Art for animals

by

Up to forty artists are set to show their work in a London gallery to advocate for animal rights.

Here are all the details you need.

Artist Aisha Eveleigh has organised an art exhibition in central London to raise awareness of animal exploitation and its consequences.

The name Behind Closed Doors refers to the way our mistreatment of animals is hidden from the general public. Most of us have little idea what happens to animals behind the doors of factory farms, slaughterhouses and vivisection labs.

The exhibition seeks to bring these issues into the light, changing the way we think about animal rights.

For this reason, Aisha views the Behind Closed Doors exhibition as a form of activism. Vegan artists like Dana Ellyn and Sue Coe will be exhibiting their work, whilst YouTubers Earthling Ed and Vegan Geezer are among those giving talks.

The exhibition will take place at the Strand Gallery in London. It will be open from the 26th to the 29th of May, with an open event day on the 27th. On this day, there will be a variety of talks and performances, along with creative workshops to get involved in.

If you’d like to support this inspiring project, make a donation via the Indiegogo fundraising page. Donating £5 gets you unlimited entry into the exhibition, while donating more gets you added perks. Even if you can’t make it to the event, donations will no doubt be very much appreciated!

For more information on the exhibition, visit the website.

You can also RSVP and invite friends on the Facebook event page.

FGV top picks VegfestUK Brighton

by

Hey!

I don’t know how this comes around so quickly. Has it really been a year since the previous VegfestUK Brighton?

The Brighton version of this mega event always holds a special place in my heart. It still has a slightly small-town vibe than its cousin in London and you get to be beside the English seaside while it’s still blustery and cold.

This blog post and my ‘things you don’t want to miss’ list for VegfestUK Brighton is tinged with a little sadness as I can’t be there this weekend. As you might now, I live in Mexico City for six months of each year so it seems I won’t be getting to this event again in the foreseeable future.

Drats!

In loving memory of the good times I’ve enjoyed at this show, I’ve gone through this year’s programme to put together FGV’s top picks for VegfestUK Brighton (March 11 and 12, 2017).

Food hall

  • Beelzebab – stunning seitan kebabs from one of the best fast food vendors in the entire UK
  • Butcherless – from the people who brought you Sgaia comes a food stall of epic deli proportions
  • Brownins – I always make time for their deliciousness, especially their gravy

Talks

Check out the Intersectional Vegan Summit especially Ruby Hamad talking about links between animal oppression and capitalism at 4:00pm on Saturday via Skype and Christopher-Sebastian McJetters discussing connections between speciesism and racism at 5:00pm on Saturday

Cooking demo

Make time to see my buddy Adrian of Vegan Peasant demonstrate canapés and party food. I just wrote about his upcoming pop up event in London, so this is a great opportunity to see how the magic works at 5pm on Saturday

Stalls

  • Ananda’s Marshmallows – get the Round-Up wagon wheels
  • Conscious Chocolate – so rich and creamy
  • Dr Hadwen Trust – actively campaigning for animal-based experiment alternatives
  • Follow Your Heart – best vegan mayo on the planet and sponsors of Vegan Beer Fest UK 2017
  • Lakeside Ethical Treats – always has a great range of vegan sweets and treats

Of course there are dozens and dozens more stalls and talks taking place, but this list includes the things I personally would make a priority.

Hope you all have a great time and check out VegfestUK Brighton online to plan your weekend and get your tickets.

Vegan Peasant back again

by

I love bringing you news of London vegan events and pop ups, especially when I know how popular they are going to be. I get all tingly and excited.

Last month I wrote about my buddies Diana and Adrian of Vegan Peasant hosting a glorious one-night-only food affair and I think the tickets sold out in about 48 hours.

Vegan Peasant is back in March with another canapés and bowls pop up event and you will have to be super quick to secure your spot.

 

Just like last time, the pop up is located near Hackney Central. You are given the exact location 48 hours out from the event.

Check out this glorious menu being prepared for Vegan Peasant guests:

Canapés
– Beetroot Rösti, Horseradish Cream, Carrot and Mizuna
– Sea Salt & Rosemary Puff Twists, Smokey Chipotle Aioli
– Basil & Sunseed Arancini, Basil & Rocket Pesto Mayo

Bowls
– Artichoke Hearts, Red Pepper, Broad Beans over Olive Oil dressed Linguine, Fried Garlic Shards & Baby Leaf
– Saffron Carnaroli Risotto, Shallots & Sweet Mange Tout Finished with Shredded Radicchio & Snipped Chive

Sweet Bites
– Three Layer Boozy Trifle with Whipped Coconut Cream
– Brownie, Meringue & Ice Cream Sundae

Vegan Peasant is responsible for some of the finest plant-based cuisine you will find in London. That menu is world-class.

Tickets are £25 and all guests will be presented with a welcome drink on arrival. Don’t show up without a ticket. Advance ticket purchases only at this exclusive event.

