VegFestUK London is back in a big way for another huge year in West London.
VegFestUK has long been the best vegan lifestyle show in the UK and really one of the best on the planet.
You get to see and taste all the latest plant-based products, watch exciting cooking demonstrations, meet independent business owners, listen to fascinating talks, meet friends new and old, eat delicious food, drink tasty drinks, and SO MUCH MORE.
Get along on October 26 and 27, 2019 at Olympia, London.
Need another reason to go? How about cheap tickets?
Buy-one-get-one-free tickets for VegFestUK London are available online only until August 31.
In other news, I will be there on site all weekend running the stall for my new Vegan Culinary Cruises venture and hosting some social sessions. More details will be coming soon!
Also expect cocktails, beer and wine (all vegan too!) to be flowing, brought to you by All Good Beer and El Garito.
On the night, you’ll also be able to explore on-site zero waste emporium Re:Store for environmentally friendly and sustainably sourced goodies, as they’re extending their opening hours just for the event. Bring your refillable containers!
You will also be able to visit the resident shops of Hackney Downs Vegan Market including Low Company record store, The London Loom, and The Well Garden and expect a vegan cheese tasting at Re:Store.
So much fun.
The Facebook event already has over 1,500 RSVPs so we expect this to be a big night. RSVP to the event now and invite friends.
The final Hackney Downs Studios night market of the year is taking place on Friday Septmeber 13, 2019 between 6pm and 11pm.
Click here to see the exact location thanks to Google Maps.
I’ve loved Sweet Freedom for many years so it is great to see this fab new product suitable for people looking to cut down their sugar intake.
This new Light Syrup contains 31% less calories than sugar and is sweetened with carob and apple.
Aldi is currently the only place in the UK selling this gorgeous new vegan product AND if you buy a bottle from them, you can enter a competition to win a hamper featuring twelve products of your choice from the Sweet Freedom range.
Simply email a photo of your Aldi receipt showing a Light Syrup purchase, tell them why you love it and where else you’d like to see it stocked for your chance to win the exclusive goodie box!
In the meantime, you can follow Sweet Freedom on Instagram and see all their products online.
*Competition closes at midnight on Monday 2nd September, 2019
Little Green is a vegan café, bar, health food store, and social space in Newcastle.
It has proven to be extremely popular with, and valuable to, the local community and it needs your help.
If you are reading this post on either August 21 or 22 of 2019, it would be wonderful if you could take a moment out of your day and a few coins out of your wallet to help support the security and expansion of this crucial independent vegan business.
Little Green currently has a CrowdFunder campaign in order to enhance their refill station in order to promote low waste living.
This is what Little Green has to say about the campaign:
When we first discussed our ideas and plans to open a plant based cafe and health food shop, a huge part of it was to be as eco-friendly and kind to the planet as possible. Having a refill station so people can come in and help themselves to various liquids, using their own containers and therefore cutting down on plastic was important to us and we set up a small station in the cafe. This has proven popular with our customers as there isn’t anything like this in our immediate area but there is much more we would like to do. We have taken example from other businesses and are looking to build a bigger structure providing more options including foods such as grains and rice so more customers can visit and help themselves thus cutting out packaging.
All of this is part of our commitment to providing tasty, healthy food, great nutritional advice through our resident nutritionist Gareth with vitamins and products to suit your needs and a lasting commitment to be kind to our planet. We would really love to expand on the services we provide to as many as possible.
This is a fab campaign to throw your weight behind. There is only one day remaining for the campaign and they are currently at 82% of the target.
Made in Hackney is a community kitchen running ongoing vegan cooking and food preparation classes.
You knew that, right?
One upcoming class I thought you all would be interested in is the Sourdough Bread Making Masterclass.
Date and Time – Saturday 14th September 2019 – 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Cost – £89 (£71 concession available) inclusive of VAT
The Event
“Bread makes itself, by your kindness, with your help, with imagination running through you, with dough under hand, you are bread-making itself, which is why bread making is so fulfilling and rewarding” – Edward Espe Brown, The Tassajara Bread Book.
“I’ll show you how to successfully bake your own delicious, nutritious loaves at home” Becca Dye, wholefood chef & baker.
This masterclass will include:
What is sourdough and how does it work?
Health benefits, costs, and how to choose your flour
How to create and maintain a sourdough starter, and fun ways to use excess levain
How to use bakers percentages and create and tweak your own formulas
Seeds, spices, soakers; working with flavoured doughs
Learn how to mix, fold, shape and bake a variety of doughs
Q&A session, sourdough 101 and trouble-shooting
A delicious organic plant based lunch, your own starter, recipes and bread to take home
Becca is a wholefood chef and baker, who has worked in top bakeries across Berlin and London, and currently bakes at social enterprise Better Health Bakery in Haggerston. Becca has a particular love for wholegrain baking, and utilising ancient varieties of wheat and freshly milled flour.
Fee: £89 (£71 Concession*) inclusive of VAT, includes a delicious organic plant based lunch.
This fee is used to fund programmes of free courses to vulnerable and low-income community groups. By attending a Made In Hackney masterclass you get a great day of learning AND you’re providing the charity with essential funds to continue their work with vulnerable community groups.
Concessionary rate available for students, pensioners, unemployed and low waged.
Click here to book your spot for the Sourdough Bread Making Class.
Click here to see other upcoming Made in Hackney masterclasses.
Manchester. You have a wonderful thing in your midst.
