Trader Joe’s is a vegan’s paradise. Shit, it’s paradise for anyone who loves food. But there are a lot of products lurking around the shelves of TJ’s just waiting for vegans to discover them, gobble them up, and beg for more.
We’ve rounded up a ton of vegan goodies – many not found on their limited vegan list. Our list includes anything that is free of animal products – ie, meat, eggs, dairy, and honey – and is mega-helpful to use to update your next grocery list.
So kick back, relax, grab your nearest cuddly animal friend, and prepared to get mega-jazzed about all the vegan eats that await you at Trader Joe’s.
Refrigerated/Fresh Section
Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls
You heard right. No eggs or dairy in these fluffy clouds of delicious warm sweet carbs. Bless up.
Muhammara
Made from ground walnuts, roasted red peppers, and pomegranate juice, this dip has the texture of a nut butter and one of the most unique and scrumptious savory tangy flavors you’ve ever tried. It’s hearty and satisfying both physically and to the taste buds; pair with pita bread, chips, crackers, or veggies. Also a crazy good addition as a sandwich smear.
Organic Hummus
The simple things in life are the best. With a perfect texture and flawless flavor, this is the gold standard for unflavored hummus.
Horseradish Hummus
If you’re looking for a hummus with a punch, this stuff has just enough horseradish tang to tickle your taste buds. Other delicious options include the Beet Hummus, as well as the Cilantro Jalepeno.
Soy Chorizo
This spicy saucy substitute is a customer favorite for omnivores and vegans and everyone in between. Scramble it up with some tofu and bell peppers and you have a wonderful #vegan breakfast in just a few minutes flat.
Organic 3-Grain Tempeh
There might not be another place on earth to buy organic tempeh for $1.99. Not only is it cheap, this tempeh is delicious, and a heartier alternative to tofu for your stir-frys, sandwiches, or tossed onto salads.
Chicken-less Chicken Strips
Perfect for fajitas or tossed into salads, these meat substitutes are lightly seasoned and done right. They pack a powerful protein and iron punch per serving, too, making them an even better addition to a vegan diet.
Super Burrito
Aptly named, this burrito packs quinoa, kale, sweet potatoes, and a mild heat into a yummy tortilla making it wonderful and cheap option for lunch on the go.
Spicy Chunky Guacamole
If you’re sketched out by pre-packaged guac, put hesitations aside for a hot second and try this. It’s flawless. Double yums when eaten with Plaintain Chips.
Non-Dairy Dairy Products
Vegan Cream Cheese
Puts Tofutti and every other cream cheese replacement to utter shame, at a fraction of the price. Makes magical vegan cream cheese frosting, too.
Soy/Coconut Creamer
For $1.49 you get one of the best non-dairy coffee creamers on the market. Smooth, rich, and subtly sweet from the soy, it’s just want your coffee ordered.
If the soy creamer isn’t your jam, the coconut creamer just might be. Subtle coconut flavor tastes amazing in iced coffee (we suggest pairing it with their Cold Brew Concentrate).
Coconut Milk
Trader Joe’s refrigerated non-dairy milks are carrageenan free, and thus heaven-sent for those with allergies or sensitivities to the stuff. Bonus – they’re also fortified with Vitamin B12, which is a key nutrition vegans should be keeping their eyes on.
Frozen
Mini Churros
If you want something smaller to get your warm, cinnamony carb on, give these a whirl. You can microwave these in a pinch to satisfy any instant fried sweet dough craving. So wee and dippable and delicious.
Vegetable Pad Thai
Rejoice for a pad thai that is 100% vegan. A super affordable and amazing-to-have-on hand lunch, the noodles are perfectly chewy, the tofu has a solid mouthfeel, and the nuts add a delightful crunch. Like take out, done better.
Penne Arrabiatta
Looking for the most perfect pasta dinner ever? With this bag and 4 minutes in the microwave, you’re golden. Al dente noodles with delicious, spicy red sauce, this imported pasta gets a thumbs up from even the biggest Italian food snobs. Toss in some spinach if you fancy.
Mildly Spiced Organic Vegetable Burritos
Delicious burritos. Just enough background heat to keep them interesting. Excellent with the Trader Joe’s Green Dragon hot sauce.
Chicken-less Crispy Tenders
Your chicken tender fix, satisfied. Just greasy enough to be satisfying fun food without feeling too junky, these crispy meatless tenders could fool carnivores. Dip in their Organic Ketchup or BBQ sauce and feel like a kid again.
Meatless Meatballs
Better than any real meatball on the market. Wonderful with pasta dishes or on hoagie bread, they also lend themselves perfectly to appetizers, and taste amazeballs with their Sriracha BBQ Sauce.
