Can you believe January is already over?! I can. I mean, winter months move real slowly.
BUT, the 31 Days of Vegan Challenge felt like it flew by!
And, I wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude for your participation in this challenge! The response was overwhelming and, on behalf of the whole Rainbow Plant Life team, I am so grateful to have so many of you on board with us on this journey.
Here are a just a few numbers that capture the scale of your involvement.
- 16,416 participants who signed up for the 31 days of Vegan Challenge. Y’all rock!
- 4,340 email submissions received for the grand prize. Incredible!
- 2,438 Instagram entries for the weekly prizes.
Thank you to everyone who made this challenge a success by participating. Whether you’re a seasoned vegan or just exploring plant-based eating, we hope you found inspiration in our recipes and are feeling more confident in incorporating vegan dishes into your routine.
We would also like to extend a special thank you to those who submitted their photos and participated in our drawings. We appreciate your continued support and engagement. It was such a joy to see a glimpse of your experience in the kitchen.
We’re considering doing more vegan challenges like this in the future (perhaps a recipe of the month club with monthly prizes, available worldwide). So if that’s something that interests you, let us know in the comments!
Reader Photos
I was tickled to see so many of your photos this month. Here are just a few of the most popular recipes from each week:
Week One: Lentil Bolognese
Week Two: Tofu Scramble
Week Three: Tuscan Stewed Beans
Week Four: Buffalo Chickpea Quesadillas
Without further ado, it is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of our weekly prizes and grand prize!
Weekly Prize Winners:
- Week 1: Tiffany E., California
- Week 2: Anoli M., Virginia
- Week 3: Amanda M., Illinois
- Week 4: Kristen H., Texas
If you are a weekly winner, you’ve already heard from our team via Instagram direct message.
Grand Prize Winner:
- Jane T., Massachusetts
Jane, we’ve reached out to you via email.
Congrats to our winners and thanks again to everyone who participated!
Lots of love,
Nisha
I loved participating and I would love to participate in a monthly recipe club. This is the most flavorful food I’ve ever made and eaten. Thank you for your hard work and intuition, Nisha and team!
We’re thrilled to hear it, Chy! We will definitely keep in mind your suggestion :) You are very welcome for everything, thanks for following!
Omg! You used one of my pictures! 😁 I’m so delighted! This was so much fun, Nisha! I loved trying so many new recipes and they were ALL delicious! Thank you so much for the motivation and your creative genius and talent and excellent taste!
We’re so glad you enjoyed the challenge. Thanks for being a loyal reader, Vicki!
I so enjoyed being vegan for January, I’m continuing into February. My health is so much better, my demeanour improved and my skin fabulous. No more cow milk dairy for me EVER again!
I had so much fun doing this challenge! Couldn’t wait to check my inbox every morning for the daily recipe, and so many of my non vegan friends asked for recipes when they saw the pictures! I hope you do more challenges, I will definitely take part !
Thank you so much for participating in the challenge, Tiffany! We are definitely doing some more in the future, just keep your eyes peeled :)
Dear Nisha, Thank you for running this challenge. I made 10 recipes total that I would have never tried as they would always stuck in my “one day” pile without your little push. I would love future contests/challenges/etc with or without prizes just to keep me more experimental in the kitchen!
Thank you for the feedback, Vicky! So cool to hear how the challenge impacted you! We’re definitely thinking of doing more in the future. :)
Yes to a recipe of the month club!!
Sounds like a cool idea, Kim! We’ll pass it along- thanks!
Thank you Nisha, for this oh-so-fun challenge! I made about 20 of the recipes, all new to me, which made January mealtime exciting every night. Thank you ever so much for this slice of Joy.
We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipes, Carol. Thanks for being a loyal reader :)
I made but didn’t post any challenge recipes this month, but always love them.
Yes, please do another one.
Thanks for participating Roberta, even though you didn’t post anything! We will definitely keep your suggestion in mind :)
I’d love more challenges, please!
Noted, Kristin!
I really enjoyed receiving recipes daily in this challenge. I hope you continue doing more challenges as your recipes are yummylicious!
Thank you
Lovely to hear it, Kim! And yes, creating more challenges is definitely on our radar! :)
Dearest Nisha and team at Rainbow Plant Life, I am so grateful to you all for having created this month of vegan challenge. Bahut dhanyavaad! I have been a Lacto-Vegetarian for over 40 years, did a 3 1/2 year stint as a vegan, but there were not many prepared staples or foods back then even in health grocery stores, blogs or cookbooks. It is becoming easier, thanks to you and others who are devoting your careers to leading the way for us.
I sent you three entries and created an Instagram channel because of your weekly entry requirement. So now I am trying to learn all things IG so I can continue to express my love of animals and cooking.
Please, please, please continue with challenges of all kinds: yearly/January and monthly, maybe seasonal?
