More Irish sausages, this time soya based. The company name is a mouthful before you get to the sausages though. We like the sentiment, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. After reviewing Dee's vegan sausages recently, we spotted these very different Irish sausages in a health food store in the UK and thought we'd give the curry flavour ones a try:
Review: De Rit Syrup Waffles
Filled dutch waffles with malt syrup or hazelnut syrup centres. The vegan ones of these are made by De Rit or Molenaartje, but be careful to avoid the similar looking ones by Biona which have eggs in. De Rit also make a honey filled version which you'll naturally avoid too. There is clearly no need for eggs or honey as these De Rit waffles are really rather good:
Review: Welbourne's Special Plum Bread
Award-Winning Lincolnshire Plum Loaf from Welbourne's Bakery. Apparently this has been made to the same recipe since 1896... except for changing the lard to vegetable fat for vegans and vegetarians. In honour of the recipe change we thought we'd review the plum bread to see what makes it so special:
Guest Review: Erin B does PERK!ER Porridge
Gingerbread & Raisin porridge. 'Gloriously Gluten Free' is the promise that Perk!er make on their packs of muesli and porridge. We asked guest reviewer Erin B of Guilt Free Veggie to give us her thoughts on the porridge:
Review: Mediterranea Ragu di Soia - bolognese sauce
Meat-free ragu sauce with soya mince for lasagne and bolognese. Another sample sent to us by MozzaRisella partner Mediterranea. This is the second Italian faux-meat ragu we've tried recently, with the first being the wonderful one that came with the Relasagna lasagne-in-a-box kit. This one is sold separately, on the MozzaRisella online store. We made a lasagne with it, topped with what else, but MozzaRisella vegan mozzarella:
Review: Jeezo Bianco - Vegan Mozzarella
Vegourmet's rebranded and repackaged block cheese is now called Jeezo, while their cheese slices are called Jeezini. We've took this opportunity to revisit Jeezo, because we've reviewed it previously as part of our Meltdown and Cheeseboard taste tests and we were pretty harsh on it. Read on for why we might have softened our view:
Review: Mediterranea range of mock meats
Italian Sausages, Burgers and Seitan Slices from MozzaRisella partner Mediterranea. To promote the launch of the MozzaRisella online shop, the company sent us a range of their deli mock meats. Alongside their fantastic vegan mozzarella, and excellent ravioli, you can also now buy these italian tofu and seitan specialities:
Review: Dee's Vegan Sausages
Serendipity + Vegfest = Opportunity to try sausages not widely available in the UK. We happened to be in the right place at the right time to be one of the lucky few to get a Vegfest handout of Dee's vegan sausages. Dee's is an Irish wholefood company run by Dee Collins, specialising in healthy burgers, sausages and meal pots. We've been wanting to try these sausages for ages... and fate intervened last Sunday. Are they worth the wait?
Launch: Wills Vegan Shoes
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We caught Will off guard at Vegfest... he doesn't always look this grumpy! |
Looking for fashionable vegan shoes without spending a fortune? You want them made by people working under fair conditions too? That's a tough call, but Will Green might be the man you're looking for. Wills Vegan Shoes is a UK first: ethical footwear with high street styles and high street prices.
Vegfest Highlight: Vegan Cream Cakes
![JP Turner Vegan Cream Cakes are Dairy-Free and Egg-Free JP Turner Vegan Cream Cakes are Dairy-Free and Egg-Free](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVxW-d3bX494YKKEXfxBblfQ3VS98B0KmiClvSuHfyZZUPGFo7-5SZ6kEK6n0bVX8_5I7ldZSGLw2uUCyGgxpy0N_G14iv4AvqnFHRlS7uoB_uOaJrsGwoGcbxrAQoWlwkMdWxsTew44/s1600/blogger-image--669031924.jpg)
Amazing vegan cream buns from @JPTurnerFoods were the star of #VegfestLondon
We spoke to them about their cream and whether they would make an appearance at future vegan events. The cream is apparently soya based and they spent some time developing it to stay whipped at room temperature. The cream is piped from one of those catering cream dispensers (the ones charged with nitrous oxide cartridges). JPT were certainly very generous with the whipped cream too:
Vegfest Videos
All of our #vegfestlondon videos on one page so you can re-live some of the best moments!
