Is Vegan Kosher?

Answer

It’s not that simple.Let’s say you want to play it safe, so you order the French potato salad. What could possibly be wrong with a vegan salad?

Plenty.First, the dressing. Grape products need kosher supervision. Vinegar is often made from wine. Dijon mustard contains white wine. All of this is completely vegan, and completely not kosher. So you might have to ditch the dressing from your salad.Then, let’s examine the cooked ingredients. A potato is vegan. A potato cooked by a non-Jew in a pan that just made a batch of non-kosher vegan sausages is still vegan. But it is no longer kosher. So hold the potatoes.And we need to talk about oils. All vegetable oils are vegan. Not all are kosher. Oil made on equipment that also processes lard is certainly not kosher. But it can still be certified vegan, as long as no residue remains. Vegan standards look at ingredients. Kosher standards look at equipment too.Fine, you say. You’ll avoid wine vinegar, skip anything cooked, and make sure the oil is certified kosher. It’s just plain, raw vegetables. Now can you eat your vegan salad?Still no.Even raw vegetables need checking. Vegans may rinse their greens. Kosher law requires a full-on search-and-rescue operation, leaf by leaf, checking for tiny insects that are very not kosher. So even greens are a problem in a vegan restaurant.What are you left with? Your salad now consists of a raw carrot. Not sliced, grated or peeled, as the utensils aren’t kosher. Just you and a whole raw carrot, bonding.So can you finally tuck into your delicious meal, in a vegan restaurant, guilt-free?Not really.Yes, it’s technically kosher. But it’s like sitting in McDonald’s drinking a bottle of water. The water is kosher. Being there is not.Vegan is vegan. Kosher is kosher. It’s more than what you eat. It is also where you eat, how it was prepared, and who prepared it.So the only way to eat in a vegan restaurant is to order a salad, hold the vinaigrette, no dijon mustard, leave out potatoes and greens… just an uncut carrot. Home delivered.After all that, it might be easier to go to a kosher restaurant. Not out of guilt, out of conviction. It's not about carrots or sticks. It's about what's right for your soul.