The 2025 vegan plate is more mainstream and diverse than ever. Today’s vegans are fueling up on hearty legumes, whole grains, colorful produce, and an expanding range of cleaner, affordable plant-based meats and milks.
Stereotypes die hard.
Ask a non-vegan what vegans eat and you may still hear “salads and sad tofu.”
Yet retail scanners and consumer surveys from 2023-25 tell a richer story.
In the United States, plant-based food sales climbed to US$8 billion in 2022 — up 66 percent since 2018. Across 11 Asia-Pacific markets, 81 percent of consumers had tried plant milk by 2021.
Together, these figures show that vegan staples have broken out of the niche aisle and into everyday carts, making 2025 the year plant-first eating cements itself as mainstream.
Let’s dig into the numbers and trends – globally and across generations – to see how public assumptions stack up against what vegans are really eating.
The perception vs. the plate
It’s commonly assumed that vegans live on nothing but salad and sacrifice – a myth that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, vegetables abound, but so do hearty portions of grains, beans, and even comfort foods.
In fact, many vegan meals look a lot like everyone else’s, just with plant-based ingredients. “It’s commonly thought that vegans only eat salads; in reality this simply isn’t true,” one vegan lifestyle writer explains. Vegans enjoy a wide variety of foods, including plant-based versions of everyday favorites enjoyed by omnivores.
The average vegan plate may feature a bean chili over rice, pasta with tomato sauce, or a loaded veggie burrito – not exactly the sparse rabbit food some imagine.
One reason the myth persists is that early vegan products were limited. A decade or two ago, dining as a vegan often meant ordering the salad by default. But fast-forward to 2025, and there’s been an explosion of plant-based options. From oat milk lattes to vegan pizzas with melty dairy-free cheese, vegans today can indulge in virtually any cuisine.
Public perception hasn’t caught up with this reality: even as vegan choices proliferate, some observers still picture a lone salad. The data, however, tells us that most vegans fill their shopping carts and bellies with much heartier fare.
What’s really on the vegan shopping list
A 2024 Good Food Institute audit of ten key markets ranks the most common vegan grocery items:
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Legumes & pulses—beans, lentils, chickpeas (protein cornerstone in 94% of vegan households)
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Whole grains—oats, rice, quinoa, wheat (complex-carb mainstay in 87%)
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Fruit & vegetables—at least five colours daily for 82%
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Meat substitutes—soy- or pea-based burgers, nuggets, mince in 71%
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Dairy alternatives—plant milks, yogurts, cheeses in 68%
Old-school staples remain strong: according to GFI Outlook, U.S. sales of tofu, tempeh, and seitan rose 4 percent in 2022. Pantry “secret weapons” such as nutritional yeast (nooch) and chickpea-water aquafaba show that innovation often begins in home kitchens, not factories.
The post-2020 boom—and the market’s reality check
COVID-era shocks sent plant-based sales soaring, but 2023-24 proved that growth isn’t always linear.
U.S. retail sales of plant-based foods jumped from about $4.8 billion in 2018 to $8 billion in 2022 – a 66% surge, indicating a major boom in vegan-friendly options reaching consumers.
Circana grocery data shows that fresh meat-alternative unit sales fell about 7 percent in 2024, largely due to price sensitivity.
An 84.51° shopper survey found 53% of Americans cite cost as the top barrier to buying plant-based foods, yet one-third still plan to drink more plant milk in 2025.
Globally, however, momentum holds: retail plant-based meat hit US$ $6.1 billion in 2022, up 8 percent year-on-year, based on GFI sales data.
That said, the overall trend toward plant-centric eating keeps growing.
Nearly half of Americans (47%) surveyed in late 2024 plan to eat more plant-based foods in 2025, and 34% are actively looking to reduce their meat intake. In other words, the enthusiasm from 2020 hasn’t vanished – it’s just finding a new equilibrium. Many consumers are embracing simple, whole-food plant staples (like that trusty can of beans) alongside the occasional Impossible Burger.
