vegan UK

ASK Italian now has vegan menu

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A huge trend for UK restaurants is the addition of a specialised vegan menu.

Chain restaurants all over the country are rushing to present vegan diners with separate meal choices on a designated menu.

The latest UK chain to join the vegan menu club is ASK Italian. With approximately 120 locations around the UK, there is no shortage of spots to chow down on pizza, pasta and bread.

Check out the vegan ASK Italian menu below.

That’s not too shabby for a non-vegan restaurant chain. I especially love the sound of the roast Charlotte potatoes!

The menu does seem to change slightly between outlets. You can see the menu online and choose your nearest restaurant using a drop down list. This will adapt the menu and prices for your area.

Click here to see the vegan menu online.

Extra info time:

ASK Italian was bought out by a private equity group called Bridgepoint. Interestingly, this private equity group also owns or has invested in Pret a Manger and Zizzi. It just so happens that all of these chains have been extremely active in responding to vegan market trends and demands. This is surely a top-down directive for food companies owned by Bridgepoint, right? It couldn’t be a coincidence that these major restaurant chains owned by one group are all now suddenly super vegan-friendly.

If this isn’t proof of the surge of veganism, I’m not sure what is.

Vegan BBQ cooking class

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I want to give you some info about a fab cooking class happening soon in central London.

My friend Nishma is a kind, compassionate and smart person who runs a vegan business called Shambhu’s. You probably recognise that name because of the hundreds and hundreds of events Nishma has catered around the UK.

Nishma is taking a day away from the festival circuit to share some of her kitchen expertise with a small number of food fanatics.

On Saturday April 1, 2017 between 2:30pm and 5:00pm, you can join Nishma and just 11 other students for an afternoon of vegan BBQ cooking instruction (and eating!) in Islington.

Included for the ticket price of £45:

  • printed recipes for items featured in the class
  • complimentary tea & coffee
  • opportunity to taste dishes
  • opportunity to take away any left over food at end (containers provided)

In this class you’ll learn the following barbecue-friendly dishes:

  • Marinated tofu & vegetable skewers
  • Cassava bites
  • Marinated tofu in potato parcels
  • Spicy vegetable masala toasted sandwiches

This will be booked solid and with only 12 spaces available, it will fill quickly.

Click here to book your spot.

Autumn Yard is vegan for a day

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If you are planning to be part of the first monthly Hackney Downs Vegan Market, you now have another option for dining.

As if all of the amazing street food wasn’t enough, you can now also plan on sitting down for a meal with onsite restaurant Autumn Yard. Like they did for the Christmas Market, the restaurant is switching to a 100% vegan food menu for the day.

Isn’t that fab?!

Would you like to see the menu?

That looks like a tasty line up!

Autumn Yard is a gorgeous setting inside an old warehouse and the perfect place to relax with a warming meal if the March weather is a little on the grim side. The food is exquisite and you might even be tempted by a cocktail or two.

You can visit Autumn Yard online and follow them on Instagram.

Check out the line up for Hackney Downs Vegan Market here.

Vegan capital of the world is not a city

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To be honest, I’ve spent a lot of time moaning about London and how it always seemed behind other world capitals when it came to vegan food. It always felt 5-10 years behind NYC, LA and Berlin.

However, things are now changing rapidly for the UK capital and nowhere is heralding in this plant-based revolution faster than the north London Borough of Hackney.

To celebrate it rapidly becoming veganised, I wanted to give you my top ten reasons why Hackney is the most-vegan neighbourhood/district in the UK and one of the finest plant-based destinations in the world.

10 Essential Vegan – Vanessa lives in Hackney and now has launched a six-week kitchen takeover with her Essential Vegan goodness in trendy neighbourhood bar, Haunt. If you love seitan burgers and cheesecake, head here as soon as possible.

9 Redemption Bar – I’ve never been to this venue but it does seem to be a popular choice for a lot of vegans on Instagram. Diners can get their fill of wholefoods and non-alcoholic drinks.

8 What The Pitta – if you need something to fill you up, this is the place. Actually, the kebab wraps are so huge you might actually struggle to finish one. What The Pitta now have a second location in Croydon, but the original location at the PUMP food court in Shoreditch means Hackney will not have to miss out.

7 Club Mexicana – this street food vendor has become a legendary staple of the London food scene and now with this ongoing residency inside Kingsland Road bar Pamela, Mexican-inspired cuisine is in Hackney to stay. While at their street stands you can enjoy tacos, burritos, loaded nachos and fried cheese sticks, this residency is taking things up a notch with handmade tortillas and fancy desserts. All drinks and cocktails served by host venue are vegan, too.

6 FED by Water – this Italian gourmet dining restaurant changed London forever when it switched from a meat and dairy laden menu to one that is now 100% vegan. Last time I checked, they even had a pizza named after me!

5 Made in Hackney – a crucial component of Hackney’s plant-based revolution, this charity funds community education and support work centred around vegan eating by hosting paid-for cooking lessons that can be attended by anyone.

4 Black Cat Café – this café is one of the food champions of the UK. If comfort eating is your thing, you will adore the regular and rotating dishes including burgers, cakes and breakfasts.

3 CookDaily and HOME – imagine two of the best vegan eateries in London being 10 metres apart. Both of these fast food outlets are packed solid with bowls of irresistible cuisine created by genius Chef King. Located upstairs at Boxpark Shoreditch.

2 Temple of Hackney – nothing has taken the UK by storm quite like this vegan fried chicken shop. The shop frequently sells out completely before the end of the day and you’ll often find a line of hungry customers down the street.

