Vegan Dog Food Recipe: Peanut Butter & Sweet Potato Surprise

Vegan diets are becoming more and more popular these days, leaving more dog owners looking for healthy and delicious vegan dog food recipes. So here’s our take on vegan dog food to try out at home!

Contrary to what some people believe, dogs are omnivores—and that means they can eat both meat and vegetarian meals. And that means it’s perfectly healthy to feed your dog a vegan diet.

In fact, because a plant-based diet is high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, it’s a naturally nutritious diet that can have plenty of health benefits for your dog. The only trick is to make sure you include enough of certain nutrients, like B vitamins, calcium, and protein.

What Is a Vegan Diet, and How Is It Different from a Vegetarian Diet?

Vegan and vegetarian diets are similar diets that are both primarily plant-based diets. The main difference is that while a vegetarian diet allows for the consumption of non-meat animal products (like cheese, milk, and eggs), a vegan diet allows for no animal products of any kind.

What Considerations Do You Need to Keep in Mind When Feeding Your Dog a Vegan Meal?

While dogs can eat many fruits & vegetables, there are some foods—even natural foods—they should stay away from. Here’s a partial list of vegan foods that your dog can eat:

• Apples
• Asparagus
• Bananas
• Barley
• Beans
• Blueberries
• Carrots
• Chickpeas
• Celery
• Green beans
• Kale
• Lentils
• Lettuce
• Melons
• Oats
• Peaches
• Peanuts & peanut butter
• Pears
• Peas
• Potatoes
• Pumpkin
• Rice
• Rye
• Sesame
• Spinach
• Strawberries
• Sweet potatoes
• Wheat

Here are some foods you should not feed your dog:

• Almonds
• Avocados
• Cherries
• Chocolate
• Cinnamon & nutmeg
• Coffee
• Garlic
• Grapes
• Lemons
• Limes
• Macadamia nuts
• Onions
• Oranges
• Raisins

If you’re ever unsure about an ingredient, it never hurts to quickly Google it and make sure!

And if you’re intending to feed your dog a vegan diet full-time (as opposed to only some of the time), it’s a good idea to speak with your vet or a veterinary nutritionist to make sure you’re feeding your dog a diet that’s healthy and nutritionally complete.

(See more of our healthy homemade dog food recipes.)

Ingredients

• ½ cup of rice
• ½ cup of quinoa
• 1 cup lentils
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed

Directions

1. Boil 6 cups of water and add the rice, quinoa, lentils, and sweet potatoes.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer, covered, until everything is tender (about 45 minutes).
3. Let the ingredients sit until they’ve cooled off.
4. Mash the ingredients in a large bowl and mix in the peanut butter.

And that’s it! It’s a simple recipe that you can easily reheat at mealtime.

Makes 3-4 servings.