The plant-based Oumph! Burger, from Swedish multi-award winning Food for Progress, is now on the menu in a number of Shepherd Neame flagship pubs in Kent and London.
“There is a growing market for vegan burgers, so we decided to put a number of different brands to the test before introducing one on our menu. We asked 30 members of our team to try the burgers, and every time the Oumph! burger came out on top for taste and texture. When comparing the nutritional content of the burgers, the Oumph! Burger also scored very highly”, says Shepherd Neame head development chef Simon Howlett.
The inspiration for The Oumph! Burger was based on a juicy rare burger, but the difference is that the Oumph! Burger is made with entirely plant-based ingredients. Like all Oumph! products, The Oumph! Burger is made with soya beans, and the fine red colour comes from beetroot. The Oumph! Burger weighs 113g, which is the equivalent of a Quarter Pounder.
Dave Smith, head of UK Foodservice at Oumph! and Food for Progress comments:
“We’re pleased to see that such a well-established pub company as Shepherd Neame has chosen the plant-based Oumph! Burger for their pub menu. No doubt this will be very welcome among vegetarians, vegans and flexitarians.”
The Oumph! Burger is now available in the following Shepherd Neame flagship pubs: The Spitfire in Kings Hill; Ship & Trades in Chatham Maritime; Royal Hotel in Deal; Bell Hotel in Sandwich; Royal Albion in Broadstairs; Samuel Pepys in London; Sun Inn, Faversham; Market House, Maidstone; Jamaica Wine House in London; and Marine Hotel, Tankerton.
The Oumph! burger at these Shepherd Neame locations is totally vegan including the bun and all accompaniments . It’s cooked in an oven and grill, while their preparation and service of vegan food follows the same guidelines as their allergen controls. One person oversees the burger from start to finish in order to control process and quality.
Other Oumph! products include Pulled Oumph!, Oumph! Kebab Spiced, Thyme & Garlic, The Chunk, Salty & Smoky, The Oumph! Pizza Italian Style, and The Oumph! Burger.
A number of different Oumph! products are available in Asda, Tesco, Holland & Barrett, Whole Foods Market, As Nature Intended as well as independent stores across the UK.
Did you know that London has a 100% vegan bar situated right next to a 100% vegan pizza café?
Get informed and then get along for to draw drinking.
Hackney Dive is the latest vegan venture from hardworking legends Carla and Marco, the humans behind the incredibly-adored Young Vegans pie and mash shop in Camden and the gourmet vegan pizza hotspot called Death By Pizza.
Carla and Marco have worked tirelessly to bring London some of the best vegan food on the planet, so their next logical step was give vegan London a better drinking experience.
Hackney Dive is your number one spot to grab cocktails, beer, and cider in east London. The bar is situated in a shipping container right next door to the Death By Pizza pizza hatch, making it the perfect destination for eating and drinking.
I reached out to Carla of Hackney Dive to ask for her top 5 drinks you MUST try on your next visit:
1. Köln Style Lager by Hackney Brewery (Draft) 2. Hackney Mule – Double Vodka, Ginger Beer and fresh lime juice 3. Aperol Spritz 4. Kapow! – Pale Ale by Hackney Brewery (Draft) 5. Crate Brewery Cider (Draft)
OK. Now I’m thirsty.
You can see the exact location of Hackney Dive in Netil Market thanks to Google Maps.
Check out these gorgeous photos from Hackney Dive and neighbouring Death by Pizza below and be sure to follow London’s most fabulous vegan bar on Instagram.
Fable Brewery is hosting a fun vegan beer event in Essex this July and it sounds like it is going to be a great weekend.
FABfest 2019 is taking place at The Freight House in Rochford, Essex SS4 1BU on July 5 and 6, 2019. There is a direct train from London Liverpool Street to Rochford Station and the venue is opposite the station.
The event is split into three sessions designed to create an intimate experience.
You can expect about twelve craft brewery bars from across the country as well as the Fable bar. Of course there will also be vegan food available throughout the festival and you can get your groove on in the electronic dance music room.
London Vegan Beer Fest was created back in 2013 because the UK capital didn’t have a lot of large scale socialising events targeted just at vegans. Actually, outside of events such as VegfestUK and the Animal Aid Fayre, there weren’t many ways I can recall to celebrate with a vegan beer in your hand.
Following on from a visit to the original Los Angeles Vegan Beer Festival (created and run by Nic Adler and Quarrygirl), I was inspired to create something similar for London that was completely plant-based and focussed around beer.
It started as a small garden party in Bethnal Green for 200 people and over the next six years grew into one of London’s biggest annual vegan parties, welcoming thousands of revellers.