On the second floor of Afflecks Palace (you know the big old fleamarket style place in the Northern Quarter with lots of cool traders?) you’ll find the UK’s first (and definitely not last) all-vegan snack vending machine.
The vending machine by Peace by Piece Vegans is the first all-vegan machine in the UK (unless someone can tell me otherwise).
And because homelessness sucks, ending the intense levels of homelessness in Manchester is something the machine is getting behind. 10% of all their profits will go towards this cause.
Vegan snacks AND sending some funds to a solid cause. Sounds fab.
Here’s all you need to know about the machine:
• Second floor of Afflecks Palace (next to vegan Not So Sweet Nails) • Open 10:30am-6:00pm Monday to Friday and 10am-6pm on Saturdays • Sundays… afraid not! • They have regular stock updates to keep things exciting • They only take card payments
If you wanna keep updated with all the treats being loaded into the Peace by Piece vegan vending machine, follow them on Instagram.
Good To Go is a new 100% plant-based cafe in Old Street (less than a year old) and is currently running a £2 offer on any coffee for an entire year to anyone that comes in and picks up one of their coffee cards for free.
Good to Go offers pretty much every plant-milk you could imagine! From pea and hemp to classics like Oatly and Bonsoy. With their food and drinks, they want to show that being vegan, and trying out vegan alternatives can be accessible and affordable for everyone.
The £2 coffee cards can be picked up anytime from now through September. All the card-holder has to do is bring in their card each time they get a coffee and they’ll get the deal.
Good to Go also offer plant-based baked goods to go alongside your morning (or afternoon) coffee, such as soft and sweet banana cake, flakey croissants and fudgy chocolate brownies and cookies, too.
They also serve a range of hot and cold foods which are perfect for lunch. From chilli with tortilla chips and guacamole, to kimchi pesto bagels or aubergine baguettes, hot creamy macaroni with roasted mushrooms, hummus protein pots with crunchy baguette slices, and tofu poké bowls brimming with edemamé, all delicious food that is good to go.
Chilli bowl with guacamole, tortilla chips & sour creamAubergine banh miBlueberry and peanut butter porridge with date syrupCroissant!
Good to Go are open Monday – Friday from 8am to 4pm.
You can see the exact location of Good To Go thanks to Google Maps and be sure to follow the café on Instagram.
Every single time I post about Convectionery, they sell out. Like, in record time.
So if you like what you are about to read, you need to order instantly or it will be gone.
Convectionery has launched a deluxe box in the UK which includes a sample of every glorious thing the company makes including vegan versions of Kit Kats, Jammie Dodgers, Peanut Butter Cups, and Wagon Wheels.
The deluxe box from Convectionery costs £20 and includes:
1x peanut butter cup 1 x Vego chocolate cup Rocky Road bites 2 x Jammie Dodgers 2 x Kit Kat 1 x Wagon Wheel 2 x White Kit Kat 2 x peanut butter Kit Kat 1 x white peanut butter cup 1 x white Vego cup 1 x white Wagon Wheel 2 x white chocolate covered Oreos 2 x chocolate covered Oreos
That is one impressive box!
Click here to order a box (or two) for yourself right now. This blog post went live on August 14, 2019 and I’ve been told it will only be available for 7 days or until it sells out.
Read this menu and then click to buy your tickets IMMEDIATELY because this is gonna sell out quickly.
Essential Vegan is the much-beloved Brazilian vegan café located in Shoreditch, London. It is one of the best places in Europe for vegan eating and now you can attend an exclusive pop up dining event featuring an eight-dish tasting menu that is exceptional.
Check this out:
Pinto beans soup (caldinho de feijao) with farofa and cheese crackers – Rich and hearty, this slow-cooked beans soup is served with a seasoned and toasted cassava flour and cheese cracker
Tapioca dice with green apple chilli sauce – Golden, crispy-skinned cubes packed with melted lupin cheese combined with the sweet and sour flavours of their sweet chilli sauce
Warm cassava salad – Boiled and seasoned cassava sticks (mandioca) served with a fresh vinaigrette
Grilled okra – Crunchy, creamy okra served with their coriander chilli sauce
Acarajé – A fritter light in texture and bold in flavour: Stuffed with caruru (okra paste), vatapa (peanut, cashew and coconut milk paste) and fresh tomatoes
Ginger mango sorbet – Highly refreshing and creamy sorbet
Brazilian doughnut with guava paste – They call it bolinho de chuva, a deep-fried dumpling, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar served with a creamy guava paste
Green apple tea with Sequilho – End this journey with a highly digestive and fragrant tea served with their famous coconut biscuits
The café doesn’t sell alcohol but you are more than welcome to take your own booze, make yourself at home and enjoy their supper club with your favourite tipple.
The tasting menu night is taking place on August 28, 2019 between 7:00pm and 8:30pm. Cost per ticket is £35.
I have heard a lot of questions and pleas for information over the years as FGV, but nothing gets asked about quite like vegan afternoon tea options in London.
So I thought it best if I share this information with you as I know there are a lot of plant-based eaters out there who LOVE a quality afternoon tea experience.
Nora and Nama is a vegan bakery and deli situated in Camden Lock Market. I’ve written about them a few times and the business has created a loving and loyal fan base thanks to their exquisite products.
It is also home to an incredible-looking vegan afternoon tea.
Check out this menu.
The afternoon tea is available at a cost of £26 per person for a minimum booking of two people.
