Are Kodiak Cakes vegan?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But if you are new to the vegan lifestyle, it can get a bit tedious figuring out what to have for breakfast that doesn’t contain animal products. Luckily, there’s one swap that’s as easy as it gets and that is Kodiak Cakes.

This is one of the most popular pancake mix brands. Instead of the basic white flour and white sugar setups that most pancake mixes have, this company has managed to create high-protein mixes with wholesome ingredients for typically high-carb foods.

If you’re wondering whether you should add all this goodness to your current diet, you have come to the right place for answers. Let’s get right into the Kodiak Cakes review.

Are Kodiak Cakes vegan? Unfortunately, most Kodiak Cakes products are not vegan as they contain numerous animal-based ingredients, including milk, honey, eggs, whey, and so on. There are, however, a few pancake and waffle mixes that only contain plant-based ingredients and as such, suitable for a vegan diet.

Kodiak Cakes are a godsend as they offer the perfect quick, nutritious breakfast that’s just as fluffy and filling, properly fuels your body, and still provides the nourishment that your body needs. The brand has expanded to sell individual oatmeal mixes, different flavours of pancake mixes, brownie mixes, muffins mixes, frozen pre-packed pancakes, frozen pre-packed waffles, granola protein bars, fruit syrups, and much more.

All their products are super easy to make, taste incredible, and most importantly, offer great nutrition. In this text, I’m going to cover some of the Kodiak Cakes products, citing those that are vegan and those that aren’t, as well as other important information about these mixes that will help you make an informed decision about including them to your diet.

The Vegan Status of Kodiak Cakes

As I mentioned earlier, there are both vegan and non-vegan Kodiak Cakes products. But generally, the company focuses on using high-quality ingredients, including whole grains and a ton of proteins. Unlike other pancake mixes that provide consumers with flavourless/vitaminless food, Kodiak Cakes products are loaded with vitamins, antioxidants, proteins, fibre, and don’t include any genetically modified organisms.

There aren’t really any suspicious ingredients in these products that may be harmful to your body. This is one of the reasons I love Kodiak Cakes mixes so much; I know I’m putting great food into my body that’s not super processed or include a ton of artificial ingredients. For my fellow vegans, you need to watch out for the products that include animal-derived ingredients, some of which include:

Kodiak Cakes Frontier Flapjack and Waffle Mix, Original

This is probably the most popular Kodiak Cakes mixes; it’s the easiest to make since all you need to do is just add water. It’s made with whole wheat and oat flours, dried honey, non-fat dry milk, egg whites, wheat protein isolate, leavening agents, and salt. Honey is a controversial ingredient in the vegan world but even if you eat it, this particular mix is still off the vegan menu as it contains dairy products and eggs.

Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes, Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix

This mix consists of 100% whole wheat and oat flours, buttermilk powder, whey protein concentrate, milk protein concentrate, brown sugar, wheat protein isolate, leavening agents, and salt. Though it offers a great-tasting source of fibre and nutrients, it is definitely non-vegan given all the dairy-derived ingredients it contains.

Kodiak Cakes Power Cakes, Cinnamon Oat Flapjack and Waffle Mix

Consisting of whole wheat and oat flours and packed with 14g protein per serving, this Kodiak Cakes mix is quite nutritious. But like the other mixes above, it contains animal-derived ingredients and as such, not suitable for vegans.

Well, enough of the non-vegan products, here are some great Kodiak Cakes mixes you should include in your vegan diet:

Kodiak Cakes Plant-Based Classic Flapjack & Waffle Mix

This company has set out to make a new mix that vegans can enjoy guilty-free. Their plant-based mix offers the same amazing frontier-style flapjacks filled with proteins but without any animal-derived ingredients.

Kodiak Cakes, Blueberry lemon Protein-packed muffin mix

The ingredients used to make this mix include whole wheat and oat flours, blueberries, lemon juice powder, cane sugar, leaveners, natural flavours, salt, and wheat protein isolate. Nothing on this list is derived from animals. While it’s true that natural flavours can be derived from both plants and animals, the ones used here are definitely plant-based.

