Hot vegan breakfast

Why is it so tough to get a cooked breakfast?

The UK is famous all over the world for fry ups and cooked breakfasts, so you think it would be an easy task to find a quality vegan version.

Not so. I can’t really think of any in London that I would rave about. Please correct me if I’m mistaken.

A few weeks back I did stumble across a delightful vegan breakfast in a vegetarian café in Lancaster called The Whale Tail Café.

Check it out!

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It wasn’t complicated but it was expertly put together.

Sausages, tofu, beans, hash browns, tomatoes, mushrooms and a side of toast. It was perfect.

Visit The Whale Tail Café online and visit for this satisfying meal soon.

And…

Pop your recommendations into the comments for fab vegan breakfasts.

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Vegan chocolate factory open day

How about all your dreams coming true at once?

Chocolate-producing heroes Ethicoco are flinging open the doors to their factory for one day only and it sounds like quite the event.

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Check out what they have to say about their open day taking place on Saturday September 24, 2016:

Hampshire’s only chocolate factory is opening its doors for a limited time, offering you a glimpse into the workings of a successful independent business and one-man (and his daughter) empire.

Alongside exploring the delights of Ethicoco’s one-of-a-kind bean to bar chocolate, the event will also include a delicious vegan BBQ, absolutely free; as well as a cash bar.

Join us to learn more about successfully running your own business, the art of chocolate making, or just to enjoy some excellent food and drink. As an added bonus, the first ten people to arrive on the day will each receive a gift bag of chocolates!

This sounds like a fantastic day out.

What’s not to love? A chocolate factory, a free vegan BBQ and a cash bar!

RSVP to the Facebook event here. Visit the Ethicoco website to find out more info on their range.

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Diwana Bhel Poori House on Drummond Street

Post by:

josh panel

Last month I had a quick slap-up dinner with my friend Ari before seeing the amazing band Slaves. We decided to try one of the vegetarian Indian restaurants on Drummond Street. We had previously been underwhelmed by Chutneys so we decided to give Diwana Bhel Poori House a go.

Diwana bhel puri houseWe started with Bhel-Poori and Bhajya…

bhel pooriThe Bhel-Poori was a delightful mixture of textures and flavours. Crunchy crushed fried poori and puffed rice contrasted with soft cooked potato, onion and chilli, all bathed in a delightful sweet and sour sauce. I could have ordered another portion!

bhajyaThe bhajya (or bhajis as I normally see it written) were perfectly crispy and crunchy on the outside and soft and satisfying on the inside.

Following our delicious starters, we shared a Thali as a main and it did not disappoint.

thaliFilled with a generous quantity of food, the Thali contained three delicious curries, a creamy and tasty dhal, more bhajya, puris and rice. Everything tasted exceptional!

I would definitely head back to Diwana Bhel Poori House and recommend that you do too!

Visit Diwana Bhel Puri House online or follow them on Twitter.

P.S. Why doesn’t London have a 100% vegan Indian restaurant??

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Vegan in Malmö Sweden

Post by:

joe panel

When I was in Copenhagen, I also took a day trip to Malmö, over the sea in Sweden. Some people make out like Malmö and Copenhagen are nuzzled together, but it will take about an hour to get from central Copenhagen to central Malmö, realistically.

However, if you do make the trip (take your passport, Schengen is no longer here) you’ll be rewarded with some excellent vegan food at Kao’s.

The café was a little hard to find – from the street it looked like the place is closed down (I’m not sure if they were refurbishing it). However, signs directed us through the gate at the side and into the rear courtyard where we found a beautiful, peaceful oasis.

In addition to a buffet, there are three daily specials – one soup, one fake meat, and one vegetable dish, plus a range of sweet treats to satisfy any tastebuds.

We had seitan sausage with potato salad (packed with dill, one of my favourites), and a sweet potato gratin with tofu and curry-roasted vegetables, which came with some amazingly creamy garlic mayonnaise. Both dishes were delicious, though they may not look particularly exciting on my photos! Meals include a trip to the salad bar, plus a tea or filter coffee too.

There was also a big selection of sweet stuff. After much deliberation we settled on a cinnamon swirl, plus a slice of chocolate cake with a thick caramel layer in the middle – gooey and delicious.

4 Kao%27s vegan Malmö - cinnamon swirl and chocolate-caramel cake 3 Kao%27s vegan Malmö – sweet potato gratin 2 Kao%27s vegan Malmö - seitan sausage and dill potato salad 1 Kao%27s vegan Malmö - courtyard

We both thought Kao’s was excellent, a perfect spot for some lunch. There’s also a branch of the vegan supermarket Astrid Och Aporna very close by, so you can stock up on goodies for your travels.