Fully Cooked Falafel
Vegans and falafels go hand in glorious chickpea-filled hand. These are mega-cheap and microwave in mere minutes. Toss into a pita with some cukes and tomatoes and you have a delicious falafel on the go.
Vegan Tikki Masala
While most frozen ethnic food is sketch, TJ’s does it RIGHT. This savory meal has a wonderful, flavorful sauce and tender rice with cashews for crunch. Certainly a satisfying and less-expensive alternative to take-out.
Vegetable Panag Curry Meal
Curry in a hurry! This mildly spiced lunch or dinner is full of a creamy sauce and packed with veggies.
Soy Creamy Ice Cream
Oh hell yeah, it’s soy creamy. This is ice cream everyone can agree on. It’s basically like a way-better and dairy-free version of the Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. Big chunks of tangy cherries and generous dark chocolate chunks float in a smooth and luscious creamy cherry ice cream base.
Frozen Coconut Dessert: Strawberry and Chocolate
This coconut-milk based ice cream is rich, delicious, and packs clean, intense flavors. The strawberry might even be better than the chocolate, but both are more than worthy of a try.
Soy Creamy Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches
Affordable dairy-free ice cream sandwiches that are out of this world? We’re sold! A layer of chocolate or vanilla ice cream sits between two delicious soft baked ice cream sandwich cookies. Tastes like childhood, with none of the dairy.
Snacks
Nacho Kale Chips
These are truly nacho average kale chips, pun intended. Zesty and satisfying, they’re covered with a cashew sauce, seasonings, and we’re not sure what else, but it’s wonderful. You’ll never look at kale chips the same way again.
Inner Peas
These puffy daddy’s are a melt-in-your-mouth and more nutritious alternative to chips when you want a salty, crunchy snack.
Veggie & Flaxseed Tortilla Chips
Tricolored tortilla chips with a nutty flavor and omega-3 boost thanks to the flax. Sign us up.
Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips
Intriguing, subtle, yet totally on point sweet potato flavor. Perfect with the Peach Salsa.
Multitude with Soy Sauce Rice Crackers
It kind of tastes like a crunchy soy sauce glazed cracker, in the best way possible.
Dried Fruit and Nuts
Freeze-Dried Fruits
The mango legit tastes like melt-in-your-mouth cotton candy. And the rest of them are wonderful for snacking and on cereal.
Coconut Cashews
Nut crack, the subtly sweet coconut edition.
Thai Lime & Chili Cashews
Nut crack, the spicy tangy salty edition.
Marcona Almonds with Rosemary
Nut crack, the bougie edition.
Coconut Chips
Unlike so many dried coconut products, this one isn’t too sweet. Delicious as a snack or on salads or as a topper for smoothies.
Apple + Fruit Bars
Portable fruit bars with only two ingredients. The best is the apple + coconut, but they all good.
Grocery
Raw Almond Butter
Naturally sweet from raw almonds, this AB is a darn tootin’ good deal compared to what you’ll find for a jar of raw nut butter from most health food stores. It is magically delicious on all things, especially fruit, toast, oatmeal, and roasted veggies (trust us).
Peanut Butter with Flax and Chia Seeds
Yay for the omega-3 fatty acids; this peanut butter is perfect for vegans. Not only is it delicious and nutty, it packs some pretty impressive essential fatty acid power.
Sunflower Seed Butter
If you’ve never had sunflower seed butter, you absolutely must. This one in particular has an intense and sunny sunflower taste and is perfectly garnished with a hint of salt and sugar. Slather over toasty bagels and taste the smiley sunshine, or make these truffles.
Pad Thai Noodles
A shelf-stable box of pad thai noodles for $1.99 that is somehow out of this world. It puts those ramen cup-of-noodle things to shame. Wonderful to keep on hand for a quick lunch, especially with some nuked broccoli in it to round things out.
Reduced Fat Mayonnaise
Somehow accidentally vegan. Okay. Noted.
Coconut Cream
Where else can you get coconut cream for $1.49? This stuff is super rich and luscious. So great in coffee, curries, or whipped into whipped cream to top all of your vegan pies.
Cookie Butter
What Trader Joe’s list would be complete without a cookie butter shoutout? Cookie butter is free of eggs and dairy, and therefore a perfectly acceptable thing to slather all over your chocolate, bananas, or non-dairy ice cream.
Cereal and Bread
Everything Bagels (Actually All The Bagel Flavors Are Amazing)
Trader Joe’s does store-bought bagels really well. These have all the delightful chewy interior and crust that bagels should have. And they toast up magically.
