vegan UK

Non-profit vegan clothing company

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Did you know there is a 100% not-for-pofit vegan clothing company in Sheffield?

This news is too important to put through the FGV word wringer, so I have asked HeartCure to give me the precise rundown on what is taking place in their neck of the woods.

Based out of Sheffield, HeartCure are the only completely non-profit vegan clothing company in the UK. They donate everything they can to Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary and in their first 6 months they raised over £1,000 for the sanctuary.

They have recently relaunched their website with all new designs including an all new kids range! They always try to be more design based than just text and ignite curiosity in those who see the clothing to help spread a positive vegan message.

HeartCure plan to support more Sanctuaries this year and donate all they can to help the vegan movement grow, involving collaborations with activists.

They started HeartCure as a way to help raise money for animals while also supporting fair wear and ethical trade standards. It’s always been about making change, not profit.

The owners are officially Jordan & Georgia but HeartCure is made up of everybody involved, from the photographers to the models and everyone who has supported the brand.

They are also launching the UK’s first vegan social centre which will be launched this year called HeartCure Collective. The social centre will be at a warehouse in Sheffield and will include a cafe and bar, ethical clothing store, weekly activist meet ups, youth meet ups, a stage for speeches and live music. You can get involved via the Gofundme campaign by clicking here.

They are aiming to make the warehouse space a social hub for all vegans. It will be a place they can hang out during the day, meet friends in the evening, a space to organise their own events and discover more about activism.

The collective will welcome vegans and non-vegans as they believe it will be a great place for anyone interested in veganism to find out more about living ethically and sustainably.

That is a lot to take in, right?

Brief overview? HeartCure is a rad clothing brand raising money to save animals.

Visit their online shop here, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter and follow them on Instagram.

Sainsbury’s is stepping up on veganism

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Hey, have you all noticed the shift happening over at Sainsbury’s in regards to promoting vegan food?

Within the space of a week, the UK grocery giant has posted three vegan cooking videos to their Facebook page.

Check them out here:

Wow. Three pretty spectacular vegan recipes shared by one of the biggest retailers on the planet. They have even gotten two leading vegan food personailities to help with the videos (Heart of Cake and CookDaily).

This is a clear indication of how powerful veganism has become in the UK. These companies do not undertake anything without market research and a lot of consideration.

That they are making vegan options a big part of their current advertising campaign says volumes. Times are changing and if they don’t get on board, they are going to miss out and they know it.

In related news, Sainsbury’s have apparently teamed up with a group of scientists to redesign their store layouts to encourage customers to buy less meat.

The following is lifted from a story in The Guardian:

Oxford University scientists will work with Sainsbury’s executives in a programme that will see supermarkets redesigned. Proposals include: placing vegetarian alternatives on the same shelves as meat products; giving vouchers and loyalty points to shoppers who choose vegetarian products; and providing recipes and leaflets that outline how shoppers can eat less meat.

What do you all think of this push on plant-based consumerism by Sainsbury’s?

Non-vegan café switching to vegan

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I simply ADORE sharing news about non-vegan food places switching to plant-based offerings.

Slowly but surely, small victories for animals are turning the world just that little bit more vegan… and victories rarely come more uniquely planned out than what is going down at The Fields Beneath.

The Fields Beneath is a much-loved coffee shop and café situated at Kentish Town West station in North London.

Owner Gavin gave me some VERY interesting insights into how he is easing his loyal customers into veganism. I absolutely love his plans for 30 plant-based coffees for £30.

Let me step aside and give Gavin some more space to explain:

At The Fields Beneath, we’ve been open a little over four years and started transitioning to a vegan menu in December, cutting out meat first. The exciting opportunity we’ve got with the shop is that a vast majority of the customers are not vegan. They don’t get it in the way I feel only vegans do; I certainly didn’t myself until about this time last year, and the cafe has the chance to introduce customers to many parts of the vegan journey.

We started the conversation two weeks ago by offering a program where a customer can get 30 coffees for £30, the catch being no dairy! As of yesterday we’ve signed up 100 people. ‘What’s wrong with dairy?’ comes up a lot but the aim is to cut out dairy completely by the end of April.

