What to Get a Vegetarian or Vegan Friend: Thoughtful Gift Ideas

Somewhere between the first fireworks of November and the last posting dates before Christmas, the same questions start arriving: a colleague who stopped eating meat in the spring, a brother-in-law who went vegan over the summer, a friend whose dietary rules nobody can quite remember. Choosing for them feels risky because the obvious presents (a box of chocolates, a cheese board, a smart leather wallet) can all turn out to be wrong.

The good news is that most of the best gifts for vegetarian and vegan friends are simply good gifts. Food that someone will actually cook with, a book they will open more than once, a plant that keeps growing after the wrapping paper has gone: none of these needs a special category. The extra care lies in a few places where animal products hide, and in knowing the difference between the two diets.

What is the difference between buying for a vegetarian and a vegan?

A vegetarian does not eat meat, poultry, fish or shellfish, and in the stricter sense used by the Vegetarian Society also avoids the by-products of slaughter, such as gelatine and animal rennet. Most vegetarians in the UK still eat eggs and dairy. A vegan goes further and avoids every animal product, which means no milk, butter, cheese, eggs or honey either. Many vegans also apply the same thinking to clothes, cosmetics and household goods.

In practice this means a gift that suits a vegan will almost always suit a vegetarian, while the reverse is not true. A jar of fresh pesto might seem like a safe choice for a vegetarian, yet traditional pesto uses Parmigiano Reggiano, which is made with animal rennet, and so it is not strictly vegetarian at all. When in doubt, buy vegan. It covers both friends at once and removes most of the guesswork.

Our separate piece on what the words vegetarian and vegan actually mean goes through the finer distinctions, including where pescatarians and flexitarians fit.

Food gifts that get eaten

Edible presents work well because they get used up rather than stored. A small hamper is easy to assemble from a good deli or a market stall: a bottle of cold-pressed rapeseed oil, a jar of harissa or chilli crisp, smoked sea salt, a tin of good chickpeas or butter beans, a bag of dried porcini, some dark chocolate. Each item is useful on a weeknight, which matters more than how impressive the basket looks under the tree.

Dark chocolate deserves a closer look. Plenty of bars with a high cocoa percentage contain no milk at all, but some include butterfat or milk powder, and others carry a “may contain milk” warning because they are made on shared lines. That warning concerns allergies rather than ingredients, so a vegan may still be happy with the bar. Reading the full ingredients list takes ten seconds and settles the question.

Retailers often group ideas by recipient, and a page of vegan gifts for him can be a useful starting point when inspiration runs dry, provided each product is checked against the same label rules as anything else.

Home-made food is the other route, and often the better one. A jar of spiced red onion chutney, a batch of oat biscuits made with plant butter, or granola baked with maple syrup instead of honey all cost little and show some thought. Write the ingredients on the tag. A vegan friend will appreciate not having to ask.

Puddings and sweets are where the trouble usually starts, because traditional British recipes lean on suet, butter and eggs. Golden syrup itself is generally made from cane sugar and is usually fine, but the steamed puddings and dumplings built around it often contain beef suet or dairy, so it pays to read the label rather than trust the name.

Ingredients that hide in otherwise sensible presents

Most accidental mistakes come from a short set of ingredients that sound harmless or do not appear on the front of the pack. This is one place where a list genuinely helps:

• Gelatine, made from animal bones and skin, in jelly sweets, marshmallows, some yoghurts and cheesecakes.
• Carmine or cochineal (E120), a red colour made from insects, in some sweets, drinks and cosmetics.
• Shellac (E904), a resin from the lac insect, used to glaze sweets and some fruit.
• Whey, casein and lactose, all from milk, in crisps, biscuits and “dark” chocolate.
• Beeswax and honey, in candles, food wraps, lip balm and granola.
• Fining agents such as isinglass, egg white or casein in some wines and beers.
• Lanolin, from sheep’s wool, which is the usual source of vitamin D3 in fortified products and appears in skincare.

A product carrying the Vegan Society’s sunflower trademark or one of the Vegetarian Society’s approved marks has been checked by that organisation, which is the quickest way to be sure without reading every line.

