How to Convert Any Recipe to Vegan, Keto, or Gluten-Free in 30 Seconds

Diet conversion is mostly a lookup problem. You know the recipe, you
know the constraint, you just need to replace the ingredients that
break the constraint with ingredients that do not. The catch is that
bad substitutions ruin the dish. A one-to-one swap of coconut flour for
wheat flour in pancakes produces a hockey puck.

Here are the swaps that actually work, grouped by diet.

## Vegan conversions

The big three categories: eggs, dairy, meat.

### Eggs

| Role in dish | Swap |
|--------------|------|
| Binder (meatballs, burgers) | 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water |
| Leavening (cakes) | 1/4 cup mashed banana + 1/4 tsp baking soda |
| Richness (custards) | Silken tofu blended smooth |
| Structure (meringue) | Aquafaba, 3 tbsp per egg white |

### Dairy

- Butter: refined coconut oil 1:1 for baking, olive oil for savory.
- Milk: oat milk for most baking, full-fat coconut for creamy sauces.
- Cheese: cashew cream for melted applications, nutritional yeast for
umami. Store-bought shreds work in pizza and not much else.
- Heavy cream: full-fat coconut milk, chilled and whipped.

### Meat

Do not try to recreate the texture of a pork chop. Instead, rebuild the
dish around a vegan protein that fits the cooking method. Braises want
mushrooms and lentils. Stir-fries want extra-firm tofu or tempeh.
Grilling wants seitan or portobello.

See /recipes/diet/vegan for recipes built this way from the start.

## Keto conversions

Keto lives or dies by carb count. The swaps are narrower than vegan,
because keto limits both plant starches and sugars.

### Flour swaps

- Almond flour: closest to wheat in baking, 1:1 for cookies and
pancakes, reduce by 25% in cakes.
- Coconut flour: absorbs four times as much liquid as wheat. Never
swap 1:1. Use 1/4 cup coconut flour per 1 cup wheat, add an extra egg.
- Psyllium husk: adds structure to keto bread, 1-2 tbsp per loaf.

### Sugar swaps

- Allulose: most neutral, browns like real sugar.
- Erythritol: cheap, has a cooling mouthfeel, fine in chocolate.
- Monk fruit: strong, use the blend versions.

### Starch swaps

- Rice: cauliflower rice, riced raw and sauteed hot and fast.
- Potatoes: radishes or turnips roasted hard.
- Pasta: hearts of palm noodles for cold salads, shirataki for hot.

## Gluten-free conversions

The trap: commercial GF flour blends are not interchangeable. Some are
mostly rice flour (gritty), some mostly tapioca (gummy), some
well-formulated with xanthan gum already added.

### Reliable rules

- For quick breads and cookies, a cup-for-cup blend with xanthan works.
- For yeast breads, you need a recipe written for GF — conversion
almost never works because gluten was providing the structure.
- For thickening sauces, cornstarch or arrowroot 1:1 for flour.
- For breading, crushed GF cornflakes beat most alternatives.

Watch for hidden gluten: soy sauce (use tamari), many stock cubes,
beer in braises (use GF beer or wine), and oats unless certified.

## What breaks and what does not

Some recipes convert cleanly. A vegetable curry goes vegan with coconut
milk, stays gluten-free naturally, and can be served over cauliflower
rice for keto without changing anything important.

Other recipes resist conversion. A souffle is egg and dairy architecture
in a dish — "vegan souffle" is a different dish with the same name.
Traditional bread is gluten architecture. Be honest about the category.

## The 30-second version

You can do all of this by hand, using the tables above, whenever you
have fifteen minutes and a second cup of coffee. Or you can import a
recipe into Recipe Manager and hit the "Convert to vegan" (or keto, or
gluten-free) button. The AI runs the same substitution logic, adjusts
quantities for the swaps that are not 1:1 (looking at you, coconut
flour), and flags the ones that will not convert cleanly so you know
before you shop.

See /recipes/diet/vegan, /recipes/diet/keto, or /recipes/diet/gluten-free
to browse recipes that were built around the constraint from the start —
often a better starting point than converting one that was not.