As for the food, we’ve aimed so far to replace things with their vegan counterparts; our cakes, our croissants and sandwich ingredients. The hot dishes have been vegan for over a year.

From February we’ll be pushing the possibilities with food, choosing not just plant based menus, but leaning on as much seasonality as we can. On top of the team we’ve got, led by Helena Vieira, we’re building one for the future and have welcomed back old friend Avneet Padda after two years away working for the likes of Silo in Brighton and Cafe Oto in Dalston. She’s bringing a wealth of experience with baking, fermenting, pickling, seasonal produce and so on. So we’re very much at a ‘watch this space’ point.

We roast the coffee ourselves at Tate Britain, and have plans to make our own oat milk so that a) our costs don’t go up by moving from dairy to Oatly, and b) to make sure people don’t need to spend more money to be vegan.

What a well-thought out and inventive way to ease people into accepting vegan café choices as an everyday occurrence.

I can’t wait until my London return when The Fields Beneath will be 100% vegan. Who wants to meet me for a croissant?!

Please follow The Fields Beneath on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Extra note: The Fields Beneath is a London Living Wage Employer. Fuck yeah!

Extra extra note: The Fields Beneath are running a hot water bottle drive. If you have a hot water bottle that is spare, drop it off with the café. If you are currently on the streets, you can drop in to collect a hot water bottle that has been recently filled. You are also welcome to return for hot water refills when needed.

New vegan meats!

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I love little more in life than delivering news of the vegan meat variety.

And this is a dang fine batch of news.

Gambardeli is the company name for Margaret Gambardeli, the maker of some incredibly fine looking vegan meats.

Margaret makes all of her products lovingly in her own home kitchen, packs them up and sends them to devoted customers all over the UK. I could tell you a lot more about Margaret but I think her words carry more weight than mine ever could:

I grew up in a small farming, fishing town in Scotland. I became vegetarian as a teenager when I moved to Essex and then macrobiotic. Although not a vegetarian or with a vegan philosophy, I saw macrobiotics as a way of not using any animal products and started finding recipes based on grains, beans, vegetables, sea vegetables and fruit. I qualified as a teacher of macrobiotics in 1986. I brought my children up on this diet and I have been eating in this way ever since. Back in the day, I used to make my own tofu and even skin creams!

Margaret continues with details of her unique meat-free products that she developed herself:

My products are seitan style but not to the usual recipe as we didn’t quite like seitan, so I adapted the recipe to suit our tastes. I have a ‘joint’, steaks, strips, slices and thin slices all made from the wheat flour and a small amount of soya sauce. My medallions have the addition of a little vegetable oil. I have an Italian sausage with the addition of nutritional yeast with B12, chickpea flour and fennel. We are experimenting with different herbs and spices to offer alternative flavours. I use organic flour and naturally brewed soya sauce – all of our products are GMO free and I avoid palm oil.

And what about getting the products to you in your house?

I vacuum pack the products and freeze them to send them out to customers in insulated bags. I sell the products from our on-line shop at www.gambardeli.co.uk, at vegan fairs where it is very popular in a wrap with salad or as a filling for pasties, and at Farmers’ Markets where I sell the packs.

How about a Veganuary deal for the readers, Margaret?

As a special Veganuary offer, anyone buying 3 packs of steaks from our website will get two packs of our new sausages completely free.

And what if people own a shop or market stall?

I would like to supply shops, cafes, restaurants and caterers with our products – even people who have or would like to have their own vegan food stall at a market can buy from us wholesale.

These seitan-similar steaks look absolutely incredible and you can never have too many vegan sausage brands in your life, either.

Take advantage of the special Veganuary deal and order from Gambardeli before the end of January. Better yet, do it right now!

Visit Gambardeli online, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Vegan sushi

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Here is a little piece of news that is going to make a lot of people extremely happy.

Vegan sushi superstars Happy Maki now have a permanent shop front in the seaside town of Brighton. Yep, open RIGHT NOW for all your vegan sushi needs.

A photo posted by Happy Maki (@thehappymaki) on


If you have been to any vegan events during the past few years, there is a strong chance you have seen Happy Maki wrapping and selling their much-loved food to throngs of appreciative customers. They always have one of the longest lines at events I’ve seen them at and I’ve never heard a bad word.