Pretzel Sticks
Yes you need these. Perfect to mop up soups and salads, or magical on their own, warmed slightly.
Peanut Butter Puffins
Not really a TJ’s product per se, but they carry these at a darn good price. These can double as dessert with almond milk. Seriously, so good.
Organic Brown Rice Marshmallow Treats
Vegan rice Krispie treats?! Hooray! At 100 calories each, these not-too-sweet-but-just-sweet-enough sweet treats are wonderful to keep on hand for a midmorning or late night snack.
Cranberry Coconut Granola
Hello, my pretty. This granola has large chunks of coconut flakes, plump dried cranberries, and crunchy granola nuggets. It makes a great topping to a smoothie bowl or an out-of-the-box snack.
Baking
Chocolate Chips
Non-dairy chocolate chips. For $1.99. Trader Joe’s, why are you so perfect?
Vanilla Cake Mix
Swap the eggs with a flax or chia egg and you have a delightful vanilla cake, flavored with real vanilla and not with imitation garbage. Because who wants garbage cake? Not me.
Cinnamon Coffee Cake Mix
As long as you don’t follow the directions on the box (swap out eggs and dairy for vegan substitutes), you’re minutes away from crumbly sweet coffee cake. Hells yeah.
Pumpkin Bread Mix
When you need your fix of #basicgurl pumpkin goodness, grab this mix. Swap egg for a vegan substitute (like 1 tablespoon chia or flax + 3 tablespoons water) and you’re good to go.
Truffled Brownie Mix
As far as a brownie mix goes, this is good. Like, fudgey goodness good. Add some extra chocolate chips and almonds for an easy upgrade. Or, make ’em slutty.
Cookies & Candies Section
Mini Cafe Twist Cookies
These can be likened to a less-junky and non-greasy version of the Taco Bell cinnamon twist. Absolutely delightful dipped in coffee. And at only 30 calories a pop, you can munch your coffee break.
Organic Animal Crackers
These were also in our healthy snacks from Trader Joe’s roundup. With a subtle lemon flavor and addictive crunch, these are, without a doubt, the best animal crackers of all times, and also the only animals vegans will gobble up like there’s no tomorrow.
Cinnamon School Book Cookies
Basically like a cinnamon graham crackers in bite-sized form. These are a wonderful sweet treat or anytime snack – plus, you can spell things with them, which instantly makes them way more fun.
Brownie Crisps
What tastes like a brownie, has chunks of chocolate in it, is gluten-free, and is crunchy like a crispy cookie? Why, Trader Joe’s Brownie Crisps, of course. These are delicious plain, with peanut butter, crumbled on ice cream, or eaten dunked in a nice, cool glass of coconut milk.
Turkish Fig Bites
Fig Newton’s way more delicious cousin. At $1.99 a these are basically a steal.
Joe Joe’s
Just like Oreo’s are accidentally vegan, Joe Joe’s are too. But way, way better. All varieties of Joe-Joe’s are 100% dairy and egg free (including seasonal favorites like Pumpkin and Candy Cane), with the Vanilla-Vanilla being the underrated superstar (trust us).
Cowboy Bark
Salty sweet heaven. The perfect chocolate-pretzel combo, with some Joe-Joe’s, almonds and sea salt tossed in for good measure.
Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds with Sea Salt and Turbinado Salt
The holy grail of chocolate covered nuts. These are sweet, chocolately, salty, and have an extra unique crunch from the raw sugar. Perhaps one of the most addicting food products of all times, we’re warning you now that all other chocolate-covered nuts may soon taste inferior. Prepare to raise your standards.
Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies
Sweet fluffy cinnamon cookies. These babies are not only vegan and gluten-free, but also crazy delicious. Soft as clouds, you could probably use these for pillows, but they taste too good for that nonsense, so we suggest eating them instead.
The Dark Chocolate Lover’s Chocolate Bar
$1.69 for two bars of what could easily sell for $10 a piece, this chocolate is out of control delicious. So deeply chocolatey that it almost tastes a bit fruity, this bar is the reason this author gets out of bed some mornings.
Ts & Js Sour Gummies
Trader Joe’s has #blessed the vegan community with gelatin-free gummy candies, including these. Basically a much-tastier version of Sour Patch kids, these have real fruit juices in them – including lemon and key lime juice – that makes then a real crowd pleaser.
Scandinavian Swimmers
Just when we thought TJs had won the gummy game, they dropped these babies from vegan heaven. Kind of like Swedish fish, but again, done much better, these cute little critters will swim their way into your heart.