Vegan cakes, cookies, pastries and poon choi for Chinese New Year to have a cruelty-free celebration

Restaurants and food retailers are creating vegan, plant-based Chinese New Year delights to ring in the Year of the Ox

From OmniPork turnip cake to an 18-ingredient vegan poon choi to cookies made from oolong tea leaves, here’s our pick of what’s available

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Green Common’s three vegan Chinese New Year cakes: pumpkin rice cake with red quinoa, turmeric and oatmilk (top); peach gum water chestnut cake with chrysanthemum bud (bottom); and OmniPork vegan XO sauce red quinoa turnip cake (right).

Published: 4:15pm, 7 Feb 2021Updated: 12:09pm, 8 Feb 2021

Chinese New Year is a time to indulge in family feasts and festive treats – even those complying with social distancing restrictions want to maintain the traditions of sharing special dishes.

With the coronavirus pandemic making people more conscious of the need to eat healthily, restaurants and food retailers are creating culinary delights for those leaning towards a vegan, or plant-based, diet, which involves no animal products such as meat, fish, eggs, milk or butter.

Here is a sampling of vegan treats available to ring in the Year of the Ox.

1. Traditional festive cakes

Hong Kong-based Green Common, a retail grocery chain which promotes plant-based eating, has developed three vegan Chinese New Year cakes: pumpkin rice cake with red quinoa, turmeric and oatmilk (HK$248 / US$32); peach gum water chestnut cake with chrysanthemum bud (HK$218); and OmniPork vegan XO sauce red quinoa turnip cake (HK$248).

David Yeung, the chain’s founder, says all flavours are made with plant-based ingredients and superfoods.

“They are cruelty-free and Buddhist-friendly [without onion or garlic] and free from cholesterol, artificial colouring and MSG,” he adds.

For the OmniPork vegan XO sauce cake, Yeung says the OmniPork – a zero-cholesterol plant-based meat – replaces the unhealthy Chinese traditional cured meat, containing all the same flavour but without the risks associated with processed meat preservatives.