, make sure that you check the ingredients thoroughly or PETA. Helpful substitutes include maple syrup and agave nectar.

2. Jell-O, Marshmallows, Gummy Bears

Not all snacks that contain Jell-O, marshmallows and gummy bears are vegan. Some are actually made from gelatin, which is collagen from animal byproducts.

You will need to do research on these types of food snacks that you can eat or can’t eat. If you need a substitute, try an amount of agar-agar in certain snack recipes.

3. Candy

Certain candies can go against the vegan diet as well. If they have a shiny coating, that generally comes from a resin that is excreted by the lac bug.

Therefore, steer clear from any candies that have “confectioner’s glaze” and you can prevent consumption of this mistake.

4. Dyed Red Food

Candy and other snacks that are dyed red are also, most likely, not vegan. Most red dye gets its red coloring from another bug, the female cochineal insect. Stay

Stay away from anything that has the words “cochineal”, “carminic acid”, or “carmine” in the ingredient list.

5. Types of Soy Cheese

Honestly, this one may be surprising. Some brands behind soy cheese will add casein, a milk protein, to soy cheese. In essence, they make a vegan food product, well, not vegan.

Prevent yourself the hassle and check each label of soy cheese before you buy it, to ensure that you are truly consuming vegan cheese.

6. Sauces and Dressings

Many different sauces and dressings will contain nonvegan items, such as anchovy. Particular criminals include Worcestershire sauce and salad dressings like Caesar.

There are many different types of sauces and dressings out there, so again make sure that you check the label of everything that you buy and make sure that you know what every single ingredient is.

7. Peanuts

Peanuts are another surprising snack that may not be vegan as well. Packaged, shelled peanuts can actually use gelatin as an additive, turning a protein-rich snack into a nonvegan food.

What is the key here?

Again, check the label for every food item that you buy for snacks and meals. While you may think that you are buying food that is vegan, you might actually be wrong.

Food manufacturers can trick consumers by hiding nonvegan details behind ingredient names on the back of packages. If you don’t know what an ingredient is, always make sure you look it up before you buy something.

For even more vegan choices, make sure to check out our post on 5-minute meal ideas you’re sure to love.

About the author

Matt Beedle
Hi! I'm and I've been a vegan for 4 years. I switched to a plant based diet after getting sick with Sarcoidosis while working 16 hour days for several years building a startup. Although health was the original motivation, after learning about the terrible way the meat industry works and extreme damage it causes to the environment I've never looked back. I co-founded Vegan.io to make it as easy as possible for other people to switch to a vegan diet.

Want to try a vegan diet?

We created a meal planner app to help you! Get your fresh customized meal plan full of delicious, quick, budget friendly, healthy recipes.

GET YOUR MEAL PLAN!