In addition, Vegan Beer Fest UK events were launched in Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, and Coventry.
But here we are in 2019 and the vegan landscape has changed drastically. No longer is a moderately-sized vegan event with curated food, beer, and wine offerings such a unique occurrence.
Just as Hackney Downs Vegan Market found itself unwanted due to the mainstreaming of veganism, Vegan Beer Fest UK events started to feel a bit superfluous in the current climate.
People can buy vegan beer in every single shop, supermarket, and pub in the country while High Street restaurants have made veganism more than normal and common. Large scale music festivals are even showcasing entire vegan food and drink sections.
Josh and I are extremely proud of the events we put together and hosted over the past six years and are sad to be wrapping them up, but it is important to be realistic about how the climate for these types of events has changed.
Vegan Beer Fest UK events are not planned for 2019. Who knows? Maybe you will see them return in a different format in the future.
Josh and I would like to personally thank a number of people who helped make these events fun and valuable community happenings over the past half decade.
Much love to the businesses, breweries, and food traders who traded with our events around the UK. Some of you travelled great distances to be a part of these special days and all of you worked tirelessly to prove that veganism does not mean something substandard.
We have eternal gratitude to our host venues. Thank you for taking a chance on us and giving our little vegan beer events safe and special homes over the years.
I can’t express how important the people are who helped us stage and run the events. Some of you were paid and some of you helped simply out of the goodness of your hearts. All of you understood the value these events added to our community. Thank you.
Follow Your Heart has been associated with our events for several years and this California company specialising in vegan cheeses and salad dressings (including the legendary Vegenaise) made our events possible financially. If you saw some of the margins we were running on most years, you wouldn’t underestimate the importance of Follow Your Heart‘s support. We send all of our love and gratitude to them. They are a big company that truly cares.
I send personal and heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Ricardo who has worked on the event design and posters for several years. He is an extremely talented designer and helped us forge a unique personality for Vegan Beer Fest UK events. His ideas will live on in the hundreds of t-shirts and tote bags bought by attendees during the last few years.
These events would have been impossible without all of the wonderful people who attended each year. Thank you for supporting us and for partying alongside us. You drank beer, you devoured street food, and you helped us raise approximately £1,000 for our featured charity Isla Urbana (securing clean and safe water for people in Mexico) through our Charioke rooms at the beer events. We couldn’t drag people away from those amazing charity karaoke sessions!
Lastly, I want to state just how grateful I am to Josh for the support he showed my initial idea of launching a beer festival. In addition, he needs to be thanked for the ridiculous amount of work he put into making these events happen each year. There were early mornings, long days, car journeys from one end of the UK to the other to meet deadlines, karaoke hosting duties, clean ups, stall building tasks, door and ticket collecting duties, and probably about two dozen more jobs that I can’t recall.
Honestly, running these events on our own was emotionally and physically challenging like few experiences I’ve had.
Josh did them all alongside me because he believed, as I did, that we were making special places for people to feel celebrated in their vegan lifestyle.
Vegan Beer Fest UK events were our way of helping to improve outcomes for non-human animals by making people feel good about their compassionate choices.
I look to the future with memories of these events firmly and fondly in my heart.
The team behind Black Cat, Hackney’s oldest and arguably finest vegan café, have taken over the kitchen at Roadtrip & The Workshop.
Although London can luckily claim a few vegan pubs, this is the first time a bar, and a late night one at that, is catering a fully plant-based menu. (FGV note: I might argue that Karamel in Wood Green is the first)
The aim is to offer approachable vegan food to the multifaceted clientele of the Old Street location, from gig-goers to the followers of sports on the big screens to those looking for a meal to go with their night out in Shoreditch.
Black Cat will be serving up “tapas without borders”, a menu combining vegan versions of traditionally Mediterranean dishes with hints from other parts of the world.
The menu has been tested and served at their Hackney premises, and some have even been served at benefit gigs, music venues, gatherings, and special events.
Regulars to Black Cat need not be disappointed on their first jaunt to Roadtrip & The Workshop: Black Cat’s burgers will be also available and new dishes will appear weekly on the specials board.
Prices range from £3 for freshly-cut chips to £8.50 for the delicious cashew buttermilk corn-crusted seitan burger. The small sharing plates average around £6.
This will be the first vegan residency at Roadtrip & The Workshop, and the venue has gone to great lengths to ensure that diners can not only eat plant-based foods, but that the drinks menu matches the ethics behind the food!
All wine and beers behind the bar are vegan, as is most of the cocktail menu, which is clearly labelled while the venue works with existing suppliers and brands to clarify and find alternatives for its full back-bar of spirits and liqueurs.
