I’m in no way saying that is a bad thing, I’m just commenting on how it seems to be popping up everywhere in London.
One of the most-loved vegan pizza joints in the UK capital is Good Belly which is located inside The Railway Tavern just a few steps from Dalston Kingsland Overground station.
The pizzas at Good Belly get rave reviews from those in the know, so I can only imagine how delicious these two Christmas-themed specials will taste.
The first seasonal special I want to tell you about is their Christmas Day Pizza. It is constructed from a cranberry & merlot tomato base, mushrooms, red onion, stuffing crumbs, bacon bits, parsnip puree, and shredded sprouts.
That is one dreamy Christmas pizza!
Another special they have is their flaky (and delicious) Santa’s Sausage Roll. Good Belly assure me it is one of the best sausage rolls on the planet.
Check it out.
Both of these specials from Good Belly will be on their menu until December 22, 2019 so hop along rapidly if you want some seasonal treats.
You can see the full regular menu from Good Bellyonline here, follow the restaurant on Instagram, and check out the exact location of The Railway Tavern thanks to Google Maps.
I know a lot of people love an old-fashioned cream tea but finding a vegan version in London can be tough.
There is good news out of West London, however.
The Stables café located at Osterley House is now serving vegan cream tea!
Maybe you are scratching your head at the mention of cream tea.
What is it?
Cream tea is a variation of afternoon tea and is traditionally served with scones, clotted cream, and jam. The idea of cream tea is usually attributed to the tea rooms of Devon and Cornwall.
The StablesCafé is located inside Osterley Park & House in Isleworth, West London. The café is open between 10am and 5pm, 7-days a week.
You can see the exact location of the café thanks to Google Maps.
Legendary vegan bakery Ms. Cupcake of Brixton are now stocking Mabel’s amazing vegan Yorkshire Puddings. They are the ONLY place in the country to get these for Christmas.
The Yorkshires come pre-made in a batch of four, which you can keep frozen until you need to bake them off.
In Mabel’s own words, these Yorkie’s “give you that authentic flavour, with a crispy top, a soft bottom, shaped perfectly for you to pour gravy into.”
As an added bonus they are palm oil free and use compostable bio-plastic packaging.
Get down to Ms. Cupcake quickly to pick up a pack or two for your festive meal. It’s the perfect excuse to get some cake in, too!
Follow Ms. Cupcake on Instagram and see their exact shop location thanks to Google Maps.
Shrewsbury. Are you ready to eat ALL the vegan food?
Okra is a vegan café located on the High Street and the food looks beyond tempting.
The café was previously known as güd and traded in Altrincham Market, however they have enjoyed such wonderful success they have now expanded and relocated to Shrewsbury with the new name.
Okra is all about fresh, flavourful 100% vegan food. It’s kinda like gourmet street food.
They make almost everything in-house from scratch, including all their sauces and vegan burger patties. All their flat breads are made by hand to order, every time!
The menu is small and changes often, but there are always classics like the Mexican black bean burger and tarka dal.
Okra also throw in weekly specials, too. The ‘chippy T’ being a recent favourite featuring crispy tofu fillet, salt and vinegar hash brown, and katsu ‘chippy’ curry sauce on a toasted bun!
Okra is open for breakfast and lunch and should be doing evenings soon.
London, here is your opportunity to take part in a super fancy and super exclusive masterclass led by one of the leading vegan patisserie chefs on the planet.
I’ll show you how to make exquisite plant-based versions of festive French patisserie classics that will wow your guests during the festive season. – Clarisse Flon (specialist vegan patisserie chef, food consultant and photographer)
Grab a ticket and get along to the Made in Hackney kitchen on Saturday December 12, 2019 between 10am and 5:30pm for this rare learning (and eating!) opportunity.
This Masterclass is part of the Made in Hackney ‘VIP Series’, working with experts who are renowned in their field.
The class will include:
How to make a show-stopping Pear and Chocolate Genoise Yule log
Make an exquisite chocolate cream patissiere and chocolate buttercream
Learn to make gorgeous iced sablé Christmas biscuits
Rolling and setting techniques
Piping skills
How to make stunning chocolate décor and caramel shard decorations
Learn how to enhance flavours, and how to pair textures and tastes
A delicious organic plant based lunch, and take home recipe pack
15% discount in neighbouring wholefoods shop, Food for All
Clarisse Flon is a specialist vegan patisserie chef trained in classic French patisserie. Clarisse has worked in many fine dining establishments around the world while developing plant based versions of her traditional recipes.
She launched The Sunny Spoon in 2013 (a French vegan patisserie bakery featured many times at Hackney Downs Vegan Market) and helped launch Cafe Forty One, a vegan restaurant in La Suite West hotel in Notting Hill. Clarisse now works as a food consultant and photographer, developing vegan options and recipes for businesses.
Fee: £160 (£118 Concession) includes delicious tastings and a recipe pack.
This fee is used to fund the Made in Hackney programme 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 for them to continue their work with vulnerable community groups.
You can join Animal Equality at their Festive Fundraiser on Tuesday December 3, 2019 for an evening that promises to be packed full of merriment.
Entertainment at the Central London event (near Farringdon) will feature the always inspiring Christopher Sebastian and the hilarious Carl Donnelly. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to see them in action, then you definitely don’t want to miss this event.
You’ll also hear about the incredible work that Animal Equality has been able to carry out this year thanks to the generosity of their wonderful supporters, as well as enjoy a delicious plant-based, three-course meal and help the charity raise funds through a raffle.
The ticket price also includes a welcome drink and wine with the meal.
