Foraging for Food - Part Six, Veganism

Foraging for food goes quite well for vegans as most foods being foraged fits quite well into the vegan diet (with the exception of foraging for edible insects, honey, and similar food sources).

However vegans, as always, face the extra challenge of trying to balance their nutritional needs for protein, calcium, potassium, and other factors. This means that when foraging they need to pay extra care to find foods which provide a good amount of the desired nutrition.

Since protein, calcium and potassium are the big ones worth worrying about, lets focus on those today.


High Protein Foods you can Forage

While it is true that insects like cicadas, wasps and worms are high in protein, lets pretend those are not available and focus solely on plants. Even omnivores get squeamish about the idea of eating insects and worms, so having a plant option you find more appetizing actually makes more sense.

Chestnuts

The best and most common plant source of protein is nuts, including:

• Acorns
• Almonds
• Beechnuts
• Butternut
• Chestnuts
• Hazelnuts 
• Heartnuts
• Hickory Nuts
• Northern Pecans
• Pine Nuts
• Walnuts (dried, I don't recommend eating them when they are green)

Lambs Quarters

High Calcium Foods you can Forage

• Bananas (good luck finding some of these things in Ontario, you would have better luck growing them in a garden or indoors)
• Lambs quarters
• Nettles
• Wild Potatoes
• Yams

High Potassium Foods you can Forage

• Artichokes
• Dandelions
• Fiddlehead ferns
• Lambs quarters
• Nettles

See also past articles on Foraging:

Foraging for Food - Part One, An Introduction to Foraging

Foraging for Food - Part Two, More Foraging Tips and Tricks

Foraging for Food - Part Three, An Introduction to Mushrooms

Foraging for Food - Part Four,  A Cup of Tea

Foraging for Food - Part Five, Foraging in the Winter