Black Cat’s head chef, Nacho, commented: “We’re delighted to be able to bring our food to Old Street, and the whole team are excited to reach as many people as possible to highlight how going out eating vegan is affordable, easy, and most importantly, it can be enjoyed by anyone!”
Carla, who manages the café with Nacho, added: “We’ve been on the lookout for a second site for Black Cat, and when Paul from Roadtrip & The Workshop got in touch, we knew this was the perfect place to bring our tapas menu to. We are super excited and thankful for this opportunity given to us by the venue.”
Both Black Cat venues will be open simultaneously and can be booked for large parties, birthdays, or other celebrations.
Blank of Brixton is already loved for its gorgeous brunches, coffee, and cakes but now they are taking things to the next level by adding vegan cocktails to their repertoire.
The Acre Lane location is celebrating their cocktail launch with a special night of games, nibbles, and a lot of Jameson.
On January 25, 2019 between 6pm and 9pm, as well as London’s best vegan Irish coffees and cocktails, there will be retro gaming, a cocktail class run by Jameson London, appetisers, vegan desserts, and a tonne of freebies.
Tickets are just £15 on the door and include two cocktails, appetisers, and a vegan dessert.
Need more to drink? Extra cocktails will be available to buy on the night.
If you have made the choice to live a vegan life, you would have made some changes to how you eat. You will also be exploring personal care products that are animal free and household cleaning products not tested on animals.
But have you considered how your beer choice can be more compassionate?
Freedom Brewery has been brewing vegan-friendly beers since 1995 and is now enjoying fantastic success as more and more consumers realise they can enjoying a drink without harming fish!
Yep, all Freedom beers are certified vegan.
How do they do this you may ask?
Well, believe it or not, a lot of beers are filtered through isinglass, which is made from ‘fish guts’. At Freedom they don’t do this, instead using a mechanical process which employs a natural filtration process to ensure they still achieve ‘bright’ beer.
This is particularly important for the brewery as they do not pasteurise, but rather naturally carbonate, during the brewing process (they let their beer mature for longer – up to 6 weeks vs. 10 days for some other brewers). Not using isinglass (taken from fish bladders) to filter their beer is just the tip of the iceberg!
Freedom Brewery is very close to my heart and I’m grateful for them being one of the most visible vegan-friendly beer brands of the past decade.
Did you know that Freedom gifted us with cases of beer to enjoy at the first ever London Vegan Potluck? Or you must have been one of the countless people to order a pint of Freedom at tibits restaurant over the years, especially when it was the home of London Vegan Drinks.
2019 finds Freedom Brewery doing all it can throughout January to inspire people to #GoGutless with their beer enjoyment.
They currently have a Veganuary 20% off promotion live across the full range. Yes, 20% off vegan beer! To claim, customers need to enter the code: VEGANUARY when they reach the checkout.
Click here to browse the entire range and buy vegan beer at a discount.
Competition time
Freedom Brewery has kindly made five gift packs available and you might just win one of them!
Each gift pack comes with three beers and a branded Freedom Brewery pint glass. If you win, the brewery will ship it directly to you.
How do you enter
Freedom isall about going gutless and saving our fish friends, so you can enter the FGV/Freedom giveaway by posting your favourite fish joke on Twitter.
That’s correct. We want fish-friendly jokes. Example joke: What do you call a fish that needs helps with its vocals? AutoTuna.
Rules (they are very loose)
There is no limit to how many fish jokes you can enter (one joke per tweet)
Each entry tweet must include the hashtags #GoGutless and #FreedomBrewery
Jokes referring to fishing or fish being harmed/eaten are instantly disqualified
You have until midnight UK time on January 31, 2019 to enter
Five winners will be picked and winners must be prepared to supply their contact details to Freedom in order to receive their prize
The decision is final and there will be no drama or arguing that your joke was better… it’s just a bit of fun!
It goes without saying but I suppose I should say it for legal reasons… you can only enter this competition if you are of legal drinking age in the UK
Prizes can only be delivered to mainland UK addresses
Jokes combining beer AND fish are extremely encouraged
Have you been curious about the vegan Baileys drink called Almande?
If you are interested in sampling the drink for no charge, get along to Hackney Downs Vegan Market this Saturday December 8, 2018.
Baileys will be on hand to impress market goers with their popular dairy-free drink.
Almande by Baileys is a liqueur made from sweet almond oil and almond essence (extracted from crushed almonds), cane sugar and purified water with a touch of real vanilla. It has a creamy feel, but is light in taste.
I enjoy mixing Almande with chocolate milk for a fun drink, while blending it with soya milk, ice, agave syrup, and peanut butter is a dream come true.
