A selection of Aldi's vegan products including stollen, mince pies, malt loaf, gnocchi, jelly and chocolate. Aldi may not have a vegan list, but that doesn't mean you can't buy vegan cake, pies, jelly and chocolate there... you just have to look harder for it.
Aldi stores are small though, so it's not difficult to check out the confectionery and bakery aisles. In all we found the following:
- Potato Gnocchi (Italfresco added milk recently, so vegan gnocchi is harder to find)
- Malt Loaf (Soreen has whey in it, but look out for their banana loaf which is vegan)
- Marzipan Stollen (stollen often has butter or egg in it)
- Dark Chocolate (without butter oil, lactose, milk fat or other contaminants)
- Mince Pies (vegan ones are fairly common but Mr Kipling's are never vegan)
- Fruit Tea Cakes (often has milk or egg in)
- Jelly Fruit Pots (without gelatin or carmine)
- Bruschetta Garlic Bread (with olive oil instead of butter)
- Soya Milk (see our warning about the Vitamin D though)
- Muesli (without honey or milk powder)
- Mint Chocolate Thins (without butter oil, unlike After Eights)
- Chocolate Crisp Thins (no milk ingredients)
- Milled Linseed (with goji berries - in Aldi!)
Without wanting to mention the 'C' word in October, Aldi have plenty of festive fare on offer. We couldn't resist focusing on these two, as vegan stollen was hard to find last year.
The mince pies are not the best. The pastry was undercooked and a little doughy. The filling was tasty enough though, and the benefit of pale pastry is that these pies can be warmed in the oven without drying out.
The stollen is pretty good. Vegan stollen is often a bit bland, because it's more bready than cakey, and doesn't have the richness from butter and egg. The generous marzipan and plenty of fruit means that this is one of the better ones.
Aldi is well worth a visit if you have one near you (and who doesn't). Check out our post on Supermarket Vegan Lists, which includes a Vegan Womble Guide to Aldi and other supermarkets.
Footnote: Ingredients
Here are the ingredients panels from the packs we reviewed.
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Missed a big one. Aldi choc digestives are now vegan. Stan
ReplyDeleteThanks Stan. They were out of stock of those choc digestives. They used to be vegan years ago then changed.
DeleteAll the stollen products in Aldi contained milk and eggs when I checked yesterday. The packet looked identical to your picture too. Shows the importance of checking ingredients!
ReplyDeleteYes I noticed this, was very disappointed. Has anyone found any vegan stollen in a supermarket. I checked Lidl, and the same. I will look out for some polish stores thank you.
ReplyDeleteBad news on the stollen then. But we have verified Stan's vegan choccy digestives news - get down to Aldi quick before they change them!
ReplyDeleteWill do, thanks.
ReplyDeleteBeen to Aldi and Lidl today. No vegan stollen. All contained eggs and/or butter. Off to search for a recipe.
ReplyDeleteThat stollen for vegans is was back in stock yesterday.In Aldi,Blaby Leics.So grabbed one while I could :-) Hope it available in other Aldi stores in the U.K
ReplyDeleteSeems like they have several suppliers.
DeleteI've never had stollen before, and a friend told me they had vegan stollen in Aldi, but to check the different versions because some had egg. I found the budget one was vegan, but the stollen bites, and the posher version weren't (this was Morecambe Aldi).
ReplyDeleteunfortunately those ingredient lists above include Palm Oil/Fat. Even so-called 'sustainable' palm oil / fat is not to be relied on, as there are serious doubts about how rigorous the accreditation process is.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theorangutanproject.org.uk/about-orangutans/palm-oil/