In order to answer the question is sourdough bread vegan friendly, we must look at what ingredients are used to make the loaf of bread.
If we take the short answer route, we would simply say that sourdough bread is vegan.
However, I’ll also cover the ingredients that go into making it so that you can understand why it’s vegan.
I also want to mention that I wrote an article making a sourdough bread vs whole wheat comparison. In that article you can see that not all breads are vegan.
Whole wheat bread is vegetarian but not vegan because it’s made with milk and butter. That’s definitely not the case for sourdough loaves, these are vegan.
Is Sourdough Bread Vegan Friendly? Ingredients
If we’re asking ourselves which sourdough bread is vegan, I would say that the one we bake at home is definitely vegan.
But almost all sourdough breads we could buy are also vegan.
Even gluten-free sourdough bread is a lot of the time vegan. This is basic bread.
Sourdough bread is made with 4 basic ingredients:
- Sourdough starter
- Salt
- Water
- Flour
The starter is made with just flour and water.
And the starter replaces the yeast in a basic bread recipe.
Thus, sourdough bread is vegan just as a basic bread recipe made with just yeast, flour, water, and salt is vegan.
Maybe some people also add sugar and some might prefer using oil for making bread. Even then, the answer to the question is sourdough bread vegan friendly is still yes.
Of course, the best way to make sure that the sourdough loaf you consume is 100% vegan is to make it at home. Sourdough is delicious as toast, perfect with rich stews and hearty soups, and wonderful for making sandwiches.
Serving a vegetarian bean stew with sourdough toast or sourdough croutons can be one of the best meals for you and your family.
Another delicious recipe is this one. It’s vegan butternut squash apple soup with sourdough croutons.
Vegan sourdough sandwiches are another thing you must absolutely try. There are a lot of recipes you can find online. I am partial to hummus in my vegan sandwiches made with delicious sourdough slices.
Is store-bought sourdough bread vegan?
When I talked about the ingredients that we use for making sourdough, I basically addressed people who want to make their own loaves at home. Baked in a Dutch oven, they can rival professional bakeries.
If we buy our sourdough bread, then we need to read the list of ingredients to make sure that we’re buying a vegan product.
Let’s take the C’O Bakery Artisan Bread San Francisco Sourdough as an example. It contains: wheat flour, salt, water, sourdough starter and yeast. All these are vegan ingredients.
The ingredients that are vegetarian but not vegan we must look out for are: eggs, milk, butter, honey. These are vegetarian ingredients that can be used in the making of some breads but these are not usual ingredients that are used to make sourdough loaves.
Sourdough loaves are like our basic bread recipe, the difference is that a starter that is made of flour and water is used instead of yeast. That’s about it.
What about gluten free sourdough bread?
In order to make gluten free sourdough bread, the only difference is that we’re using gluten-free flours to make both the starter and later on the dough.
Of course, a GF sourdough bread should also be vegan, even if the list of ingredients we need increases considerably.
Let’s take this recipe as an example.
The recipe is made with: GF sourdough starter, water, brown rice flour, psyllium husk, maple syrup/honey, water, olive oil, potato starch, tapioca flour/arrowroot flour, sorghum flour, brown rice flour, sea salt.
Thus, the list of ingredients becomes significantly longer if we’re making gluten free breads but they remain vegan.
As you saw, if you don’t want to use honey, which is considered not to be a vegan product by many or some people, you can use maple syrup as a substitute. Or just plain sugar.
All in all, the simplest form of bread is vegan. That goes for white loaves, pita bread, naan, baguettes, ciabatta, batard bread, sourdough bread, etc.
Thus, the answer to the question is sourdough bread vegan friendly is absolutely yes, especially if you make it at home, that’s the best way to ensure the highest quality.
