Show HN: Veganize any recipe site with EatKind Chrome extension

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eatkind-for-chrome/ngojbbddpmckcgficlhojjcabamifdmi

by neetha • 4 years ago

135 113 4 years ago

chrome.google.com

neetha23• 4 years ago

Hello,

I'm the Founder & CEO at EatKind. This is my first post on HN, and I'm looking for feedback on our latest Chrome extension.

We launched EatKind – https://eatkind.co around 6 months back to help anyone eat less meat, eggs and dairy. EatKind can veganize ANY recipe, dish or ingredient by providing plant-based alternatives to use in place of animal-derived ingredients.

And we just launched this Chrome extension to make it all the more easier for users to veganize a meal. All you have to do is install the extension, and visit any recipe site!

EatKind works in the US, UK and India today. We are looking to add support to more countries soon.

Some of our upcoming features are: being able to favourite your recipes, create a shopping list, integration with online vegan stores.

If you're looking to cut down your meat or dairy consumption or transitioning to a plant-based diet - we would love to hear from you.

gorjusborg• 4 years ago

Curious, why does this need to be a browser extension?

I'm interested in the concept here, but the use of a browser extension just seems like a vector to do nefarious things.

neetha23• 4 years ago

You don't need this extension. You can use the search box on eatkind.co. No sign-in required.

The extension makes it simpler to see the whole recipe along with the instructions and video while you may need recommendations or suggestions to vegnaize it.

xzjis• 4 years ago

I will not install an extension that is not open source.

neetha23• 4 years ago

I understand your concern. And will consider open sourcing the extension code. You can also use EatKind on https://eatkind.co

FrenchDevRemote• 4 years ago

Awesome concept, do you plan on releasing a firefox version?

neetha23• 4 years ago

Thank you!

Unfortunately, we do not have too many users who use Firefox. So probably in the distant future. But you can still use eatkind search on https://eatkind.co

mdaniel• 4 years ago

the parent comment combined with your open source reply[0] is where open source usually shines, in my experience: a feature that is important to the community but isn't prioritized due to lack of energy available

I recognize there is some nonzero work involved in stewardship over managing PRs and issues, but hopefully it would be less net energy than EatKind having to do the legwork of porting the extension to FF (and maybe even Safari) themselves

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30195132

eatonphil4• 4 years ago

Rather than substituting vegan alternatives in traditional meat meals (like mushroom burger instead of hamburger) I'd personally rather be exposed to more great vegan/vegetarian recipes that were intended to be vegan/vegetarian by the cultures that have great veggy dishes like in South Asia.

One way I've gotten more exposed already is watching Rick Stein shows on Amazon like Far Eastern Odyssey and India. Before watching that I thought things like curries were too hard or annoying to make. On the contrary his simple approaches made it clear some of these spicy veggy dishes are the easiest and tastiest to make with whatever veggies you have laying around.

grenoire2• 4 years ago

This addon indeed seems more like an affiliate link pipeline entry.

nefitty• 4 years ago

It's not bad to make money. It's good to make money providing a service that helps people.

neetha23• 4 years ago

Although this does seem like product promotion, we don't provide affiliate links (just takes you to Google). We don't at this point make money off product purchases.

Having said that - I also don't like this perception of the product. We will be adding more natural substitutes such as jackfruit or mushroom, so you're not driven away by what may seem too promotional.

Freak_NL• 4 years ago

[…] by the cultures that have great veggy dishes like in South Asia.

Or any country really. A good vegetarian lasagne doesn't mean replacing ground meat with a non-meat substitute; you'd want a different recipe.

Ansil84913• 4 years ago

Or any country really.

Ha, really? What are some iconic German or Kazakh vegan dishes? I'd say the opposite is true, most countries have no vegan main dishes.

Mikeb85• 4 years ago

Yup. I come from a culture (Ukrainian) that, due to religious reasons (even though no one is particularly religious nowadays), has a bunch of traditional, vegan lenten dishes. When you expand to all the traditional (ie. Orthodox) Christian communities, plus Buddhist communities, there's a massive range of traditional tried and true vegan foods out there.

hughrr2• 4 years ago

Completely agree with this. I find it really annoying when friends switch over and then their diet becomes McPlants, pizzas and ready meals with meat substitutes in them and any mention of something new ends up with a shrivelled up face. Philistines the lot of them. I mean they’re not terrible but there’s so much other good food out there that doesn’t look exactly like what you were eating before.

alisonatwork5• 4 years ago

I think becoming a more adventurous eater and becoming a more plant-based eater are orthogonal life choices.

Nowadays it's perfectly reasonable for people to eat more plant-based dishes without giving up too many of the flavors and textures and general structures of the meals that they were used to. That's a good thing, not a bad thing, assuming you agree with the philosophy that getting people to eat more plants is better for the environment.

Challenging people to eat dishes that are very different from what they grew up with - not just in the ingredients, but in the textures and flavors and preparations - that's a different discussion altogether. In my experience a lot of people are not very interested in trying dishes from unfamiliar cuisines, even if there is a chance they might like them. That's true whether we're talking plant-based or not.

I think for a lot of people it's easier to get them to eat more plant-based versions of the dishes they already like than to get them to experiment with dishes they're unfamiliar with.

jallen_dot_dev2• 4 years ago

I find it really annoying when friends switch over and then their diet becomes McPlants, pizzas and ready meals

And then they quit and warn others against trying it because it made them "feel like shit." Not realizing it wasn't the lack of meat and cheese, but rather eating a bunch of processed garbage.

sparrc• 4 years ago

FWIW, some things that you think of as necessarily dairy-forward have just become that way through modern culture. Pizza, for example, used to commonly have no cheese, and still is somewhat common without cheese in Italy (Pizza Marinara from Naples, for example).

I'm no huge advocate of vegan "cheese" and "meatloaf", but vegan pizza can be perfectly normal and traditional.

steveylang• 4 years ago

In the long run you are right, in the short run the various fake/substitute foods and ingredients are good intermediate steps to a vegetarian/vegan diet.

I think the bridge many aspiring vegans/vegetarians find hard to cross is finding really 'hearty' foods that don't have to taste like a steak but give you a similar experience (or feeling?) So the easiest first step is the substitute products.

neetha23• 4 years ago

Thank you for the feedback!

What would be great for us to do is to create a feed of recipes (both vegan and non-vegan recipes) that need minimal (may be just cream or milk) to no replacements. This way people could discover a variety of recipes from across the globe than to be confined to a few recipe blogs.

giantg2• 4 years ago

I'm not a vegan. I love lions mane "crab" cakes and king oyster "scallops". I hear you can also smoke king oyster to make pulled "pork". Not exact replacements, but definitely some interesting and delicious recipes out there for mushrooms.

alisonatwork5• 4 years ago

I've had some excellent "pulled pork" made out of jackfruit. The consistency is similarly chewy/stringy, and if you are looking for American-style BBQ flavor then a lot of that flavor comes from the sauce anyway, so it's pretty easy to sub out the meat. When I lived in a country where it was trivial to buy fresh jackfruit, I just sliced it and threw it into a stir fry and it worked pretty good as a meaty consistency in those too.

One thing I still haven't found is a good plant-based version of carnitas, which is a sort of pulled pork from Mexico where they crisp up the top of it as well as have it swimming in lard. I think you could probably get somewhere close to it by using toasted pepitas (pumpkin seed) or something to get the crispy aspect, but to nail all the textures and flavors you'd be getting into a big time-consuming exercise for home cooking. Although, to be fair, I'd never cook meat carnitas at home either due to the time requirement.

neetha23• 4 years ago

You can also use jackfruit to substitute pulled pork

rackjack• 4 years ago

Agreed. Not sure if the vegan replacements have the same properties (fattiness, moisture, etc.) that the recipe expects, and many vegan dishes from South/Southeast Asia and so on are delicious.

neetha23• 4 years ago

Vegan replacements work slightly differently. I think tips on how to substitute from brands and chefs are what's important to build trust in using these alternatives in recipes. We are working on introducing chef tips, will also try including tips from brands themselves.

uhtred2• 4 years ago

As a vegan who used to enjoy eating meat, sometimes I just want some meaty food without the dead animal, and fake meat like an impossible burger solves this for me. But also so does tofu and tempeh.

neetha23• 4 years ago

You would also like jackfruit then!

Ansil84913• 4 years ago

Strongly agree with this.

I do not understand vegans who eat "imitation" meats. If you are ethically opposed to the slaughter of animals, why are you OK with pretending that you are still slaughtering them by actively buying things called "chik'n" and the like? That seems extremely perverse to me: 'I don't want to actually eat animals, but I want to pretend like I do'. Seriously, what?

autarch2• 4 years ago

I do not understand vegans who eat "imitation" meats. If you are ethically opposed to the slaughter of animals, why are you OK with pretending that you are still slaughtering them by actively buying things called "chik'n" and the like? That is perverse.

I'm a (25+ years) vegan who eats "imitation" meats.

Here's why ...

I like how they taste.

neetha23• 4 years ago

Because people like the taste of meat and at the same time don't want to hurt animals. They also want to maybe cook the same kind of food but without animals. What's wrong in that?

aschearer• 4 years ago

Are you really confused why people want to continue eating the food they've eaten their whole lives minus the animal suffering?