Industry experts note that after an “ultra-processed panic,” brands are emphasizing clean, whole-food ingredients in their products.
Even at big food trade shows, the buzz in 2025 is around innovations like mushroom-based meats – for example, pulled BBQ that uses shredded shiitake mushrooms instead of factory-made soy. The fancy food science is still there, but it’s increasingly grounded in real veggies and fungi.
Looking ahead, analysts predict robust growth for plant-based eating through the decade. Global market forecasts project the vegan food market (everything from oat milk to vegan frozen dinners) to more than double by 2033.
In essence, the boom of 2020 has matured into a steady expansion. Vegans in 2025 have more choices than ever – and those choices are becoming more sustainable, affordable, and aligned with what mainstream shoppers want.
Generation Z to Boomers: Who’s driving change?
Interest skews young but is spreading fast.
A 31-country GlobeScan–EAT survey of 30,000 respondents reports:
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72% of Millennials intend to eat more plant-based foods
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69% of Gen Z and Gen X express the same goal
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44% of Boomers also plan to add plant meals
Regional snapshots vary.
India tops the vegan share at roughly 9 percent of its population, while North America and Europe hover near 2 percent; Latin America and the Middle East sit around 4–6%.
Cultural context shapes the pantry, but from jackfruit tacos in Mexico City to tofu-bok-choy stir-fries in Singapore, plant-first eating is becoming routine.
Whole foods or processed? Striking the balance
Media chatter paints vegan diets as ultra-processed, yet they’re not inherently more processed than other diets.
Many vegans combine scratch cooking with convenience products: steel-cut oats for breakfast, falafel wraps at lunch, and a pea-protein sausage tray bake at dinner.
Consumers want this: in Europe, 63% of shoppers say they want stricter transparency about what’s in plant-based foods, pushing brands to use familiar, natural ingredients.
We’re seeing, for example, burgers made from pea protein and beet juice instead of long chemical names. And studies have found that certain plant-based meat alternatives can indeed offer health benefits over the meats they replace (for instance, lower saturated fat and higher fiber).
So the “processed” label alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
Still, experts encourage vegans (and everyone else) to remember the basics of good nutrition. Minimally processed foods – think beans, vegetables, nuts, whole grains – provide the best bang for your buck in terms of nutrients and long-term health. Eating mostly whole plants with the occasional vegan treat is a pattern many have adopted, consciously or not.
After all, even omnivores benefit from eating more whole plant foods.
Highly processed junk, vegan or not, is something most dietitians say to limit. And interestingly, about 20% of Americans (vegan or otherwise) now report rarely or never eating ultra-processed foods, reflecting a broader shift toward fresh, whole ingredients.
The bottom line for vegans in 2025: there’s a delicious sweet spot between kale salads and vegan cheeseburgers.
A day’s menu might include steel-cut oats and fruit in the morning, a veggie-packed grain bowl for lunch, and a comforting plant-based chick’n curry for dinner.
It’s a mix of whole foods and carefully chosen convenience items – proving that a vegan diet can be as healthy, enjoyable, and diverse as you make it.
Key takeaways
The 2025 vegan plate is hearty, varied, and increasingly mainstream.
Legumes, grains, and colourful produce remain bedrock staples, complemented by a fast-evolving roster of plant milks and meats. Gen Z and Millennials are today’s loudest cheerleaders, but older cohorts and diverse regions are joining in.
Price and taste hurdles exist, yet long-term forecasts remain bullish.
For brands, the mandate is clear: make plant foods tasty, affordable, and minimally processed.
For eaters, the payoff is variety without compromise—whether that means a chickpea curry, a mushroom “pulled-pork” slider, or simply oatmeal with berries and oat milk.
The salad-only stereotype is gone — the data-rich reality is on the plate.
As we move forward, the gap between what people think vegans eat and what’s actually on the menu will only close further.
And if any skeptics remain, one vegan brownie or spicy lentil taco might be all it takes to change their mind, one tasty bite at a time.
