SPACEBAR Goes Gluten-Free, Stays Vegan

Top: wheaty version - Bottom: tofu version

Spacebar, the vegan meaty snack bar is now available gluten-free. The Spacebar range was previously based purely on wheat protein, but the makers have now brought out a tofu version. Topas are obviously keen to broaden the market appeal of the snack bar by addressing the large gluten-free market.  We compared the tofu version with the wheaty version.

Taste Test: Best Smoked Tofu

The next time you see a recipe calling for smoked tofu, ask yourself...which sort? The British style of smoked tofu...rubbery, coarse, bitter? Or the German style, ranging from the dry and tough to the moist and ham-like. You see, there are as many types of smoked tofu as there are producers. There is no accepted norm for what you'll get when you buy some. As to the question of quality, frankly some are better than others.

Review: Primal Strips Vegan Jerky

Recently arrived from the US, these vegan jerky strips come in a whole range of flavours. Some are based on soy and with others made from shiitake mushrooms. The shiitake ones contain wheat gluten, but the soy ones are labelled as gluten-free. Although there are vegan pepperoni-style snacks available in the UK, these are the first widely available vegan jerky strips we know of. We picked up the Hickory Smoked, Texas BBQ and Hot & Spicy strips for our review.

Review: Taifun Herb Grill Sausages

The German word 'grillen' is the equivalent of 'to barbecue' in British English, but 'to grill' in US English. In the US 'to barbecue' is to cook more slowly, which has no equivalent in the UK...it's something Brits don't really do. To compound this linguistic confusion, 'to grill' in the UK is the same as 'to broil' in the US. No wonder there is some doubt as to what Taifun mean with their English translation of 'Grill Sausages'.

Great Balls of Soya. Redwood Meatballs review

If you're looking for a hearty meal there's nothing more filling than meatballs. Redwood's meat free meatballs come in a king size pack too and don't have a serving size indicated...but there's enough for 3 or 4 servings in the pack. The meatballs are based on soya rather than gluten as we had anticipated. We cooked them up with spaghetti and tomato sauce to see how they tasted.

Popcorn Lickin'. Review: Frys Vegan Pops

There's a place in every diet for a little junk food. We mean junk in the affectionate sense of fast and tasty...and not quite as healthy a quinoa salad. Fry's have a great range of vegan convenience foods but the one which will catch your eye in the freezer section is their vegan version of popcorn chicken....Fry's Pops. The cute and colourful little box holds 200g (8oz) of frozen breaded mini-nuggets. They even come with fruit chutney sprinkles. If you haven't already tried them...should you give them a go?

Vegan Pizza Day. Review: Redwood Vegan Pizzas

What better review for #VeganPizzaDay than Redwood's meat and dairy free frozen pizzas? The pizzas which launched earlier this year come in three varieties, Cheezly & Tomato, Meatless Feast and Ham Style & Pineapple. We first sampled them at VegFest Bristol and today we're reviewing the Meatless Feast and Ham & Pineapple pizzas. Are they worthy of a place at the dinner table on Vegan Pizza Day?