The food wasn't the problem, the suffering was.

ramphastidae• 4 years ago

This doesn’t “veganize” recipes at all — it takes a recipe URL, searches for non-vegan ingredients, and then spits out affiliate links to common vegan substitutes. Critically, it does not convert the recipe you submit to a vegan one. The “AI-based” marketing language, the affiliate links, the use of an extension … this feels a lot like spam to me.

neetha23• 4 years ago

1. All the products are created, and not searched on the internet. 2. We don't do affiliate links. It just does a simple Google search today. To monetise in the future - we'll either provide cart integration with vegan speciality stores or build our marketplace. But that's in the future. 3. The AI is behind understanding the ingredients, the relationships between them and the alternatives (which may not seem too obvious or evident). And also in evolving the recommendations based on user feedback (in the future). 4. You can use EatKind without the extension - eatkind.co 5. I'll take your point and feedback on not actually converting the recipes. We'll soon provide instructions/chef tips on substituting, along with the products that can be used.

mcdonje• 4 years ago

Vegan here. Based on the screenshots, I don't think I'll use it. It looks like it just recommends brand name products to buy.

Not all recipes call for the same substitution for the same ingredient. And not everyone has the same philosophy about how to substitute.

For instance, eggs. There are several different uses for them in recipes; binding, leavening, moisture, protein content, etc. There are several different substitutions and most do some of those things better than others. Picking a good egg substitute, or choosing to simply leave the eggs out, requires knowledge and experience, or at least a flow chart.

There's enough of an art to it that I'd rather see how others solved the problem than consult a browser plugin that seems geared more to sell me stuff than to help me solve problems.

wiliaonson• 4 years ago

This is what I have observed as well. It substitute the brand instead of the alternative itself.

Tehchops3• 4 years ago

My wife and I are both vegan.

We got this book as a Christmas gift: https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Everybody-Foolproof-Plant-Based...

It does a great job at the beginning of the book addressing various substitutes for things like eggs, mayo, etc... Since it's done by America's Test Kitchen, they've tested everything extensively, and explain which subs are the best for baking, flavor, and other factors.

cdumler• 4 years ago

Totally buying this. Thank you very much.

spicymaki2• 4 years ago

Thanks for the book recommendation. It looks interesting. Does this book lean towards processed or whole foods meals?

clydethefrog• 4 years ago

I keep seeing this recommended. How interesting is this book if you already own a big amount of vegan cookbooks?

vvatermelone• 4 years ago

This was the first (of many) vegan cookbooks I've collected over the years and to this day is still the one I reach for the most, very well thought out.

neetha23• 4 years ago

Thank you for your feedback!

We do plan on introducing chef tips and user-generated reviews of veganized recipes.

Currently the substitutes aren't specific to cooking style or type of food. It's tricky but not impossible. And we are on it!

Brand recommendations are important too. But maybe with user feedback and applicability. Most transitioning vegans don't know which cheese melts and which milk works best with coffee. And I think that's how our recommendations should evolve.

eggthrowaway3• 4 years ago

As someone who’s been allergic to eggs their entire lives, and tried every egg substitute under the sun, I find that the best course of action in replacing eggs in a recipe is simply finding a recipe that was developed without eggs, rather than do direct substitutions.

I like to think I’m a pretty good cook and okay baker and understand different egg substitutes and where and when to implement them based on the function of eggs in the recipe, but 99% of the time I’m left eating a sweet that turned out like total garbage.

But following recipes that are egg free from the start makes it more like 75% of the time it turns out great!

neetha23• 4 years ago

Interesting. Would love to include feedback from users into the recommendations based on recipe types.

QuercusMax• 4 years ago

I'm allergic to chicken eggs, but I've found that other birds don't bother me. Have you had any success trying duck or quail eggs? Aside from being tough to find sometimes, they work very well to replace chicken eggs.

On the plant based side, I've had pretty good luck with Just Eggs for a lot of things; it's not perfect (won't work for a custard) but works pretty well for a lot of baking.

davide_v3• 4 years ago

Based on the title I was thinking the product was different. The "veganize" term is misleading here imho. I was expecting that, given a recipe, you replace non-vegan ingredients with vegan ingredients and so being able to cook that recipe, somehow. Actually it would be a very nice product...

neetha23• 4 years ago

That's what it is. You can also try it here: https://eatkind.co

davide_v3• 4 years ago

I expected to start from a recipe and then have the veganized recipe. How it works now is a Google search, so I have to find another recipe, if there is. I would skip the Google part and start from a recipe URL and have as a result that specific recipe veganized (ingredients replacement). It would also prevent people from leaving the website.

tpoacher2• 4 years ago

I find the idea behind the extension good, but the name chosen is more of the usual trolling seen in online flamewars, revolving around arbitrary notions of morality based on people's particular religious/moral beliefs.

You're setting yourself up for having trolls explicitly leave negative reviews to tell you how X isnt really kind and it destroys rainforests and rats etc etc.

