Which is the best discount supermarket for vegans?

My post Aldi vs Lidl: which is the best discount supermarket? always seems to attract a lot of interest. In fact, although I generally prefer Aldi, I shop at Lidl a lot as it’s my closest supermarket. I notice that both stores seem to stock broader ranges aimed at vegans and vegetarians nowadays, but which is best? Here is my comparison of  vegan food at Aldi and Lidl. Which is the best discount supermarket for vegans?

Vegan food isn’t always cheap

The reason I started to think about which was the best discount supermarket for vegans was when I had to shop a few times for my daughter’s vegan boyfriend. That’s when I noticed the improvement in the ranges offered compared to a few years back.

Sure, neither have the breadth of choice offered by stores such as Sainsbury’s or Tesco. However, what they do sell does seem to be very reasonably priced, so is good for the non-meat eater’s budget.

I also had a conversation with the daughter of one of our friends, who told me that she was looking forward to feeding herself when she goes off to university, but a vegan diet was very expensive. I was surprised by this; in my experience meat is more expensive than the type of ingredients I used to eat as a vegetarian (before I got hit by IBS, when pretty much everything I could eat as a veggie triggered an attack). 

I ate pulses, TVP, some eggs and dairy and a lot of vegetables and fruits. However, this was a long time ago, when people still looked at you oddly if you said you didn’t eat meat. I recall that the only veggie option available when you ate out was an omelette! If you were vegan you were probably better off eating at home. There certainly wasn’t the array of pre-prepared and processed foods that are available now.

Anyway, realistically my young vegan friend isn’t going to be cooking all her meals from scratch at university. With this in mind, I thought I would check which was the best discount supermarket for vegans so that I could advise her where to head for her vegan convenience food!

The thing about both Aldi and Lidl is that, as well as their permanent ranges, they have specials that change weekly. It is therefore worth popping in regularly and stocking up if there is something you particularly like.

I have focussed in this post on items that both stores offer as part of their permanent ranges.

Aldi vs Lidl

The prices here were correct in June 2021, but will be subject to change. Not all products are available in all stores. Check the Aldi and Lidl websites for up to date information.

Veggie burgers

Aldi sell a good choice of veggie burgers. The cheapest of these is the Plant Menu frozen range at £1.15 for four. You can choose from spicy bean burgers or vegetable burgers.

Lidl also sell a selection of burgers. In the freezer section you will find cauliflower and veggie burgers at £1.15 for four, the same as the Aldi ones. They also have fresh vegan burgers, which are £1.59 for two, in classic, beetroot or Moroccan flavours.

Pretty much even Stevens on the burger front I think.

Veggie sausages

You can find six Plant Menu vegan sausages in Aldi for £1.69, but even better value are their rosemary and onion sausages, which are six for £1.09. Or you might like red pepper and butternut squash sausages, found in the chilled section at £1.49 for six.

There doesn’t appear to be quite such a good range of plant based sausages in Lidl, although they do sell Linda McCartney basic ones at £1.69 for six. They also sell Vemondo fresh ones at 1.59 for six.

Aldi wins the sausage struggle!

Pastries & pizzas

Who doesn’t love a good sausage roll? Thankfully vegan versions are now quite easy to come by. It used to be that the closest thing you could get to a meat free pastry was a cheese and onion pasty, which obviously won’t do if you are vegan. They aren’t that nice in my experience and tend towards stodginess.

Aldi offer a pack of four vegan sausage rolls or a pack of two no beef pasties, both for £1.19 each. They also do a couple of pizzas in the Plant menu range, including a BBQ ‘bacon’ and mushroom pizza for £1.69.

Fresh vegan sausage rolls in Lidl are a bit more expensive, at 99p for two. However, one variety is BBQ jack fruit, which sounds interesting. Their frozen sausage rolls are cheaper, at £1.19 for four in the Vemondo range.  However, Lidl don’t currently sell vegan pizzas, which is a shame.

Because of the lack of vegan pizza, Aldi wins this time.

Ready meals

You will usually find the cheapest ready meals in the freezer section. Aldi does a Jamaican style chilli bean stew, which sounds rather good, at £1.75 for 400g. If you prefer fresh, most of their vegan chilled meals cost £1.99 for 375g, including their mushroom Bolognese.

Aldi also do long life sachets of Good Grains pulse dishes, featuring quinoa, lentils and beans, which are useful for festivals and camping. These  are priced at 85p or 89p each. Lidl don’t sell these, but do offer a microwavable tomato and olive wheat, rice and quinoa sachet for 85p. 