Click here to buy your ticket now and RSVP/invite friends over on the Facebook event page.

UK shopping village gets a vegan cafe

by

Do you remember the excitement when I told you about the shopping village in Coventry, UK where you could find a vegan brewery and a vegan grocery store?

That original blog post about Fargo Village absolutely blew up, with a huge number of readers from all over the UK and the world wanting to find out more.

But that was then.

BIG news coming out of this already very vegan-friendly shopping village tells us that there is now a 100% vegan café on site. How great is that?

Three vegan businesses located within the same shopping village.

Totally Vegan describes itself as a ‘100% vegan cafe serving everyday, affordable food and drink to support you and your family’s vegan journey’. Sounds like a positive outlook to me!

Nikki who runs the Green Unicorn vegan grocery store in Fargo Village had the following to say about the new café:

Totally Vegan opened in early February to queues out the door and many satisfied customers (their lemon and blueberry cake is to die for and they makes a gorgeous chickpea flour quiche too) – and their sausage rolls are so good they’ve even got the non-vegans clamouring for them!

Nikki also let me know they are hosting their own vegan fair in the shopping village this April. Coventry certainly is taking to this vegan malarky, right?!

You should like Totally Vegan Café on Facebook and follow them on Instagram.

Yay for vegans taking over shopping villages!

Extra note: the photo in this blog post belongs to Totally Vegan and is reproduced here for promotional purposes.

New vegan makeup brand in UK

by

One of the most common talking points I see online amongst vegans is makeup. They wanna know which brands are vegan and they wanna know where to buy them.

Knowing what demand there is for vegan makeup in the UK, I’m expecting a huge amount of interest in this post about Guilty Free.

Guilty Free is based in Nottingham and is committed to eco-friendly, vegan makeup. Their range includes much of what you’d expect from a cosmetics brand including bronzer, lipstick, gloss, eye shadow, blusher, foundation, eye liner and concealer.

I don’t understand a lot about makeup science, but Guilty Free products are trumpeted as being mineral-based with no perfumes, dyes, chemicals or preservatives. So it sounds like you can be kind to animals and your skin at the same time.

Check out some of these gorgeous products.

It looks so fabulous. Makes me wanna start wearing makeup again (my teenage years were exquisite).

You need to see the entire Guilty Free range on their website, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter and Instagram.

Yay for vegan makeup!

Extra note: all of these images belong to Guilty Free.

Make and sell vegan donuts

by

Super quick post to tell you about a part time vegan job with one of London’s most-loved street food vendors.

If you’re an experienced baker and have worked with enriched dough, shoot an email over to peanutbutterbakery@gmail.com with your CV and a little bit about you. This is a part time position mainly on weekends.


Yes. Everything Peanut Butter Bakery makes is incredible and you could be a part time component of this winning team.

Extra note: exclusive announcement regarding my Hackney Downs Vegan Market on March 18, 2017… Peanut Butter Bakery will be trading!

Vegan burger at London kitchen takeover

by

You all know about my buddy Vanessa and her delicious food business called Essential Vegan, right?

Over the past few years, Vanessa has taken her incredible brand of hand made plant-based cuisine to all corners of London and beyond. She works so incredibly hard.

Remember her triumphant pop up café on Portobello Road? Or may you dined with her at her stand in PUMP Shoreditch. Of course a lot of you ate Vanessa’s food at VegFestUK London.

Now Vanessa has announced her next food adventure and you should put this one in your diary.

Essential Vegan is launching a 6-week kitchen takeover in Hackney at popular food and drink venue, Haunt, from March 14, 2017.

Haunt is a super chilled out bar that is beautifully decorated and only a short stroll along Stoke Newington Road from either Dalston Kingsland or Stoke Newington Overground stations. Click here to see where Haunt is located thanks to Google Maps.

Look at how beautiful this venue is:

Not only will you be able to devour and savour gorgeous, gourmet vegan food made by Essential Vegan, but it will be the ONLY food being served inside Haunt for this 6-week period. So you won’t have to sit next to anyone chomping down on animal products.

Ready to see the menu?

Vanessa is adored for her seitan burgers and as you can see in the menu, she is launching her new Essential Gourmet burger.

It’s like her original burger but taken to the next level with aged vegan cheese and special sauces. Check it out:

I’m drooling.

The menu also features a special line up for weekend brunch, served between midday and 3pm.

If you have the means to enjoy this food, make a special effort to join Essential Vegan for this limited kitchen takeover. As it is less than a 10-minute walk to Hackney Downs Vegan Market, I predict that area is going to be EXTREMELY busy on March 18.

Visit Essential Vegan online (super rad recipes), like them on Facebook and follow via Twitter and Instagram.

Find more info on Haunt on their website.

Tegan the Vegan London

by

Being half a world away in Mexico City for half of every year means I miss out on a lot of incredible vegan food developments in London.

