Easy as v-e-g-a-n

If you think you need to go to great lengths to follow a vegan diet, think again.

Being vegan doesn't require unusual or hard-to-find products. In many cases, you only need to tweak recipes or menu items slightly to create a vegan meal. Remove the cheese from a vegetable pizza, for example, and you have a vegan dish.

"It is not at all difficult to live a mainstream life and be vegan," said Evelyn B. Kimber, president of the Boston Vegetarian Society. "In fact, vegan cooking is the most simple, basic cooking that societies and cultures have lived on for thousands of years by eating grains, vegetables, legumes, and fruit. So it's easy to be vegan even if you're in an isolated area without specialty food stores around."

And thanks to what Kimber calls the "vegan veto," in which friends going out to eat will nix a restaurant that has no options for the vegan in their group, many restaurant menus now offer at least one vegan dish.

Legal Seafoods makes a vegan-friendly "vegetarian box," served in a white cardboard Chinese takeout container that contains brown rice, tofu, stir-fried vegetables, cashews, and Thai red curry coconut sauce. Wagamama, the London-based noodle chain that recently opened in Quincy Market, has several vegan choices, including ramens, rice dishes, salads, and noodles. Newbury Street's Other Side Cafe sells vegan pies loaded with onions, tomatoes, capers, peppers, leeks, and zucchini. And Deep Ellum makes a seitan vegan burger that, according to co-owner Josh Velazquez, sells nearly as well as the Allston tavern's traditional Black Angus burger.

"There are really no obstacles or sacrifices involved in being vegan," said Kimber. "We have a wide range of fabulous vegan foods that are healthy, delicious, and don't cause any harm to the environment or to animals. So what more could we want?"

For more information about vegan eating, go to veganboston.com, vrg.org, veganfreak.net, or bostonveg.org.