Early Easter: Moo Free Easter Bunny
A vegan Easter Bunny in the shape of a Mini Moos 'Bunny Bar'. The dairy-free chocolate specialists at Moo Free have launched a bunny version of their Mini Moos chocolate bars. This is a faux-milk chocolate bar, shaped like a portly easter bunny. They're sold singly and available in Waitrose and elsewhere.
Taste Test: Best Egg-Free Mayo
Tiger Tiger, Granovita or Solesse - best squeezy vegan mayo? We know you like a good Taste Test and we noticed there were at least three brands of squeezy egg-free mayo on the market in the UK. We gathered up the three and sampled them side by side to see which was best. Move over Hellmans, the Egg Free cavalry has arrived:
Review: Redwood Hot Dog Sausages
Classic 'boiled pork' style hot dog sausages. Perfect on a soft roll, with ketchup and mustard. These hot dogs aren't new, but we've never reviewed them, and the idea of a weekend lunch of hot dogs slathered in mustard and ketchup was appealing. If it were wieners we'd have stuck to our favourite senf (German mustard), but these are more the Anglo/American take on the sausage-in-a-bun and squeezy yellow mustard seemed right.
Vegan Valentine: Divine Dark Chocolate Hearts
A box of little red hearts of fair-trade chocolate that makes a subtle valentine gift. We bought these from Oxfam and you can also buy them online. Divine is the fair-trade chocolate company that is partially owned by Ghanaian cocoa farmers. There is a non-vegan milk-chocolate version of these hearts, but only the vegan dark chocolate ones come in the lovely red foil... perfect for your vegan valentine.
Review: Rice Dream Chilled
Could the world's best plant milk get better? How about if it was 'fresh'? Rice Dream is unsurpassed as the best tasting plant milk, and it's now available in the chiller cabinet. Available at Waitrose and Tesco, this milk joins a growing range of plant milks to make the jump to the chiller cabinet, where they get a higher profile alongside dairy milks. Is Rice Dream improved by being 'fresh'?
Vegan Pancake Day: Biona Agave Syrup
Organic dark agave syrup for your vegan pancakes. Agave syrup comes from the agave plant which although it looks like a cactus... technically isn't. The dark version of the syrup is less refined and contains more trace minerals... not that we'd suggest a massive dose of fructose and glucose is a health food! This Biona syrup is organically produced and is a lovely rich deep colour. It's also about half the price of maple syrup...
Vegan Pancake Day: Plamil Chocolate Spread
Dairy-Free faux milk chocolate spread. Another sweet option for your pancakes on Tuesday. This chocolate spread is a milk-chocolate styled version with soya in lieu of cow juice. Plamil make a range of four chocolate spreads, with an original darker version as well as sugar-free and chocolate-orange options. This is not a hazelnut spread: Plamil don't use nuts in their chocolate factory.
Vegan Pancake Day: Shneider's Dellinut Duo
Dairy-Free white & dark chocolate spread. Yes, this really is vegan... we got it from Vx. Made by French kosher producer Shneider's this is the 'duo' version of their Nutella-style spread featuring white and dark hazelnut-chocolate spread in one jar. With Pancake Day on Tuesday, could this be the best vegan pancake filling ever?
Vegan Pancake Day: Orgran Buckwheat Pancakes
Gluten-Free pancake mix. It's Pancake Day next Tuesday and we're reviewing some tasty vegan options, starting today with a gluten-free pancake mix from Orgran. The aussie gluten-free specialists produce two pancake mixes - a maize-based apple & cinnamon mix, or a plain buckwheat mix. We picked up the buckwheat mix as we thought it would be more versatile and set about making some crispy egg-free pancakes.
Gluten-Free Vegan: Sunstart Golden Crunch Cookies
Wheat-free shortbread biscuits from Northern Irish bakery Sunstart. The company makes it's own range of gluten-free biscuits and tray bakes, many of which sadly contain dairy. Sunstart also produce supermarket own brand Free-From biscuits for all of the big four. These golden crunch cookies aren't labelled as such, but are clearly very close in style to shortbread biscuits.
Review: Huji Food Ready-to-Eat Tofu
A selection of Chinese tofu strips, semi-dried, seasoned and ready-to-eat. You can find these packs of meaty tofu strips in Chinese supermarkets. They're long life and don't need refrigeration and so are a useful cupboard standby for a quick stir-fry. The four flavours on offer are spicy, pickled chilli, hot and barbecue.