VegFest London: Day Two
Yep #vegfestlondon day 2 begins by beating the queue at The Mighty Fork hot dog stall. If yesterday is anything to go by, they'll sell out by early afternoon. The queue at their stall is already snaking, 5 minutes after the doors opened..
We went for the massive Big Chili hot dog in which the wiener is topped with veggie chilli (with soy mince), chillies and mustard. Mmm.
Congratulations: Winners of the VegfestUK Awards 2013
Comedian Dave Spikey today announced the winners of this year's VegfestUK Awards here at Vegfest London. Categories included everything from best vegan meat product to best vegan celebrity. Some of the higher profile winners like Russell Brand and Paul McCartney weren't there in person, although Russell Brand was apparently scheduled to attend before he was arrested in Russia...
All of the winners were selected by public vote. Read on for the full list of awards:
THE AWARDS VIDEO IS NOW LIVE, BELOW THE BREAK:
VegFest London: Day One
We're at Olympia London for VegFest. We're on the lookout for anything new and exciting on the vegan food front. The two day event this weekend has 100s of stalls, talks, shows and 10,000 visitors are expected. We can't promise a liveblog but we'll do our best to tempt you down here - tickets on the door are still available...
New: Violife Cheese ...in a block
Your favourite vegan cheese in a 200g block. Violife has only previously been available as slices. This block doesn't even appear on their website as yet, but it's making its way to your local stockist. The block means grated violife is now possible, as well chunky slices and little cubes...whatever takes your fancy.
New: Freedom Mallows Strawberry Marshmallows
New vegan marshmallows with a strawberry flavour. Freedom Mallows are the machine-made light and fluffy vegetarian marshmallows from Manchester producers Freedom Confectionery. Previously only available in vanilla, the Strawberry flavour is arriving in UK shops round about now. We grabbed a bag to see if they're as good as the vanilla flavour.
Review: Ravioriselli Ravioli with MozzaRisella
Egg-free fresh pasta with dairy-free cheese filling. Vegan ravioli made with the best vegan cheese is like a dream come true. When we heard that MozzaRisella were expanding their product line, we couldn't wait to test some of it. The company sent us some review samples of the spinach ravioli and courgette (zucchini) ravioli, both of which have CreamyRisella within:
Review: FRANK Snack Bars
Chocolate covered cereal/fruit bars in Orange, Blueberry, Oat, and Double Chocolate flavours. Frank Honest Snacking says the strap line. These aren't cereal bars in the traditional sense, but are similar to Nakd bars, made from blended fruit and cereal. They have a lovely thick dairy-free chocolate topping:
New: Bellissimo Vegan Parmesan
Cherub Dairy Free of New Zealand make a parmesan alternative that's now available in the UK. Last year we reviewed a similar product called Parmazano, by Life Free From, but that has since been discontinued. This new Bellissimo product comes in a similar shaker pack and is designed as a cheesy topping for pasta:
Book Launch: Essential Vegan Cookbook
Tomorrow sees the launch of Vanessa Almeida's new cookbook. Sharing a title with the name of her blog, the 'Essential Vegan' Cookbook contains over 60 recipes. Originally launched last December in Portuguese this limited edition run was an instant success in the author's home country of Brazil, inspiring Vanessa to produce an English edition:
Exclusive: Review of Re-Lasagna Vegan Lasagne Kit
Genuine italian lasagne, but meat and dairy free, from your own kitchen. There aren't many ready-made vegan lasagnes available in the UK... in fact we don't know of any (maybe you do?). If you want lasagne for dinner therefore, you can eat out, or spend an hour or two in the kitchen. Italian chef Gilberto Argini is about to fill this gap in the market with his new Bio-Vegan Lasagne-in-a-box. We've been given an exclusive preview of the new kit (via UPS from Italy!):
Review: Rakusen's Dairy-Free Chocolate Digestives
Kosher/Parev biscuits with dark chocolate coating from Leeds firm Rakusen's. Dark chocolate digestives often have 'milk fat' in the dark chocolate, which is no good for us vegans. These ones, found in Sainsburys, are dairy-free:
Review: Wicken Fen Carrot & Coriander Sausages
Gluten-Free vegan sausages made with soya...and 11% carrots. The Wicken Fen brand has been around in the UK for over 20 years, but seems to come and go depending on the weather. Currently stocked in Sainsburys as well as health food shops, the range includes falafel and various types of veggie sausage (not all vegan). The carrot and coriander ones are some of the very few vegan and gluten-free sausages you can buy:
Book Review: World Food Café: Quick & Easy
Guest Review by Erin B from Guilt Free Veggie.