Kodiak Cakes Big Bear Brownies Mix

This mix is a delicious choice for a vegan family as it consists of all-natural ingredients with no artificial colours or flavours. Looking at the ingredients list you will find whole grain wheat flour, organic cane sugar, natural cocoa, dark chocolate chips, natural vanilla, leaveners, vital wheat gluten, and salt. Although the recipe calls for the use of eggs, you can replace that with a vegan-friendly alternative to keep your brownies 100% vegan.

Issues with Otherwise Vegan Kodiak Cakes Mixes

Although Kodiak Cakes has vegan products, they are processed on shared equipment with the non-vegan mixes, thus risking cross-contamination and cross-contact. This means that your vegan mixes might contain trace amounts of milk, eggs, and other non-vegan ingredients. Most vegans don’t judge such products harshly since the inclusion of animal products is not intentional. However, for stricter vegans, even slightest possibility of an animal-based ingredient in a food product disqualifies it as being vegan.

Natural flavouring is also often confusing to vegans since it can be derived from both animals and plants. Fortunately, in the case of vegan Kodiak Cakes, the natural flavours are plant-based.

Sugar is another common ingredient found in vegan pancake mixes. Although sugar is derived from a plant, it’s often processed using boner char to remove impunities and give it the pure white colour. Boner char is derived from charring animal bones, which might not sit well with other vegans. This is, however, not an issue with these vegan Kodiak Cakes mixes since they use organic cane sugar. I just thought I should mention that in case you’re buying from other brands that make vegan pancake mixes and use processed sugar.

Are Kodiak Cakes Healthy?

Since a vegan diet usually includes plant-based foods, it’s bound to be healthier than eating animal-based foods. But this is not always the case as several vegan junk foods are emerging with each passing day. So, for those who have gone vegan for its health benefits, it may interest you to know whether or not Kodiak Cakes products are healthy.

First off, this brand uses whole grains and rolled oats in their mixes instead of bleached white flour. This means more fibre nutrients in your diet, which also helps to boost satiety so you don’t overeat throughout the day. But the biggest selling point for these mixes is the high protein content they contain. Each serving will supply your body with about 14 grams of protein, not including the protein add-in option ideas the recipes provide. It doesn’t get much better than that! Proteins are quite important for the body as they help build lean muscle tissue, giving your metabolism the much-needed boost.

The truth is the ingredients list on all Kodiak Cakes mixes is so short with nothing foreign or confusing. And, while it’s true that all the ingredients are natural, sugar and fats are never good news, especially to those with pre-existing conditions. Eating too much sugar and fats has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, hardening of the arteries, heart attack, and more.

Summary, Should You Consume Kodiak Cakes Mixes?

A good vegan pancake mix can make your mornings tastier. And Kodiak Cakes mixes, as we’ve seen throughout the text, offer the best of both worlds with their high protein and whole wheat content. This brand caters to the growing vegan community by offering mixes that don’t include animal-derived ingredients. You can view all of their recipes online for free. Be sure to try as many vegan options as possible and let me know below of your views so we can learn together and keep the vegan journey going.

Whether you can or cannot include the vegan Kodiak Cakes in your vegan diet will depend on your degree of veganism. Kodiak Cakes mixes should, however, be consumed in moderation for health purposes. And, watch out for soy, dairy, peanut, and whey allergies!

In case you are wondering what other pancake mix brands there are that offer vegan products, you can check out:

• Arrowhead Mills
• Krusteaz
• Bob’s Red Mill
• Hungry Jack
• Aunt Jemima
• Bisquick
• Stonewall Kitchen
• Maple Grove Farms

Keep in mind that the ingredients may vary by region or even change over time, which makes it very important to always check your package before purchase to ensure it doesn’t contain any animal-derived ingredients.