Gluten-Free Vegan: Against The Grain Berry Cookies
Organic cranberry and raspberry gluten-free cookies. Against the Grain are a Surrey-based firm producing a range of gluten-free cookies in five flavours. As well as Berry Delicious, there's Ginger, Almond, Chocolate Orange and Choc Chip & Hazelnut. We picked up a pack of the berry flavour to see if they're any good.
Budget Vegan: Fruitypot Jelly Desserts
Three packs of vegan jelly pots from Poundland. Peach jelly with fruit pieces...good value at 3 pots for a pound. Unusually, they're even labelled as vegan:
Review: Tofu King Spicy Tofu
Who doesn't love tofu? No... well you're in the wrong place! For those of you still here, we have the King of Tofus for you. The company Tofu King supplies all manner of tofu to Chinese supermarkets across the UK (be careful as one of their lines has egg in the tofu). This one is a fried tofu marinated in chilli oil and sesame. It's ready to eat hot or cold. We threw it in a hot wok for a tasty stir-fry:
Vegan Cheese: Rejuvelac-Cultured Yoghurt Cheese
Dairy-free cheese made from soya milk and rejuvelac. We're still reviewing the Artisan Vegan Cheese book and as a sidestep (not in the book) we tried the rejuvelac-culturing method on plain soya milk. It cultures the soya milk well, although it seems to partially coagulate it at the same time... giving you a cheese that's somewhere between tofu and yoghurt cheese.
Review: Redwood Mini Sausages, Kofta Bites
Hot party food...mini pork style sausages and spicy meat/veg bites. Redwood's large range now includes a whole lot of snack sized offerings which can be eaten hot or cold. Despite the thaw in the weather, we prefer hot food at this time of year. We've already reviewed the mini-sausages wrapped in 'bacon', but these sausages are the bare version.
Review: Four Seas Crisbite Sandwich Biscuits
Lemon and Chocolate varieties of vegan sandwich biscuits from Chinese producer Four Seas. The company is one you've probably never heard of in the UK but they are a big Chinese group who produce a lot of the snack foods in your local Chinese supermarket. These Crisbite biscuits are cracker style sandwich biscuits with a fondant cream filling:
Beyond the Bean: Sweetbird Syrups / Zuma Cocoa
Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Mocha, Granita, Cocktails, Lassi... courtesy of cafe-bar drinks specialist Beyond the Bean. The Bristol company specialises in everything a coffee shop could need... except for the coffee itself. They sent us some samples of their Sweetbird line of syrups and their Zuma hot chocolate powder (plus a range of teas we'll review separately). We took them along to the legendary veggie/vegan Alley Cafe Bar in Nottingham for our review:
Does it blend? Magimix 4200 Food Processor
Review: Redwood Mini Sausage Rolls
Cold weather calls for hot sausage rolls... vegan ones of course. Redwood recently joined Frys and Linda McCartneys in the vegan sausage roll market (sounds like enough for a Veganoo Taste Test). The mini sausage rolls are cocktail sized and are ideal for buffets and party food, if you can resist eating them all as they emerge from a hot oven.
Review: Propercorn Sweet & Salty Popcorn
Ever mixed sweet and salty popcorn? Like salted caramel... it's strangely good. Propercorn make four flavours of popcorn, two of which are animal free, including this mix of sweet and salty. The plain salted flavour is also dairy-free, but the sour cream and worcester sauce flavours contain milk. We grabbed a bag of the sweet and salty stuff to see if it's as good as it looks.
Review: Cofresh Hummus Chips
Not for dipping in hummus... made from hummus, or chickpeas at least. Leicester based company Cofresh produce these naturally gluten-free crisps from a mixture of chickpea, rice, potato and cornflour. That sounds like a recipe for cardboard, but these chips are amazingly tasty and fantastically crisp:
Review: Black Soya Milk from Yon-Ho
Love weirding out your non-vegan friends? Offer them some black soya milk. We spotted this in a local chinese supermarket and were intrigued. It genuinely is made from black soybeans - there's no food colouring in there. The only version on offer was sweetened... very sweetened. How does it taste?
Rejuvelation!... How to make Rejuvelac
Plant Milks: Provamel Oat and Rice/Coconut
Dairy-free milks really took off in the UK last year. Anything other than soya milk or rice milk used to be a niche market, but now we have several producers offering a range of plant milks. Provamel are the leading brand in the health and wholefood market and we've long dreamed that they would offer a range of milks as good as their soya. Does their Oat Milk and their Rice-Coconut Milk deserve the hallowed Provamel brand name?
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