Of course I’m reporting as much as I possibly can, but I can’t physically get my greedy hands on a lot of the new and interesting stuff. If I’m completely honest, it does lead to a slight case of FOMO.

Take Tegan the Vegan for instance.

Tegan has been burning up the east London vegan scene for a little while now, but I’m yet to taste any of her amazing-looking food due to my globetrotting ways.

You can find Tegan the Vegan getting involved in all manner of events around the UK capital (and sometimes slightly further afield) and everyone I know who has tried her treats can’t stop raving about her skills. Tegan seems to have something very special going on.

There is often a weekly cake and vegan cheese menu posted via the Tegan the Vegan Facebook page and if you live in her catchment area, you can place an order for home delivery.

Check out this sample menu below.

OK. Before I make myself completely starving and jealous, let me give you a few links so you can get involved with this vegan food business on the rise. Get in on the ground floor before Tegan is recognised as London’s next vegan superstar!

Like Tegan the Vegan on Facebook. Follow Tegan the Vegan on Twitter and Instagram.

Now I’m going to spoil you with one of my favourite photos from Tegan’s Facebook page. Enjoy.

Extra note: Tegan’s incredible logo was created by Alex Bertram-Powell. See his art here.

All photos and images are property of Tegan the Vegan and reproduced here for publicity purposes.

Review of Sanctuary London

by

The talented, funny and fierce-as-fuck Tatum has written a guest blog post for me today. After you read it, you really should follow her on Instagram.

Sanctuary review by Tatum:

Sanctuary sounds like a spa but it’s actually a ridiculously delicious vegan restaurant.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been seeing beautiful Instagram pics of burgers and milkshakes. I became a bit nervous that my time spent drooling over the pictures had raised my expectations ridiculously high. What could live up to that? Sanctuary did. Several times over.

The restaurant is about a five minute walk from Fulham Broadway station and only ten minutes away from GreenBay vegan grocery store. We went early on a Friday evening and were in luck to get a table. The restaurant has a casual vibe and is decorated with cute pics of animals, I particularly liked the lamb with the sweater called Ismael.

From the tapas menu we ordered the croquetas filled with Shiitake and portobello mushrooms which came with a tartare dipping sauce. They were delicately fried and the mushrooms had a creamy consistency. It made me think of how well the chef at The Sanctuary could also make a jalapeño popper.


For the mains we had to have the much-pictured burgers. After some deliberation, because it all looked so good, we settled on the Hippo Rampage. It had bacon, guacamole, cheese and smoky onions on a beef style burger with a bun that looked like a pretzel roll. It was a transcendent burger eating experience. The Hippo Rampage had every flavour you’d ever want with a burger plus that special x factor quality, when your tastebuds are perfectly sated and at the same time ravenous for more.

We didn’t get just one main dish we also got Saving Nemo which is the fishiest fish burger I’ve ever had. The first bite was heavenly but some kind of magic happened because with each subsequent bite the flavours got even better. I’d recommend getting the sweet potato fries option over the regular.

The desserts were almost sold out but we got the last brownie and ordered a blueberry cheesecake milkshake. It was a a brilliant way to end the meal. The milkshake had cream cheese in it which is why it ricocheted off the scale of creaminess.

There is so much else to try on their menu and we are planning to eat our way through all of it. For the next visit I have my eye on their croissant sandwich and the Vegan Fish and Chips. Oh and the vegan chorizo melty sandwich, now thats made me hungry all over again, ok I’ll have to stop now but in conclusion go to The Sanctuary. At the rate I’m going, I’ll probably see you there.

Follow Sanctuary on Facebook and Instagram. Visit their website.

Delicious horchata recipe

by

 

Support these videos via Patreon.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup plain white rice*
  • 4 cups of water
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 cup of plant milk**
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
  • 1⁄2 cup of sugar

Instructions:

– Place rice in a large bowl and cover with four cups of very hot (but not boiling) water
– Break up the cinnamon sticks and add them to the bowl
– Allow to cool for about an hour then cover and place in the refrigerator overnight or for at least three hours
– Once soaked, place the soaked rice, cinnamon sticks and water into your blender jug
– Add the plant milk and the sugar
– Blend for at least 11⁄2 minutes, ideally longer, until your Horchata is smooth and there are no chunks of cinnamon
– If your Horchata is very thick, feel free to add some more water or plant milk to it
– Pour over ice and sprinkle with ground cinnamon before serving

* In Mexico, plain long-grain white rice is most commonly used but you can experiment with a mixture of different rices to produce different flavours. Almonds, walnuts and other nuts are sometimes added to the rice before soaking so try different mixtures according to your taste. In Spain, Horchata is commonly made with tiger nuts/chufa.

** We used a vanilla soy milk but any other plant milk will do. If you don’t use a vanilla-flavoured plant milk, you may want to add a teaspoon of vanilla essence to your Horchata before blending.

Recipe and photo remain property of Sean O’Callaghan and Julio Alcantara and may not be reproduced without permission. © fatgayvegan.com