Later, after wandering around the city, we went to the clearly-named Vegan Bar. I quite like that it’s so proud of its credentials – and it was packed, too!

They specialise in burgers, and they have a build-your-own system in place. First you choose your burger style – soya mince, chickpea, or portobello – then you choose your type of bread, then finally your toppings.

We chose a mushy-mushy chickpea burger with sourdough bun. The mushy-mushy includes lots of mushrooms and a slice of vegan cheese. It came with chunky fries and was pretty big and very tasty!

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The only odd note came after ordering, when the friendly member of staff told us that we should have been charged extra for sharing (we weren’t hungry enough to each tackle a burger and fries). This is a bit weird for a bar. I can understand why a restaurant might do this, but for a place where you order your food at the bar, and where not everyone is eating anyway, it seems a bit off.

But the food was great, and the atmosphere was pretty cool, too. It’s not in the centre of the city, but off to the south, close to Triangeln station where the Copenhagen train stops, which makes it ideal for starting or ending your day in Malmö.

Which is what we did, and thus ended our day in Malmö…

…well, almost. On the way to the station we passed an ICA supermarket and decided to drop in. To our surprise we discovered a huge corner dedicated to vegan products! They even had flapjacks, which funnily enough aren’t easy to get over here. Good to see such prominent vegan marketing, and useful to know too.

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Shake frenzy in Sheffield

These photos do not need words. Just action.

Get to Burger Lols in Sheffield ASAP for these outrageous shakes.


Yep. Stunning.

Follow Burger Lols on Instagram and get their address on their Facebook page.

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Rawligion in central London

If you are like me and haven’t found/made time to try Rawligion in central London, this post will give you a small visual insight into what the café serves.

It looks good!

The restaurant sent me photos of (from top) raw chocolate Rochers, Thai slaw, raw dehydrated falafels, lemon tahini dip & hemp tabbouleh and finally the raw pancakes.

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Rawligion is only a 40-second walk from Goodge Street Underground station or a 6-minute walk from Tottenham Court Road.

You can visit the website, follow on Twitter, follow on Instagram or like on Facebook.

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Vegan café in Surrey

News has just arrived at my doorstep of a brand new vegan café opening in Bookham, Surrey this month.

I reached out to the owners to find out a little bit of information surrounding Crazy Bean and here is what they told me:

We are opening a vegan cafe in Great Bookham, Surrey. Located at 23 the High Street, our launch events are over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of September and will include complimentary drinks and tastings on both evenings and throughout the day on the 17th.
We chose to go vegan about 3 years ago and knew we needed to leave the rat race to do more. Our cafe is only part of plans to launch community growing projects and hopefully launch a range of products into the majors when we are ready. We are on a huge learning curve but we are passionate about the cause.
We have had an amazing amount of support already in the area and hope to advertise further afield. While this will be a business, we feel our responsibility with this cafe and all we do is much bigger than our own livelihoods. There is more about this in my first two blogs on our site www.crazy-bean.com so please do check them out.
Of course, we want to provide delicious food and are working really hard to build a menu that everybody will love.

How fab does that sound?

Follow Crazy Bean on Twitter and like them on Facebook.

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New vegan burgers in London

There is a new vegan burger experience happening in London and everything they serve looks incredible.

Mooshies is running pop up events around the UK capital, with a current Kitchen Take Over at Strongroom Bar & Kitchen, 120-124 Curtain Rd, London EC2A 3SQ between 12pm until 9pm until this Friday (September 2, 2016).

That means you have today, tomorrow and Friday to get along for these ridiculously tasty looking burgers.

Hold onto your seats as I show you what’s in store.

Fillet-Om-Phish copy Whats Ur Beef copy Pulled Mooshie copy

Can you even believe how good they look?

The top burger is the Fillet Om Phish made from aubergines, homemade tartar sauce and VioLife cheese. Next up is the Pulled Mooshie starring jackfruit served on coleslaw with a homemade BBQ sauce. Finally you can see the What’s Ur Beef burger crafted from quinoa and black beans, topped with caramelised onions and VioLife cheese.

All vegan and all extremely impressive.

If you are keen to wrap your laughing gear around these treats but fear you can’t make it to Shoreditch this week, get hold of this next bit of info and take action.

Mooshies are also staging a one-off celebration of their burgers in Islington on September 8, 2016 at The Joker pub.

Tickets for this 4-course meal are £20. You can and should buy tickets online.

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Tasty times ahead for London vegans!

Visit Mooshies online, like on Facebook, follow on Twitter and follow on Instagram.

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International Vegan Junk Food Day wrap up

Thanks to everyone who joined me online to make International Vegan Junk Food Day 2016 a fun and interactive event.

Take a moment to check out the hundreds of posts that were tagged #ivjfd16 on Twitter and Instagram.

See you all next year for round four!


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