The sampling team will be serving tasters from 2pm until 4pm so get along early (the market opens at 11am) for lunch and then stick around for some free Baileys! It is also a great time to start some of your vegan Christmas shopping as we will have cheese, vegan fish, gifts, and more. Full market line up is here.
Extra note: Chanel of our resident bakery stall Vegan Deliceis planning some special vegan Baileys themed treats on her stall this Saturday to coincide with the tasting session. Eat cake and be happy!
This October Club Mexicana at The Spread Eagle, London’s first 100% vegan pub, will launch their brand new Mexican-Californian brunch, kicking off weekends with the likes of chilaquiles, chick’n & waffles, and brunch cocktails every Saturday and Sunday.
Inspired by founder Meriel’s travels through Mexico City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and a stint living in Melbourne, where brunch is a formative part of the weekend, the menu will include dishes packed with flavours from the sunshine cities. Mains will feature: ‘Huevos Rancheros’ with scrambled ‘eggs’, Mexican ‘chorizo’, black beans, avocado and salsa verde on a grilled paprika tortilla; and – Mexico City favourite – chilaquiles: fried corn tortillas drenched in salsa roja, roasted pepper queso and sour cream, topped with pickled jalapenos. Club Mexicana’s infamous chick’n’ & waffles with chilli infused maple syrup are making a comeback, and signature tacos are getting a breakfast twist with combos including fried potato and ‘chorizo’ topped with avo and sour cream. Meriel has also created a host of snacks like the deep friend avocado with a miso lime dipping sauce, and those with a sweet tooth will not be left out with deep fried ice cream; warm chilli-chocolate brownie with peanut and caramel sauce and taco millefoglie with lemon curd, blueberries and vanilla whipped cream.
The Spread Eagle will be serving up brunch cocktails at the bar, including their famous Spread Eagle Bloody Mary made with horseradish infused vodka, the Avocado Colada, with pineapple, avocado, white rum, coconut milk and lime, and the Coconut Tequila Shrub with coconut tequila, grapefruit, cider vinegar and soda. Sherri has also devised a selection of Kombucha cocktails from the Passion Fruit Mimosa with passion fruit puree, Prosecco and passion fruit JARR Kombucha, to the Beetroot Punch; beetroot shrub, dark rum and ginger JARR Kombucha.
The Spread Eagle co-founder Luke says ‘We’ve been itching to get brunch off the ground since we opened – we’ve always wanted to pub to be a place for all occasions, so we cannot wait to open our doors and welcome those seeking refuge from a hangover with a taco or two, or those looking for a few drinks with friends to kick off their weekend!’
‘Our style of cooking lends itself to brunch and it’s been so much fun creating a whole new menu with lots of exciting dishes – chilaquiles are definitely a winner! Pull up a stool at the bar and order them with a bloody mary I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday’, says Meriel.
Brunch will be available between 12pm-4pm on Saturdays and Sundays from the 6th of October, 2018. For reservations please visit https://www.thespreadeaglelondon.co.uk
There haven’t been many times in my life when I’ve watched a dream come true before my very eyes. Actually, this might be the first legitimate dream of mine that has been turned into reality.
It all started when I had a dream about a bagel filled with vegan bacon and cheese that had been battered and deep fried. It was such a vivid dream that I was instantly obsessed with the idea.
Fast forward to a few days ago and I was talking to my mate Dave of superstar vegan eatery Make No Bones in Sheffield about the BagNut (yes, bagel + donut = BagNut) and he agreed to make it for me.
I was floored!
My dream originally featured the bagel being held together with string before being battered and fried, but Dave knows what he is doing and used wooden skewers to hold it all together.
So what you can see below is the world’s first ever BagNut. A lightly toasted bagel filled with seitan bacon, cheese sauce, and pickles before being battered and deep fried.
To make this situation even better, Dave and Make No Bones have agreed to add the BagNut to their menu sometime in the coming days.
If you are ever in Sheffield, you need to make time to grab a BagNut. It is a taste sensation. If you live in Sheffield, I pray you have willpower or else this might become tea a few times a week.
Make No Bones is now located in new mega vegan venue Church: Temple of Fun which is also an amazing vegan bar and Drop Dead clothing boutique. I’ve also seen a new vegan tattoo studio being built inside the venue this week.
You can see the exact location of Make No Bones/Church online thanks to Google Maps.
Extra news: Make No Bones and Church are hosting the official Sheffield Vegan Beer Festafter party on Saturday August 18, 2018 from 8pm. If you show your beer fest wrist band at the bar you get 10% off food orders and 10% off the official after party cocktail, the Slow Burner.
Click here to order cheap £4 Sheffield Vegan Beer Fest tickets online or pay £7 on the door.