Is the perceived moral superiority alluded to by the plugin's name really a necessary selling point? Why not just go for a straightforward "does what it says on the tin" name like "SubstituteVegan" or "VeganizeYourRecipe" or something.

Might as well call it "AccordingToMySpiritualBeliefsYouAreAMurderousAssholeIfYouDontClickThis" while you're at it.

awestroke• 4 years ago

Disclaimer: I eat meat and dairy.

Veganism is objectively kinder towards animals, the environment, and often your own body. The rainforest argument is bullshit since something like 70 percent of soy is used for animal feed. Who cares what trolls say.

neetha23• 4 years ago

Haha!

I would have bought "Veganize.It" if it was available. EatKind.co is short and easy to remember. Which was important to me. Also, anyone who has decided to cut down or eliminate meat and dairy would do it some kind reason. They are my target market. Negative trollers won't really use this anyway.

tpoacher2• 4 years ago

Fair enough, I hope you're right!

Your heart seems in the right place and I like the cut of your jib! I wish you all the best. :)

jallen_dot_dev2• 4 years ago

Veganism is about being kind to animals. You can argue whether or not it matters to be kind to animals, or whether it's more important to satisfy human taste buds. But I don't think it's arguable that farming animals is unkind to them, and "EatKind" is a relevant and clever name.

chillingeffect• 4 years ago

trolls [...] negative reviews

Trolls gonna troll. That's nothing new to vegans and companies calling kind products "kind." [1][2][3]

selling point

It is absolutely a selling point to rally kind people in this rapidly growing market together.

[1] https://veganproducts.org/vegan-box-delivery/the-vegan-kind-... [2] https://bkind.com/ [3] https://vegfaqs.com/kind-granola-bars-vegan/

arbitrary notions of morality

Is this kind? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7hAELEBjX4

People who participate in this practice are unambiguously unkind. People who put a stop this practice are unambiguously kind and deserving of the adjective kind.

captainredbeard2• 4 years ago

People who participate in this practice are unambiguously unkind

Existence proof: I've met kind people who work at slaughterhouses.

odiroot• 4 years ago

I would love something like this to remove sugars from recipes and replace them without ruining the overall dish.

Especially for baking.

neetha23• 4 years ago

This is very interesting. We have had similar requests for alternatives for gluten and other allergens.

drewzero1• 4 years ago

This is a cool project, and I love that you're looking into other dietary restrictions! Gluten and dairy substitutes would have been very useful to me starting out, but after nearly a decade I tend to make omissions rather than substitutions. I've seen others upthread mention that they prefer to find dishes that are naturally vegan rather than use substitutes.

What I (and, possibly, they) could really use would be something that would suggest an alternative recipe or a related dish that works better without substitution-- e.g, a similar recipe that doesn't rely on the meat or cheese for flavor, or which doesn't rely heavily on bread/flour/sugar/etc. as a base ingredient.

I expect it'd be more difficult to reliably identify similar recipes AND restrict the search to avoid some set of ingredients, but it would be a very useful resource for people looking to omit certain foods without resorting to (often expensive or unhealthy) substitutes.

Jiejeing• 4 years ago

I like the idea, but as other commenters have already pointed out, it only recommends brand name items, which is a bummer (off-the-shelf vegan substitutes are generally very expensive).

It would be great if there also was a section "DYI", with the different types of replacements offered (thinking of eggs, specifically, which are always a pain to replace without messing up). A partnership with some vegan recipe websites to offer alternative battle-tested recipes would also be a great addition, because in my experience veganizing recipes without careful and repeated experimentation often ends in disappointment, particularly for cakes or pastries.

neetha23• 4 years ago

We do provide recommendations with more natural ingredients such as jackfruit, flax seeds, coconut oil, etc. But they are currently lost in the huge list of brand recommendations. Will bump those up.

Thank you for these suggestions! Very valuable.

hrbf• 4 years ago

I’ve been a vegan for more than a quarter of a century now and just wish terms like „veganize“ would just vanish. Also, simple substitution works for simple recipes. Anything more involved than a sheet cake needs more experience than s/this/that/. And if you’re going to substitute regular products with a vegan knock-off verbatim anyway, I don’t see how this would assist in any way. Probably full of referral links.

neetha23• 4 years ago

These aren't referral links. They are a curated list of products that are available in each of our supported countries - USA, UK, India. We tried to get coverage across all categories of non-vegan ingredients as much as possible. Don't plan on ever doing affiliate links.

Being a long-term vegan this may seem easy but most people don't know of most plant-based options available to them and how easily they can make a recipe vegan. So that's the purpose - to show that to them. What is also needed is user reviews and feedback on how the products work in different recipes, so that they can make the right choice.

captainredbeard2• 4 years ago

Food is not software. It is not that formulaic. This will never consistently produce good results.

Show HN: Veganize any recipe site with EatKind Chrome extension

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