This book is not exclusively vegan, so when we were offered the chance to review it, we asked vegetarian blogger Erin from Guilt Free Veggie to review it on our behalf. The beautiful looking hard backed book was released at the beginning of this month and features over 100 vegetarian and vegan recipes from across the globe, with stunning travel and food photography throughout:
Review: Mamma Cucina Dairy-Free Pizza
Vegan margherita pizza with Tofutti mozzarella cheese. Part of Triano Brands (best known for Tofutti), the Mamma Cucina range in the UK now includes dairy-free ice cream, cheesecakes, quiches and pizzas. Just like the quiche and cheesecake, this pizza is also gluten-free. We've tried Tofutti cheese on pizza before...so does this make a worthwhile frozen pizza?
Review: Booja Booja Dairy-Free Ice Cream
Mini-tubs of premium vegan ice cream that come with spoons, in Vanilla, Coconut and Chocolate flavours. Continuing our 'frozen' theme of late, which we should have done in August rather than as autumn arrives... These mini pots of ice cream have been around for a couple of years, but we're revisiting them to compare them to recent arrivals on the vegan ice cream scene:
Review: Food Heaven Dairy-Free Ice Cream
Vegan ice cream from @FoodHeaven in Rich Chocolate, Cool Vanilla and Wild Blueberry flavours. Jodi Anderson and the team at Food Heaven have put together a great range of dairy-free foods, with this dairy-free ice cream now widely available. You may be familiar with Food Heaven's frozen cheesecakes, and they're soon to launch a dairy-free tiramisu too! We checked out the ice cream on a sunny September weekend...
Next Month: VegFest London 2013
It's September 5th already, just one month until the massive vegan extravaganza of VegFest London on October 5th and 6th. The two day event is on at Kensington Olympia and features headline comedy from Dave Spikey and Lucy Porter, music from Macka B, guests like Melissa Morgan and Scott Jurek, plus scores and scores of stalls. There'll be loads of vegan food on offer, live cookery demos, talks, presentations, workshops and entertainment. It's the vegan event of the year, and we'll be there:
[P]review: Buono Ice Cream Mochi
That's right, preview rather than review. We haven't verified that these are even vegetarian yet, but we're pretty sure they are. They're labelled Dairy-Free, but not as vegetarian, and a couple of the ingredients could be from animal fat. Buono make other products with the same ingredients that are labelled as vegetarian, so we're pretty sure this is an oversight. We've reached out to the distributor to establish the facts, and await their reply.
We hope they're kosher, because they're rather good:
UPDATE: These are confirmed as vegetarian, as well as dairy-free (and have no other possible animal ingredients listed) and they therefore meet our review criteria as being vegan.
Review: Granovita Soyesse Desserts
Yoghurt-style desserts from @GranoVitaUK which replace their Soyage line. The desserts come in six flavours: Plain, Strawberry, Raspberry, Banana, Black Cherry and Peach & Apricot. GranoVita sent us a couple of pots of the Peach and Apricot flavour for our review:
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