Veganism behind bars

In Inside Time’s monthly recipe column, a prison nutritionist provides ideas for creating your own tasty and wholesome dishes

The idea of ‘Veganuary’ began in January 2014, encouraging people to try a plant-based diet as part of their New Year’s resolutions. Since then, Veganuary has grown into a registered charity that promotes veganism both during January and as a long-term lifestyle choice. A vegan, or entirely plant-based, diet omits all meat, fish or all products derived from animals. If you plan to follow a vegan diet, you need to be careful to eat a wide range of plant-based foods including beans and pulses to ensure you consume the right mix of nutrients.

If you’re considering a plant-based diet for health, religious or ethical reasons, it is possible while serving a sentence. Prisons should, in theory, be better equipped to provide nutritionally balanced meals for vegans than previously. The new Food in Prisons Policy Framework (which was introduced in September 2025 and will be fully implemented in prisons by February 2026) requires catering managers to ensure that nutritional requirements are met for those following a vegan diet. As well as providing a full cycle of vegan meals, available to catering managers via a recipe bank, the framework deems that the “provision of a vitamin and mineral supplement providing vitamin B12, vitamin D, iodine and selenium will be necessary, as vegan food sources are limited”. However, it adds that if individuals who self-identify as vegan are found to be not following a vegan diet, the supplements will be withdrawn. 

The canteen national product list has a limited but growing number of products for vegans including tofu, baked beans with vegan sausage, nuts, beans, lentils and some vegan supplements. As with all canteen products, you can request other vegan items, but unless people purchase them, they may well be withdrawn.

Helen Sandwell is the Inside & Out project lead at Food Matters, which produces the Her Wellbeing and His Wellbeing newsletters. Both are available digitally via Launchpads, Coracle devices and on Virtual Campus.

Lentil dhal with spinach 

and sweet potato 

You will need kitchen facilities e.g. hotplate and pan for this very simple vegan recipe to make four portions.

You will need:

• 1 red onion

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 thumb-size piece of fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon each of ground turmeric, chilli and cumin.

• 125 g red lentils

• 1 medium sweet potato

• 200g frozen or half  tin spinach, drained

• 1 vegetable stock cube

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• Boiling water

Method:

1. Finely chop the onion, garlic and ginger.

2. Clean, then cut the sweet potato into 2 cm chunks.

3. Heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion, garlic and ginger until soft, stirring to prevent burning.

4. Add the spices and fry for another minute.

5. Add the lentils, sweet potato and a crumbled stock cube, then enough water to cover everything. 

6. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until the lentils and potato are soft. Stir, season and add more water if needed to reach a porridge consistency.

7. Add the spinach and cook for 2 minutes.

8. Serve with a naan or pitta bread.