And most of all, your great knowledge of cooking, has elevated my cooking to an entirely higher level! People used to say I was a good cook, but now — because of you, your refined layers of flavors, etc, my dishes have gone from good to great! From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
I have one question: Although I wasn’t a winner, one of my photographed entries was shown by you as “Top Posts.” What does this signify? Perhaps for future challenges, you could name entries (“top posts”) that went into your considerations? I know that to recreate any of your favored dishes, people were cookin’ their hearts out! And even if someone didn’t win, it would mean a lot to know that one’s hard work was considered or made it to the semi-finals or finals. Just sayin’! Lots of hugs to you!
(cheznormandie_vegan @Instagram)
Hi Normandie,
We’re so glad you enjoyed the challenge and are excited for you on your vegan journey!
Regarding your question, we actually chose all the winners randomly and didn’t consider the quality of the photos. The photos listed here are not “top posts” in terms of photos that we considered for prizes, just photos of the most popular recipes on the site that we enjoyed seeing.
And we’re definitely considering doing future challenges, so thank you for sharing your lovely feedback.
I was not aware of this challenge as I didn’t know about Rainbow Plant Life until several weeks ago when I was on Facebook. I am now a subscriber!
Several months ago, my husband and I decided to follow a vegetarian lifestyle and I am so happy to have you, Nisha, as a guide and mentor.
Lovely to have you here, Diane! We can’t wait for you to try the recipes :)
It was so much fun to participate the RPL vegan challenge this past January. I made about 20 of the dishes in this challenge and loved them all. Cooking in layers gives food so much flavor. I found out that I like jackfruit which I had never tried before. Congrats to all of the contest winners. We are all winners with these wonderful dishes. Looking forward to more recipes.
Thank you so much for trying the recipes, Phyllis! :) We’re so delighted you loved them.
Please notify me of an future vegan challenges. Thx! :) Gabriella
Hi Gabriella, you can sign up to our email list at the bottom of the page on rainbowplantlife.com and follow instagram.com/rainbowplantlife and you should learn of new challenges that way :)
I loved looking at all of those pictures from other participants. It’s so motivating. I hope you do it again. I’ve been vegan for only two years and still learning. These recipes have been so helpful and fun to make. Thanks again!
Thanks for the lovely feedback, Sherri! :) We are so happy you enjoyed the challenge.
OMG! I can’t believe the challenge is over. Of course! I would love to see monthly challenges like this one. My family and I always looked
Forward to getting your emails! So glad I participated in this challenge!
We’re so glad you participated as well Simran, thanks!
I would definitely participate in a recipe of the month club!! I would even participate in a recipe of the week club! I had my first baby a few months ago and this challenge helped me jump back into cooking and I absolutely loved it, but with my new baby and figuring out this whole mom thing a recipe of the week or month would definitely be more sustainable 😅
I just wanted to thank you for teaching me so much about cooking, for a while growing up I considered culinary school, and eventually decided to study nursing instead, but I have always wanted to learn more about how to improve the flavor and excitement in my cooking. I read “Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat” after I heard you mention it on YouTube, and thank you for that lovely book recommendation. As a public health nurse I loved reading “How Not To Die,” and “How Not To Diet,” which both helped me want to start eating a whole plant-based diet. Reading those books is actually how I discovered your website and YouTube account. I would highly recommend reading those books (the science behind eating plants is SO COOL, I am definitely a public health nurse nerd, haha). If you do end up reading them I would love to see a “How Not To Die” inspired recipe :)
Awesome to hear you enjoyed participating on the challenge, Alison! And congrats on the new baby, that must be hard work!
We’ve passed your message to Nisha, we are grateful to have you here and it’s great to hear you have found inspiration and learned from the recipes :)
Thank you so much for taking the time to create this challenge; really enjoyed it. it was easy to follow along especially since you have videos on your Youtube. It kept me excited to try out the recipes and build up my recipes for future weeknight or Sunday dinners. Here’s some feedforward.
First, spread out the tofu dishes, maybe one or two recipes every week. I felt the first and second week was very tofu-heavy. I know you are showing us how to cook tofu in different ways but it would be great if it was spaced out throughout the challenge.
Create a shopping list for the upcoming week for the challenges. I found myself going to the store to pick up a few items that I don’t have or I don’t use that often. Most people do their grocery shopping on the weekend, so having a list for the upcoming week would be helpful. Also, maybe plan out the recipes so if we are using a specific ingredient in one recipe and it can be used in another recipe, release those recipes on the same week or the next week. (if that makes sense). This will help reuse waste, trips to the store, and gas. This challenge happens during the cold time of the year for some people who live in states or countries that have brutal winters.
You’re welcome for the challenge, Nivian! Good to hear you enjoyed it. And thank you for all of that feedback! We’ll definitely pass the message along to the team.
Hi there, I missed the challenge (newcomer) but would like to see a 2nd season! :-) Not a vegan or vegetarian myself but changing to more veggies and less animal products, so those recipes are a more than welcome addition to my cooking routines! Thanks a lot and kind regards from Germany
Hi Cornelia, welcome! :) And we are already thinking of ways we can do more challenges in the future, so just stay up to date with the email list and follow on IG if you have an account- you won’t miss it!
I loved this challenge so much! I am kinda disappointed that I didn’t win anything :(
I’m glad you did, Simran! And maybe next time, thanks for participating!