New: Violife 'Prosociano' Vegan Parmesan

Out with the shaker, in with the grater! At last, a big wedge of pungent vegan parmesan to grate on your pasta! There have been vegan parmesan substitutes for years, but few in block form, with most sold in shaker pots. The Violife cheese brand is now a firm favourite, so it's only right they should take up the parmesan challenge. 

New: "Lots of This, None of That" Chocolate

Plamil have launched a new UTZ Certified line of faux milk chocolate, with reduced sugar. The Plamil brand is hidden on the back of the pack, with the "Lots of This, None of That" branding adorning the front. The company sent us a few bars over to check out, so let's get chocolatey:

Review: 'Natural Cool' Frozen Vegan Pizza

Bake at home dairy-free pizza with vegan cheese and vegan pesto. German brand Natural Cool is a frozen food specialist, but beware, it's not a vegan or even vegetarian brand. This pizza is available in pesto or peperoni (spicy vegan sausage) flavours. Is it better than the offerings from UK and US producers?

Review: Koko Dairy-Free Spread

New, from the makers of Koko coconut milk, a margarine / spread made with coconut oil. There are lots of vegan margarines on sale in the UK, but most are very similar. They no longer contain hydrogenated oils, but most still use a blend of palm oil and sunflower oil. This one is different:

Face Off: Easter Bunnies Go Head to Head

Lindt and Aldi chocolate bunnies came to visit this Easter, so we put them head to head. We've reviewed the Aldi Choceur bunny before, and awarded it full marks (for the price), but how does it compare to a Lindt bunny that costs 3 or 4 times as much?

New: Hotel Chocolat 'Milk-Free Milk Chocolate'

Vegan easter egg made with almond milk. This new No Dairy chocolate range has launched this week just in time for Easter. It's not labelled 'dairy-free', but it is labelled vegan. Hotel Chocolat have eschewed rice powder and soya to replace the milk, in favour of almond powder, something we haven't seen before.

Review: Amisa Vegana Gouda Style Cheese

Organic vegan grated cheese with coconut oil and lupin flour. With Viotros, the Greek cheese maker, now doing contract manufacturing of dairy-free cheese, we're seeing a lot of very similar vegan cheeses on the market. Veganic, Violife, Jeezini and even Field Roast's Chao are all variations on the same product, and Amisa have joined in the fun too:

Review: Almond Dream Ice Cream

Dairy-free, made from almond milk, by the Rice Dream people. Velvety Vanilla and Mint Chocolate Chip. We finally found some of this in a Little Waitrose, but not the two most exciting flavours - the Praline Crunch and the Salted Caramel were not stocked unfortunately. We'll add those when we find them, but does Almond Dream live up to the hype?

Review: Booja Booja 'chilled selection'

New sophisticated mini boxes of truffles in bright and vibrant colours that ditch the old fashioned styling of the traditional lines. These chocolates are sold chilled - that is you'll find them in the dessert chiller at Waitrose or in your local wholefood shop. The fridge treatment is necessary because of the new 'delicate' flavours:

Vegan Christmas: Elizabeth Shaw Gingerbread Crisp Chocolates

Limited Edition honeycomb crisp chocolates, perfect for the festive season. These dark chocolates are much more versatile than the mint ones, which are usually sidelined as after dinner chocolates:

Review: Ethicoco Oat Milk Chocolate

Faux milk chocolate, made with oat milk instead of the usual rice milk. Ethicoco are a startup bean-to-bar producer making all-vegan all-organic fair trade chocolate, from imported beans. The guys at Ethicoco were kind enough to send us a couple of sample bars for our review... and we're excited about it..

Review: Hraska Gluten/Egg Replacers

Yep, these mixes function as both egg and gluten replacers. If you think about it, egg and gluten both provide structure in baking, and Czech firm Hraska have developed products that do a similar thing. The UK distributor Bearsted Foods sent us two of the mixes for review - the Flour Mix and the Batter Mix:

Review: Parmezzano Vegan Parmesan

Another parmesan-in-a-can option for your dairy-free pasta topping. The latest in a growing line of these type of products, this Vantastic one is based on soya flour. We've seen cashew and coconut used in recent alternatives, so this one is one of the more 'conventional' offerings:

Vegan Shopper: Aldi Haul

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.

Review: Amy's Kitchen Breakfast Sandwich

Vegan egg and sausage muffin. Egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free. Frozen and ready to microwave for an instant hot breakfast. The marketing team at Amy's sent us a few of these to check out and they were snatched up gleefully! There really is nothing else like this on the market at the moment:

Review: PureFit Nutrition Bars

Vegan protein bars in Peanut Butter Toffee Crunch, Chocolate Brownie and Berry Almond Crunch flavours. 18g protein per bar, and gluten-free. We picked up these nutrition bars based on the delicious sounding flavours, but there are some good nutritional principles in there too:

Review: CoYo Ice Cream

Coconut-milk ice cream in raw chocolate, vanilla & nutmeg, and sticky date & tamarind flavours. Dairy-free ice cream that's also soya free. If you love CoYo yoghurts (and who doesn't), you'll welcome the arrival of their ice cream. It's got some interesting flavour options:

New: Provamel Natural Yoghurts

Zero-sugar and agave-sweetened options with the relaunch of the company's large dairy-free yoghurt pots. Provamel's organic natural yoghurt has been on the shelves for years, but is now available in two varieties. As well as an agave-sweetened plain yoghurt, there is a completely zero-sugar option too. The company sent us a couple of pots for review:

Review: Provamel Macadamia Milk

We finally got our hands on the new nut milk that Provamel have launched at the premium end of the plant milk market. We say premium, because macadamias are the queen of nuts - they're expensive, and so is this milk (see below). Is it worth tracking down, and 'shelling out' for...

Review: Koestlin Choco Wafers

Egg and dairy-free chocolate filled wafers from Croatian enterprise Koestlin. These snack wafers can be found in discount shops and European supermarkets. Snack wafers, particularly the ones not covered in chocolate, are much more common in continental Europe than in the UK. You have to seek these out in non-mainstream shops here: