Welcome to Vegan Quarantine: Day 42. This daily video series is my way of keeping spirits high within the vegan community while also supporting independent business, charities, and musicians.
Essential Vegan is an independent café run by chef Vanessa Almeida and her husband Neni.
I got to know Vanessa and Neni several years ago through the vegan scene in London. They would both come along to events I hosted and it wasn’t long until we counted on each other as friends, not just vegan comrades.
Vanessa and Neni work as hard as anyone I’ve ever met in the vegan community, if not harder.
I have seen them pull all-nighters, often multiple nights in a row, in order to prepare for large scale vegan festivals such as VegFestUK. At the first ever Hackney Downs Vegan Market Vanessa was swamped by customers and sold out of everything instantly, resulting in her actually RUNNING home to bake more cakes for attendees while Neni stayed at the stall and chatted with customers.
Their shed/hatch window takeaway stall in the now-defunct PUMP foodcourt in East London was crucial in pushing vegan food forward in the capital. Vanessa and Neni worked tirelessly to make delicious seitan burgers and succulent cheesecakes to keep the hungry crowds satisfied.
Essential Vegan also became famous around this time for their gourmet plant-based cheeses.
Vanessa has invested thousands of hours in order to perfect her handcrafted artisan cheeses. If you consider yourself a vegan cheese fan, you owe it to yourself to get along to Essential Vegan to buy a few of Vanessa’s creations.
As Essential Vegan Café turns two years old, it is also important to recognise how Vanessa has helped put Brazilian food on the London map. As a chef, she is a pioneer in the UK.
Vanessa and Neni relocated from Brazil to London many years ago and it was a dream of theirs to feed traditional dishes from back home to the population of their new home. They have realised this dream with Essential Vegan Café.
Feijoada is one of their specialties and I promise you will struggle to find a weekend brunch as delicious as this anywhere else in London.
I haven’t even touched on the rest of the sensational menu which includes cake, cassava chips, Brazilian cheese balls, seitan wings, salad, quiche, and casserole.
Congratulations to Vanessa and Neni for two years of Essential Vegan Café. I’m truly inspired by your determination, work ethic, and commitment to improving outcomes for animals.
See the exact location of Essential Vegan Café thanks to Google Maps (just a few skips from Shoreditch High Street Station).
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.
There is only one place in the UK where you can buy the following cakes this weekend and that is Manchester Vegan Beer Fest.
Check this out.
I’ll give you a moment to regain composure….
OK.
These stunning cake creations are handcrafted by the talented Vanessa Almeida of Essential Vegan and will be served on both Saturday and Sunday as part of Manchester Vegan Beer Fest.
Vanessa is the exclusive sweet food trader at the event so she is making sure she is bringing her A game.
There will be the luscious brownie with chocolate sauce and strawberry coulis, as well the the gluten free passionfruit cheesecake. Not pictured is the stunning eclair which will also be making an appearance.
Not only will Vanessa be serving up these world class vegan cakes, she will also give happy drinkers pairing suggestions. Yes, buy a beer and a cake that work together to make you even more satisfied!
Manchester Vegan Beer Fest also welcomes V-Revolution and Mother•May•I as they serve savoury food. You can see the full beer list here.
Tickets for the event are just £4 (plus tiny booking fee) in advance or £7 on the door if we have space. Book now. You can RSVP to the Facebook event and invite friends.
Essential Vegan is the brainchild of my friend Vanessa Almeida and is home to some of the most delicious recipes on the Internet, which are also some of the simplest to recreate.
Because Vanessa is a perfectionist and believes things can always be better, she has gone and updated her already wonderful website to make it even easier to navigate.
Click here to visit the brand new Essential Vegan website for a stunning range of vegan recipes including the only recipe I have used more than ten times in recent years, Vanessa’s homemade seitan.
Vanessa also blogs about vegan products she has tried and you can find info on where to buy her delicious cakes in person.
The days of thinking of Shoreditch as a wasteland overrun with hipsters and lacking in vegan food choices appear to be well and truly over.
Following on from my hysterical post yesterday about the best vegan food in London now being served in Shoreditch, I bring you even more news from the ultra trendy enclave.
My favourite vegan burger served in London now has a temporary pop up home smack bang on Shoreditch High Street.
Essential Vegan is a name known to most vegans in London. Vanessa Almeida enjoyed a pop up cafe for months on Portobello Road, has sold thousands of copies of her vegan cookbook and has been a regular food trader on Brick Lane.
Vanessa has mixed things up a bit and you can now find her trading every single day at Pump Shoreditch, a very cool undercover food market housed in an old petrol station on Shoreditch High Street.
Check out the fabulous food I purchased from her yesterday, including what is certainly my favourite vegan burger in the UK. You can’t go wrong with seitan steak and homemade vegan cheese!
Here we go. I know you love my grand sweeping declarations.
The Essential Vegan pop up cafe at 297 Portobello Road in West London is currently serving the best vegan food in London. No doubt about it being number one in my FGV opinion.
I ate there today and was so moved by the delicious cuisine, I almost cried. I was overwhelmed with joy. London has been playing catch up with other international cities when it comes to outstanding plant-based eating and I feel we have come of age.
London, get ready for some of the best vegan food you have ever eaten. Seriously.
As the sad news filters around town of pop up cafe LOTUS Cucina Vegan vacating its Portobello Road premises, consolatory information about its replacement is spreading even faster.
Vanessa Almeida of Essential Vegan is bringing her outstanding savoury cuisine and cake delights to 297 Portobello Road for (what is now) an 8 week long engagement.
If you know of Vanessa and Essential Vegan, you will be aware of just how irresistible her food is and what an untouchable reputation it has in the capital. The supper club Vanessa cooked for my guests was peerless and her cake stand on Brick Lane every Saturday is legendary.
Now West London gets to eat like a champion six days of the week starting Tuesday September 2nd, 2014 as the Essential Vegan Pop-up Cafe sets up shop in the Portobello Juice Cafe between Tuesday and Sundays, 9am – 5pm.
To anyone who thinks they have eaten the most delicious food in the world, I respectfully inform you that it gets better.
Last week marked the second event in my month of Friday night supper clubs known as Around the World with FGV and Vanessa of Essential Vegan gave attendees a culinary experience they won’t forget in a hurry.
Vanessa started the proceedings off by serving an irresistible selection of Brazilian bar nibbles including cheese bread, polenta sticks and cassava chips.
Burger by Essential Vegan