Cookbooks and kitchen tools

A cookbook is one of the safest presents for anyone who already enjoys cooking, provided it suits how they eat. Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty is entirely vegetarian and built around vegetables rather than substitutes for meat. Meera Sodha’s East gathers vegetarian and vegan recipes from across Asia, and Anna Jones’s A Modern Way to Eat is built around everyday vegetarian meals. For a vegan friend, check that the recipes do not lean heavily on eggs and cheese; a book labelled vegan saves the trouble.

Kitchen equipment is the less romantic option and often the one that gets used most. Someone eating more beans and grains will get years out of a heavy cast-iron casserole, a pressure cooker for dried pulses, a good sharp vegetable knife, a mandoline, a pestle and mortar, or a sturdy blender for soups and sauces. A tofu press sounds like a novelty and is in fact one of those tools people buy for themselves after a year of squashing blocks between plates.

One small aside: wooden spoons and chopping boards are a gift that improves with age, and a thick board of British beech or oak can be sanded back and oiled when it gets scarred, which is why so many kitchens still use one that was a present years ago. That has nothing to do with diet.

A pot of thyme, or another herb that keeps going

A living herb is cheap, cheerful and genuinely practical. Thyme suits plant-based cooking particularly well: it seasons beans, lentils, roasted squash, mushrooms and stuffings, and adds the savoury depth that meat might otherwise bring. A pot of common thyme (Thymus vulgaris) bought from a garden centre will sit happily on a bright windowsill through winter and can go outside in spring. Lemon thyme is a lovely alternative with a sharper scent, and our page on lemon thyme covers how to keep it.

The RHS advice for growing thyme is short: full sun, free-draining soil or gritty compost, and not too much water. Most potted thyme dies from soggy roots rather than neglect. Tuck a note in with the plant saying exactly that and the gift will probably still be alive next Christmas.

For a gardener, a packet of seed and a small bag of grit is an even cheaper version. Thyme from seed takes patience, and our guide to growing thyme from seed sets out the timing, but there is real satisfaction in a tray of seedlings on the windowsill in March.

Other herbs that suit the same treatment include rosemary, sage and chives, each of which turns up in winter vegetable dishes. Basil is a poor choice for a December present: it sulks in cold kitchens and rarely survives until spring.

Experiences in Norwich

Some of the most welcome presents are not objects at all. A meal out removes the worry of reading labels entirely, as long as the place understands what vegan means. Norwich has a good spread of plant-based cafés and restaurants, along with many mainstream places that mark vegan dishes clearly on their menus, and a voucher or a booked evening can be easier to get right than anything wrapped.

The streets around the Norwich Lanes are an obvious place to begin, with independent cafés, delis and small shops packed into a walkable area near the market. Our guide to plant-based eating in Norwich lists places by type, and it is worth checking the current menu online before buying a voucher, since dishes and opening times change with the seasons.

A cookery class, a foraging walk with a qualified guide, or a day out to one of Norfolk’s nature reserves can also work, depending on the person. Choose something that suits them first and fits their diet second; nobody wants a present that mainly reminds them how they eat.

Clothes, toiletries and household gifts

For vegans, the same principles often extend beyond food. Leather, suede, wool, silk and down are usually avoided, and many vegans also look for cosmetics and toiletries that are not tested on animals. Soap is a common pitfall, because traditional bars may be made from tallow, an animal fat sometimes listed as sodium tallowate. A bar made from plant oils such as olive, coconut or shea is the straightforward alternative.

Vegetarians vary much more here. Some avoid leather on the same grounds as meat, while others see no conflict. If the person is a vegetarian and you are unsure, choosing canvas, cotton, cork or recycled material avoids the question without making a statement of it.

Candles are worth a final check. Many are paraffin, some are beeswax, and a growing number are soy or rapeseed wax. Only the last two are reliably vegan.

A last word on asking

There is no shame in asking a friend what they would like, or quietly asking someone who knows them well. Many vegetarians and vegans have favourite brands, ingredients they miss, or kitchen gadgets they have been meaning to buy, and a direct question avoids the box of chocolates that ends up being passed on. If a surprise matters, the safest single choice is probably still the plant: a healthy pot of thyme, wrapped in brown paper, with a short note on the tag about sun, grit and watering only when the compost is dry.