If you’re looking for the perfect gift for the vegan or vegetarian in your life, we’re here to help with our 2022 Vegan Gift Guide! We’ve rounded up some great vegan gift ideas to help make your shopping a little easier this holiday season.
You can listen to our discussion about this beautiful gift below or read on for a summary.
Vegetarian Zen is reader-supported. When you make a purchase through a link on our site, we may earn a financial commission. Furthermore, the information presented is for educational purposes only. Always consult your doctor. Learn more
Writing our vegan gift guide gets easier every year!
Every year, writing our vegan gift guide seems to get easier as there are more and more vegan and eco-friendly gifts to choose from. The items we’ve chosen for our gift guide aren’t all delicious vegan treats; We’ve also included some personal development and eco-friendly gifts.
1. Donate to a local pet rescue or animal sanctuary
Is there a more thoughtful gift for your favorite plant-based friend or family member than a donation in their name to a local pet rescue or animal sanctuary? Donating to a local no-kill shelter is always a great idea as it helps animals and the community alike.
A simple Google search for “no-kill shelters near me” should help you locate some shelters in your city. You can also check out our favorite animal sanctuaries.
2. Plum Deluxe Tea
In episode 209 of the podcast, we interview Andy Hayes
Make sure to check out their membership options as well. This is a great gift for the tea lover in your life!
Plum Deluxe Tea is fresh, organic and fair trade with no harsh chemicals and weird artificial flavors to provide an amazing tea experience.
Go to Plum Deluxe
3. Corpse
We love Lush because they are committed to practices that protect and serve animals, the environment and their customers. Their site details their ethical campaigns, including one to fight trophy hunting, and ongoing campaigns to help save the planet and promote human rights initiatives.
Their products are 100% vegan and 95% vegan (some contain honey or lanolin). All of their ingredients are cruelty-free and responsibly sourced.
We’ve used quite a few Lush products over the past few years, from bath bombs and soy candles to deodorant (you can learn more about it in episode 325 of the podcast).
4. Complete focus planner
When it comes to keeping track of appointments, tasks and projects (whether for home or work), everyone has an opinion on how to do it. Digital systems work better for some, while others prefer to keep their busy lives organized on paper.
For paper-based productivity in your life, Michael Hyatt’s Complete Focus Planner might be just the thing. It’s more than just a daily planner to track your appointments and to-do lists. The Full Focus Planner guides you to consider your short and long-term goals and check in to make sure you’re working on the things you’re working on.
Larissa and I both use it and love it!
5. Vegan food delivery subscription
Food delivery subscriptions have become very popular in the past few years. Initially, these services had few (if any) plant-based options. Now, a few years later, many subscriptions cater to vegetarians (and other lifestyle specialties), with at least one, Purple Carrot, fully dedicated to serving vegan and vegetarian customers.
In episode 300 of the podcast (back in 2019) we interviewed our friend Daniel Fried about his experiences with four subscription services that either included vegetarian or vegan options or were completely plant-based.
$25 discount applies at checkout!
Splendid Spoon’s plant-based smoothies, soups, noodle and grain bowls are low in sugar and sodium and ready-to-eat.
Learn more
6. Plant-based cookbooks
We’ve collected some amazing vegan and vegetarian cookbooks over the years. While the trend these days may be to find and save recipes online, there’s something special about thumbing through a cookbook, marking recipes you like and making notes in the margins.
Last year we shared 10 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks for Beginners. Check out that list or browse the aisles for items your loved ones will enjoy
7. Veg Zen Swag
I guess it wouldn’t be our gift guide if we didn’t mention The Vegetarian Zen Swag Shop at TeePublic. We love TeePublic because they support independent artists. In addition to Vegan Zen-Brand merchandise, we’ve added several of their designs to our store, so when you purchase a product through our store, you’re not only supporting a plant-based business (us!) but you’re also supporting independent artists.
8. Yeti water bottle
Investing in a good quality reusable water bottle can definitely save you money in the long run and, of course, benefit the planet immensely. According to Earthday.org, Americans purchase about 50 billion water bottles each year. An average of 13 bottles per month for each person in the United States! By using a reusable water bottle, you can save an average of 156 plastic bottles a year.
We love the stainless steel water bottles made by Yeti. They’re sturdy but can be a little heavy (which is why they’re so sturdy!) Yeti water bottles come in a variety of sizes and colors and offer a variety of caps.
9. Air fryer
It took us a while to get an air fryer but we sure are glad we did! Our multi-use; Apart from air frying, there are also settings for baking, broiling, convection baking and broiling, toasting and warming. We use it for all sorts of things. Here is our fryer with our review.
10. Handmade with love
A handmade or home-baked gift will really show them you care. Gifts like vegan gift baskets to include fresh fruit, nut butters (like almond or peanut butter), vegan cheese, dark chocolate, tea.
11. Plant-based cooking course
The transition to a plant-based lifestyle can be overwhelming and a little scary. A good plant-based cooking course, or even a course teaching the basics of cooking, can really help ease that transition.
Rouxbe online cooking school offers several courses that fit the bill. I’ve taken two of their courses (so far!): Culinary Rx, which teaches basic cooking skills; and Forks Over Knives, which focuses
You can learn more about the Cooking Rx course in episode 385 and the Forks Over Knives course in this episode.
Great stocking stuffers
1. Tatuo 7-Piece Portable Stainless Steel Flatware Set
Say “I love you to the planet” by keeping plastic containers out of landfills. These reusable portable stainless steel containers are easy to carry in a purse or bag.
- Stainless steel cutlery set: 1 x knife, 1 x fork, 1 x spoon, 1 pair of chopsticks, 1 x bent straw, 1 x straight straw, 1 x straw brush, plus 1 x storage bag included
- Material: Made of good quality stainless steel metal, durable and healthy for daily use, comes with a brush, which is easy to clean inside the straw.
Buy on Amazon
2. Reusable drinking straws
Plastic drinking straws are no bueno…if you want to sip your drink, go eco! There are many non-plastic alternatives these days: paper, bamboo, glass, metal. Paper straws are easily biodegradable, while bamboo, glass and metals are reusable.
3. Amazon Gift Cards
Physical gifts are nice, but what do you get for someone who has everything? How about someone you don’t know well? Or someone with very specific tastes? Two words: gift cards!
You can take gift cards to specific stores if you want, but we love Amazon gift cards because they’re universal and allow the recipient to shop for pretty much anything under the sun (even the kitchen sink!).
4. Press tofu
A simple tofu press goes from a heavy cookware balancing act to just a few knobs or screws to make tofu. They are cheap and really get the job done to get the excess water out of the tofu.
5. Silicone baking mat
I’ve been using aluminum foil and cooking spray on the baking pan without thinking too much about it forever. However, as you can probably imagine, none of them are great for the planet. Luckily there are some great eco-friendly swaps for baking. A silicone baking mat and and a silicone liner are the perfect replacement for foil and cooking spray.
We hope we’ve given you some great plant-based and eco-friendly gift ideas when you hit the mall or shop online this gift-giving season.