People love this stuff!

Now people can love this stuff more regularly at the new Happy Maki shop front situated in The Lanes area of Brighton (next door to famous Boho Gelato).

The doors have only just been flung open but I’m sure there is already no shortage of loyal customers flowing into Happy Maki.

Yay for vegan sushi!

Visit the Happy Maki website for opening times and location. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming festival appearance news.

Vegan menu at All Bar One

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If you can keep up to date with all the non-vegan places around the UK falling over themselves to serve vegan food, you are doing a better job than me.

Every single day seems to bring news and I feel like lots of it is hurtling straight past me. It’s too much!

However, one piece of news that didn’t evade my chubby gaze is the brand new vegan menu being featured for Veganuary by All Bar One.

You know All Bar One, right?

The famous bar chain has more than 50 locations around the UK and is often a favourite meeting spot for friends. I think All Bar One was the first place to serve me booze when I first moved to the UK back in 1998.

But the food!

Check out the menu:

Doesn’t that sound like a well-thought out vegan menu?

Of course I’m not satisfied with simply showing you the menu, so I asked All Bar One to send me some photos of these news dishes.

Can you handle this?

How about that food?!

Everything looks splendid and I could really see myself eating a few servings of those potatoes.

Check out the very special deal All Bar One has for Veganuary. You can devour three vegan dishes for £13.

Visit All Bar One online to find out their locations close to you.

Vegan store in Coventry

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This is a top development.

I’m absolutely grinning from the news of a brand new vegan grocery store having opened in Coventry.

The Green Unicorn is situated in the super-cute shopping district called FarGo Village, located just east of the the city centre (like, strolling distance).

I asked Nikki at The Green Unicorn to give us a small insight into what her store is all about and this is what she had to say:

I’m very passionate about veganism and can’t wait to help start spreading the vegan message. I’m planning to provide support to new vegans for Veganuary and help influence the other retailers in FarGo Village to embrace their vegan customers. Fargo Village is a creative retail village in the city centre and attracts  a customer base from all walks with regular events such as food festivals and film screenings. I’m keen to work with our onsite vegan brewery, The Twisted Barrel, for more vegan events.

How rad is that?!

A vegan store and a vegan brewery/bar in the same location coupled with a big desire to support new vegans. I love this sort of shit.

You want some photos of this greatness now?

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Like the Facebook page of the Green Unicorn and shop with independent vegan traders. Do it!

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Vegan pizza base

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A reader (who has an Instagram account packed with cute people and cats) got in touch with me yesterday to ask if I had tasted this vegan-friendly pizza base.

I replied that I had not.

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I was assured this base is probably the best pizza base you can buy in the UK.

Trouble is, not everyone is going to be able to locate it. This Crosta &Mollica ready to top pizza base with tomato sauce is available (as far as I can tell) only in Waitrose stores or via Ocado online.

Have you tried these bases? What do you think? Have you seen it in any other shops?

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Good looking food in Cardiff

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I haven’t been to Cardiff for a really long time. Maybe years.

This is why I have not been able to share any photos from the 100% vegan café known as Anna-Loka, even though I keep hearing amazing stories about their menu.

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Due to my inability to visit the Welsh city, the kind people of Anna-Loka sent me some photos of what they are serving up.

Are you interested in seeing some of the food? Of course you are!

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Looking good at Anna-Loka, right?

You can get more details about the café on their Facebook page and follow them on Instagram.

See where the location is on Google Maps.

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Best in the UK

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Here it is. My ultimate sweeping declaration.

I visited a restaurant a few days ago and it turned out to be the best vegan dining experience I have ever enjoyed in the UK. I am pretty sure I could stretch the ‘best’ label to encompass all of Europe, too.

See the food photos below.

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Say hello to Wildebeest in Falmouth, Cornwall.

Wildebeest is a world class dining set up and everything about the restaurant is what I want in a vegan establishment. The menu is exquisite and inventive, yet still familiar and comforting. The wine list is of course 100% vegan and cocktail lovers can choose from mojitos, martinis and Cosmopolitans. The people working in Wildebeest are friendly and the service was second to none. The decor is gorgeous while the entire space is comfortable and charming.

Can you tell I’m in love?

Just wait until you see the food!

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