1 Hackney Downs Vegan Market – I know it’s a bit unfair to put my own new monthly market at number one, but it really does feel like such a big deal. This is the very first vegan monthly market in London and it is packed solid with some of the best vegan traders in London. The third Saturday of each month at Hackney Downs Studios with plans to have 10 or so food vendors on site each time we fling open the gates.

What do you think? Is Hackney the vegan capital of London? Is there another borough with more plant-based options crammed inside its borders? Have I missed any vegan Hackney landmarks?

The list above features only 100% vegan outlets. There are of course many more that are vegan friendly. There are also vegan places just blocks outside the Borough of Hackney boundaries, such as the wonderful Just Fab.

Get busy in Hackney!

Vegan wedding website

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I often get emails from readers who are looking for advice on where to turn for vegan wedding supplies and services, so it’s great to know I can now point them to this new website launched by Becky Jones.

Becky has set up Vegan Weddings, an online space on which she has started curating UK businesses that are in the business of plant-based weddings.

The website isn’t swamped with listings at the moment, but I like how Becky has made it searchable by region. As she starts to add to the site, users will be able to see what is nearby.

If you or someone you know runs a business linked to weddings, you can have it listed on the site for just £12 for 12 months. That’s a great price and just one booking would more than recoup your advertising investment.

I don’t currently see anything stating that all businesses must be inclusive of same-sex weddings (or any representation of same-sex weddings in the images), but hopefully that is something Vegan Weddings will be asking of their advertisers moving forward.

You can visit the Vegan Weddings website here.

Follow Vegan Weddings on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Vegan burger at London kitchen takeover

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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.

Visit Essential Vegan online (super rad recipes), like them on Facebook and follow via Twitter and Instagram.

Find more info on Haunt on their website.

Vegan revolution in Sudbury

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Need some anecdotal evidence that veganism is on an unstoppable roll in the UK?

The English market town of Sudbury, Suffolk now has two 100% vegan eateries. Yes. Two vegan food outlets in a regional town with a population hovering around the 20,000 mark.

Incredible!

First up is Cradle. This restaurant is a social enterprise which ploughs profits back into community-minded projects such as food waste solutions and local gardens.

Take a trip to the Cradle Facebook page and scroll through some of the cuisine photos. It all looks delicious, creative and rather fancy. You can also visit their website.

Next up we have Kind Cuisine, a more relaxed looking café serving soups, salads, cakes and drinks.

Owners Linda and Mark are on a mission to show locals how to eat plant-based foods in order to protect animals and the planet.

You should follow Kind Cuisine on Facebook and Twitter.

If Sudbury can do it, so can your town.

Get active and start vegan food opportunities, especially businesses that fold back into the community. And if you can’t start your own business, make the effort to support the businesses that do spring up when you have the means.

If you don’t live in Sudbury but have the means to visit for a few days, put some cash into the economy by dining with these two vegan establishments. If you can’t make it along, consider a kind word of support on their social media pages to let them know their commitment to veganism and their local community is appreciated.

New products from VBites

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VBites are gearing up to launch four new products into the UK market very soon (maybe some of them are out there already?), so I wanted to give you some warning. Start your engines!

Of course each new product is 100% vegan, as is the entire VBites range.

The new products are:

  • BBQ pulled ‘pork’
  • piri piri burgers
  • lemon and black pepper scampi style bites
  • vegetable bake fingers

Here is a sneak preview of the piri piri burger.

What do you think of the new products? Are you excited to try them?

You can visit VBites online.

All new products will be showcased at the huge IFE Show taking place in London next month (trade show/not for public).

All Bar One keeps vegan menu alive

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Money talks.

Do you remember when I blogged about the vegan menu being promoted at UK chain pub All Bar One for Veganuary?

Click here to read that post and see full menu.

Well, it seems that the vegans (and non-vegans) of the UK did such a stellar job of buying everything on that special menu during January, the company has decided to keep the plant-based options alive for another month.

Michael Duffy, who is the marketing manager at All Bar One, commented:

The feedback we received from the new vegan friendly menu has been extremely positive and we’re really pleased that we are reaching new audiences and continuing to impress our regular All Bar One guests. With one in four of our guests now being a vegetarian or vegan, we created the pop up menu in partnership with Veganuary to serve this increased demand for plant-based dishes.

One in four customers don’t eat meat? That is huge!

This decision is clearly driven by the financial rewards the company saw during Veganuary and I wouldn’t be surprised if the vegan menu stays permanently. Maybe they have already decided to keep it but are stringing out the attention they are getting from people like me. LOL

Have you tried the vegan menu at All Bar One? How was it?

You can find your nearest All Bar One via their website.

Best vegan donuts in London

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London. You are onto a good wicket.

(Does ‘good wicket’ actually mean anything? Am I using that term correctly?)

After a short time away from the action, the glorious Peanut Butter Bakery is BACK to its usual weekend haunt at The Boiler House market on Brick Lane (see location on Google Maps).

Peanut Butter Bakery caused an absolute sensation at my vegan Christmas market, with people lining up for an extremely long time to get hands and lips on their sensational donuts.

If you think you would enjoy eating the best vegan donuts in the UK, get along to The Boiler House on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 February, 2017. You will be unbelievably happy if you make the effort to get along.

To inspire you, here is a photo just posted by Peanut Butter Bakery detailing some of the things you should be excited about this weekend.


You need to follow Peanut Butter Bakery on Instagram.