Christopher Sebastian is the director of social media for Peace Advocacy Network, he sits on the Advisory Council for Encompass, he is senior editor at Vine Sanctuary Press, he is co-founder of VGN, and he lectures at Columbia University in the Department of Social Work for the graduate course POP: Power, Oppression, and Privilege. He primarily focuses on animal violence and how it influences anti-black racism, queer antagonism and class discrimination throughout the global west.
Carl has been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award twice and has appeared on various TV shows including Mock the Week and Russell Howard’s Good News. He is a regular on the international comedy circuit, performing at pretty much every comedy festival there is!
Animal Equality look forward to seeing you next week. Click here to book tickets.
Extra note: The event space is accessible and Signing can be arranged on request.
If you have been taking notice of my ramblings lately, you’ll know that I have teamed up with a Seattle-based travel company to launch a brand new vegan cruise company.
Vegan Culinary Cruises is dedicated to luxurious 5-star travel. Everything about the cruises we design is for vegans and vegan-curious people and our adventures are 100% vegan.
The alcohol we serve. The toiletries in the cabins. The shore excursions we organise. And of course the cuisine. It’s all designed to be 100% vegan.
I recently teamed up with our chef Tobias for a week of workshopping our menus and I have to say it was not exactly tough work for me. I got to eat some truly delicious dishes.
I’ve picked my top 7 items Tobias and I developed (and my contribution was mostly tasting) for your viewing pleasure. I’d love to know your favourite:
First up in my cavalcade of deliciousness is this stunning omelette. I haven’t eaten a non-vegan omelette in more than 20 years so I can’t place myself as an expert, but this vegan version was incredible. It was so good, we are considering having an omelette bar at breakfast on our upcoming cruises.
Dense and sweet. That’s how I like my brownies and this one didn’t disappoint. The gooey topping was perfect.
If fried spring rolls are on a menu, I order them. I’m so happy Tobias put this starter together for me and the slightly charred bok choy was the perfect accompaniment.
When Tobias told me that he wanted to cook something for me that featured multiple types of beans, I was a bit suspicious. Beans aren’t that exciting, right? I was wrong! This casolette served with crunchy garlic bread and fresh radishes was one of the highlights of the week.
Moussaka is a little bit rare to come across when you eat vegan, so I was thrilled to be served this plate during our menu workshop week.
Here is my favourite dish from the week. Seitan strudel is now the love of my life thanks to this gorgeous creation. The flaky pastry was perfectly matched by the savoury seitan filling. Not shown were some crunchy roasted potatoes in a side bowl. I mean, come on!
I couldn’t possibly end this list without the inclusion of this delicious and decadent Crêpes Suzette. I am a sucker for fancy desserts and this knocked it out of the park. The ice cream you can spot in the photo was caramel flavoured and I fell in love with it.
There you have it. What do you think about these dishes we workshopped for Vegan Culinary Cruises?
You can see both of our 2020 cruises on the VCC website. First up is the LGBT-focused (although all are welcome) cruise on the Mekong through Vietnam and Cambodia in July, followed by a Rhone cruise through the South of France during the first week of November.
We currently have a huge special for early bookers of a US$1,000 discount per person for bookings before January 31, 2020.
The Ms Cupcake bakery is one of the true pioneer vegan businesses in the UK and was largely responsible for launching the booming interest in veganism we see today.
I recently interviewed Ms Cupcake founder Mellissa Morgan for Tenderly online magazine. We talked about the trials and tribulations of running an independent vegan business and how the biggest hurdles are often completely unexpected.
In the interview (which you can read online here), Mellissa talked of how the business recently recovered from a flood. This break in was never going to have good timing, but right now feels particularly difficult for the team.
Please consider what you might do to help support the Ms Cupcake team as they move past this trouble.
My suggestions are:
Visit the store as soon as you can and spend up big (they sell a huge range of pantry items, packaged sweets, ice cream, and of course legendary cakes and slices)
If you are at VegFestUK London this week at Olympia, stop by the Ms Cupcake stall (stand number CAT0 – next to One Planet Pizza) and buy lots of cake
In addition, you can catch Mellissa presenting a talk at VegFestUK London on Saturday October 26, 2019 between 1:15pm and 1:45pm.
Mellissa will be talking about all things sweet on the Foodies Stage.
Learn how you can use alternatives to refined sugars in your baking but still get immensely indulgent and decadent results. Over the years Ms. Cupcake has changed and developed her recipes to reflect changing customer tastes and now you can learn her secrets. Find out how this Brixton bakery has removed a third of the sugar from their cupcakes and cakes and introduced both a menu of refined sugar free items and a menu suitable for diabetics.
Get all the info about VegFestUK London (including tickets) online here.
The Fry Family Food Co is a legendary vegan brand that is known and loved all over the planet.
The family-owned brand is especially famous amongst vegans and the vegan-curious in the UK. Their meat alternatives have been keeping people happy for what must now be a few decades.
In what is great news for lovers of this meat-free brand, The Fry Family Food Co now has products available in Tesco supermarkets around the UK.
You can now find their chilled Pepper Pie, Mushroom Pie, Curry Pie, Med Veg & Squash Slice, and Twin Chicken-Style Sausage Roll (new and seen first in Tesco) in around 800 stores.
Both the slice Slice and Sausage Roll are ready-to-eat straight from the pack, or you can heat them in the oven for a warm and tasty treat.
You can view the entire range of Fry’s products (including the range of pastries available in Tesco) online here.
Fry’s will also be launching three frozen products later this month, so keep your eyes open!