Lidl didn’t have a lot of vegan ready meals in the freezer section. However, their What’s Cooking Lighter range includes a sweet potato curry and a three bean chilli, which I guess are accidentally vegan!  They are £1.99 each. They also had a couple of fresh meal choices in their Vemondo range: Mushroom risotto or cottage pie.

I think this is also a tie, although Aldi possibly leads if you like the Good Grains range, as I do.

Milk alternatives

Aldi sells almond, coconut and oat milk at 79p a litre and soya milk at 55p a litre. Lidl also offers oat and almond milk for the same price, although I couldn’t find coconut milk. Soya milk is also 55p. They both sometimes offer barista versions, which are slightly pricier.

I think this is a tie, as both offer much cheaper dairy free milks than other supermarkets.

Milk free cheese

I was very surprised to find vegan cheese in Lidl. They offer not only 225g packs of cheddar in their Vemondo range, but also a Parmesan style cheese in 100g bags. These are 1.99 each.

I couldn’t find any vegan cheese in Aldi, although I am pretty sure I have seen it in store on the odd occasion. This means that Lidl wins this time!

Vegan yogurts and desserts

Lidl offers a delicious range of coconut yogurts. These are one of the nicest type of dairy free yogurts I have tried, but extremely expensive in other stores. They sell a plain Just Free coconut yogurt, which is great for cooking, as well as several fruity flavours. Both types cost 99p for two. Lidl also sell Provamel chocolate desserts at 99p for four.

I was surprised not to find any vegan yogurt in Aldi. However, they redeemed themselves by selling dairy free individual ice creams, priced at £1.99 for three, in peanut butter or salted caramel flavours. I couldn’t find any vegan ice cream in Lidl at all, although they do sell raspberry or lemon sorbet at £2.25 for 900ml.

Which is the best discount supermarket for vegans for desserts overall? I think they are a tie. Aldi does better frozen possibilities whilst Lidl offers the yummy coconut yogurt.

Packaged salads and dips

In Lidl, 200 g of houmous is 69p, which is the same as Aldi. You can buy Lidl’s Meadow Fresh fruity Morrocan, Mexican or kale couscous for 1.99p for 300g, whereas Aldi sell a much larger 400g of roasted vegetable couscous for just 99p, making them the clear winner on price.

The Aldi Plant Menu range offers a vegan potato salad and a vegan coleslaw,  both at 79p for 300g. Lidl matches this with their Vemondo range and also do both potato salad and coleslaw.

Pulses

Neither Aldi or Lidl appear to regularly sell much in the way of tinned pulses on a regular basis. You can usually find kidney beans or chick peas in both, and mixed beans in Lidl, but not lentils or other varieties, as you can in the bigger supermarkets.

I have picked up dried red lentils from time to time in Lidl, but they don’t always stock them. If you enjoy pulses, I would say you are better off stocking up when you shop elsewhere. 

Seeds and nuts

I always buy my nuts and seeds in the discount supermarkets, as they are much cheaper. You can buy  a 200g bag of Aldi Foodie Market mixed nuts £1.79. In Lidl these will cost you 10p less.

A 250g bag of sunflower or pumpkin seeds in Aldi will set you back £1.29, exactly the same as in Lidl.

Lidl just wins on this one as their mixed nuts are cheaper!

Wines

I spent 15 years of my life in blissful ignorance of the fact that many wines aren’t even vegetarian, let alone vegan! Now I realise that wines often contain fish, egg whites or milk, used in the ‘fining’ process.

Anyway, you can now pick up vegan wines in many supermarkets. Aldi offers a French Vegan Rosé as part of its Specially Selected range at £6.99 for 75cl. Lidl don’t seem to offer vegan wine all the time, but a staff member told me they do occasionally have it as a special.

Aldi wins on the vegan wine!

Other things to consider

Lidl has a great app offering you money off when you spend a certain amount as well as discounts on different products each week. Aldi has an app too, but it doesn’t appear to offer the same benefits and discounts.

However, it is now possible to do an click and collect shop at Aldi, which will definitely suit many people. Lidl don’t offer this as an option. 

The verdict

This is very much my opinion, of course, as it very much depends on the items you prefer to buy. However, based on the products that I have looked at, I would say that Aldi is best discount supermarket for vegans. It is slightly cheaper and there is generally more choice. However, they are both great if you want easy meat free food on a budget.

Both Aldi and Lidl offer more meat free food choices than I have listed here, of course, including items that are accidentally vegan or vegetarian.

What do you think? Is Aldi or Lidl best discount supermarket for vegans and vegetarians in  your view?

If you enjoyed this post, then check out my Aldi and Lidl hauls on my YouTube channel!