My vegan month in a meat lover’s country

Hello world,

Okay. Let’s be real here. Us Moroccans, LOVE meat. At least that’s what everyone keeps telling me. As you may -or may not- know, I’ve been vegetarian for over a year now. IN MOROCCO. Is it hard? Not at all.

Contrary to popular belief, a well balanced vegan diet does provide all the nutrients we need to function and thrive. Plus, the United Nations has called for a global shift to a vegan diet wherever possible as it is the most effective way to combat climate change, world hunger, and ecological devastation (and animal suffering).

I do have a pretty busy schedule with school and my -multiple- activities ( i like keeping myself occupied ), though, I have no problem eating outside as a vegetarian. Although I have to admit I get pretty weird stares when I ask for meatless sauces (Shoutout to every person who judged me when I asked for a bolognese pasta with no meat), I learned how to live with it…I’d love to tell you more about how being vegetarian is in here, but maybe in another post (#Preview). Right now let’s get to the bottom of the *interesting* topic. Breaking it down, I’ve heard so many times that it is impossible to be vegetarian/vegan in Morocco because it is “Way too hard”. I proved everyone wrong by going vegetarian for more than a year now and decided to conduct my own little experiment. I became vegan for an entire month to see how difficult it could be.

Disclaimer: Every vegan in Morocco, I ADMIRE you so much.

To be honest, meals weren’t that big of a problem for me. Avoiding cheese was challenging at first, but I had my tofu and nutritional yeast (couldn’t find any vegan cheese), but it was nothing compared to butter (IT’S EVERYWHERE !). The important thing to know is that you have to be aware of what you eat and know how to order. Thing is that it was pretty hard since I had to eat out pretty much every day because of school… So if you want to go vegan and not eat the same thing every day, you have to meal prep. Go grocery shopping way ahead, and make big batches of whatever you like (vegan bars, cookies, muffins, pancakes…). It might take you up to 1 or 2 hours per week but it’s honestly doable. If you know how to manage your time well, trust me: it won’t be a problem. As a matter of fact, it’s way healthier since you know what’s in your food and can control what’s in it (note that it is useful if you have a nutrient deficiency).

Also, many of my friends pointed out that going vegan is expensive, and the answer is: YES and NO. It’s not expensive if you stick to the basics, but it is true that is is a lot cheaper to be vegan elsewhere. For the fruits, legumes, and veggies, I guess that no one will have a problem with that. Though it is true that the kinds of non-dairy milk and syrups and stuff are a lot more expensive here, I still believe that you can find a way to eat a healthy vegan diet here that won’t cost a fortune.

Now back to my personal experience, I only encountered one problem: desserts. I needed quick and easy ones to pick up so I had to batch make them during the weekend. Pros: It was delicious and healthy-ish. Cons: I couldn’t have whatever I wanted because I obviously didn’t have time to make them and I didn’t find anyone who sells vegan pastries. I did find some alternative such as Oreos aka my savior and beloved delicacy. There’s also toasts with nut better that I use normally as snacks but that made good desserts.

Now to understand this part, you need to know one more thing: I live for ice cream. Scratch that. I live for chocolate. Anyways, the point is that the weather was pretty good this month which was NOT helpful at all. That means that I REALLY wanted ice cream (Froyo to be exact). The struggle of seeing everyone having them while I was just watching was torture. I couldn’t find ANY type of vegan ice cream and had to make my own UNTIL I found (on my last week -OBVIOUSLY-) a place selling vegan chocolate sorbet near my place #MyLuck. Complaints aside, since I couldn’t find any plain vegan yogurt I had to make *drum rolls please*  NICE CREAM. Yup, nice cream. Vegan healthy ice cream. Basically frozen bananas and whatever topping you want, -my favorite is peanut butter-. I would totally recommend it to replace your ice creams buuuuuut I still want froyo right now. In fact, that’s all I can think about while typing right now. (Ps. Don’t get me started on the struggle when all your friends eat waffles in front of you at school (THANK YOU, PEOPLE. SO MUCH.).

Jokes aside and to conclude: Overall I really enjoyed the experience. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and definitely gave me a glimpse at the life of the Moroccan vegans out there ( not many but cheers for your courage guys ! And thank you for saving our adorable animals and our magnificent planet ). If I learned anything from this, it is that you can always find vegan alternatives -it really isn’t hard-. I believe that knowing that you are not causing or encouraging any death of suffering is so rewarding because, at the end of the day, you feel good about yourself. So if you are not interested in becoming vegan whatsoever, I would still encourage you to do the #MeatlessMondays: “Cut out meat, one day a week for your health and the health of the planet!”.

As for me, I will definitely stay vegetarian, but keep my meals as vegan as I can. I’ll only get dairy for emergencies (DESSERT EMERGENCIES). But, I’d love to know, are you a vegan/ vegetarian? If yes, do you find it challenging? #ShareYourJourney in the comment section!