Review: Sheese Melty 'Red Cheddar' vegan cheese

There are twice as many vegan cheeses on the market in the UK as this time two years ago, but the two 'big cheeses' are still Redwood's Cheezly and Bute Island's Sheese. Bute Island have recently joined in the 'melty' cheese revolution with their new line Sheese Melty. We put the red cheddar style Sheese to the test to see how it fares against the competition..

Review: Tofutti 'Better than Ricotta Cheese'

'Better' than Ricotta Cheese is quite some pledge. Of course, anything vegan is better than something for which animals have suffered, but you know what we mean. Tofutti is something of a dairy-free specialist with everything from cheese to ice cream in their product range. The faux Ricotta has been available in the US since last year and recently launched here in the UK, but at a price (a fiver a tub)...that means it had 'better' be good! Is it?

Vegan Ricotta Bruschetta made with Tofutti Ricotta

We're currently reviewing Tofutti 'Better Than Ricotta Cheese' and just made some herby ricotta bruschetta with dill, chives, spring onions (scallions) and garlic... Yep lots of the allium family in the seasoning but for good reason...this vegan ricotta is pretty bland on its own. Full review coming once when we've made some tagliatelle sauce for pasta with it.

Vegan Sunday Brunch - Vegg 'n' Bacon English Muffin

More experimenting with The Vegg vegan egg yolk. Runny Vegg yolk and a Vegg egg patty, with crispy tofu rashers, all on a toasted english muffin. Vegan brunch heaven. Read on for what we did and what we might do better next time.

Taste Test: Best Vegan Cream...for Strawberries

It's Wimbledon...strawberries and cream season is upon us. We've taste tested 6 vegan creams to see which should have the honour of topping our great British strawberries. We trailed this Taste Test two weeks ago and frankly we've been waiting for the sunshine to return ever since! At the first sign of a blue sky we grabbed some kentish strawberries and our 6 dairy-free creams...but which will take the title of Cream of the Crop?

Mango, Banana & Brazil Cereal Bars from Doves Farm

Doves Farm have a decent range of vegan offerings and the latest is Banana, Mango and Brazil nut cereal bars. Arriving in boxes of five, they offer a flavour not seen before in a cereal bar. The bars are pretty substantial at 40g each and will keep your hunger at bay. You're unlikely to get bored half way through like you can with some bland cereal bars though...these have a tasty tropical fruity flavour. They're also nice and moist, quite chewy and not too sweet.

Free From: Soya Shakes from Tesco...in multipacks!

Five packs of soya shakes from Tesco? What's the vegan-friendly world coming to?...we're not sure, but we like it. The latest addition to the Free From aisle at the UK's biggest supermarket shows how far dairy-free alternatives have come lately...forget niche markets...we're into the multi-buy age. These 5 packs of shakes are cute little 65ml tetrapaks...more of a shot than a drink, in fact they're labelled as "dessert shakes". How do they taste?

French Toast made with The VEGG

We're currently working our way through a review of The VEGG vegan egg yolk and wanted to share this picture of the great French Toast we made from the recipe here. It really is an improvement on tofu-based recipes with its golden colour and pancake-like taste. When you make up the VEGG with water you'll be amazed by the eggy smell which stems from the Black Sea Salt which is high in Sulfur (old spelling: Sulphur). French Toast (or Eggy Bread as some Brits call it) is simply bread dipped in an eggy mix and shallow fried. The eggy-sulfur taste of the VEGG is lost a little in the cooking but the flavour is really rounded and fulfilling and this is great French Toast.

We're currently perfecting a better potato Frittata recipe using The Vegg.

A toast to: Vegan Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is normally based on eggs and this is the first time we've seen a vegan version on sale. You won't find it in stores however as this is an artisan product on sale at UK festivals only. Made by Nottinghamshire producer My Cupcakes, it appears in one of their vegan cupcakes and is sold by the jar in three sizes. Great for afternoon tea, or on your breakfast toast.

Free From: Vegan Creme Caramel pots from Tesco

 

The Free From sections of the big supermarkets are getting better for vegans. Tesco has recently added several non-dairy options that are vegan friendly including these Creme Caramel desserts. Sold in packs of four individual pots and clearly labelled as vegan, they promise a new easy dessert option...but do they deliver?

Something Fishy? Redwood's Fish Free range.

Redwood's ever expanding range of meat and dairy-free foods now includes a fish-free selection. Under the 'Making Waves' banner the company offers fish-less fishcakes, fish fingers and fish steaks. The idea of replicating fish flesh may seem odd for some vegans, but once you've eaten your first veggie sausage this is where it will end... Most vegans are not born that way and will have eaten and perhaps miss the taste and textures of animal foods...so why not do it the cruelty-free way? 

So on with the review...have Redwood created the perfect fish-less fish?

Coming Soon on Veganoo: Best Vegan Pesto

There are at least 4 types of vegan pesto on sale in the UK, which surprised us when we set out to look for them. Pesto is easy to make yourself, but if you're looking for the readymade stuff there are plenty of dairy-free options to choose from. The brands we'll be testing are Suma, Zest, Sunita and Florentino. They all differ in their make-up, some with pine nuts, others with less traditional brazil nuts...but which is best? Coming soon on Veganoo.

Web: veganoo.net   Twitter: @veganoo   Facebook: fb.com/veganoo.net   Flickr: veganoo

Vegan Ice Cream Cones: Swedish Glace -v- Tofutti

Forget the wet summer weather, let's eat ice cream! We're talking ice cream cones today, the type you buy from the freezer cabinet. Like a Cornetto, but for vegans. There are two on the market in the UK in the form of Swedish Glace 'Peak' cones and Toffuti 'Rock n Roll' cones. They both come in multi-packs but if you're lucky you can find them sold singly too, which is handy if you can't eat four at once! They cost about the same, and look very similar...but which is best?..

Banned by the Vegan Police. How Vegan is Vegan?

If the fabric on your restaurant chair is made of wool, is your meal still vegan? Undoubtedly. How about if the conveyor belt in a biscuit factory contains wool fibres, are the biscuits still vegan? We say yes, and here's why..

10 things you can do with Leafu (leaf curd)

If you followed yesterday's link to the plantfoods.org guide for making your own leafu, you might be wondering what you can do with the stuff. Here are ten ideas for making the most of your calcium and iron rich treasure...

Plantfoods: Make your own Leafu (leaf curd)

Our sister site plantfoods.org has a new demo available for making your own leafu (leaf curd) from stinging nettles. Leafu is the protein curd extracted from edible leaves such as nettle, and is high in iron and other nutrients, but is not widely available to buy. Leafu can be made at home with low-tech kit, although the yield is pretty low for the amount of effort required, even if you don't get stung picking the nettles!

Diary Date: Oct 27 - West Midlands Vegan Festival

Now in it's 5th year the West Midlands Vegan Festival is one of the largest UK vegan events and promises to be bigger and better this year.

The 2012 festival is scheduled for Saturday 27th October at Wolverhampton Civic Centre. The event will have over 100 stalls filling two large halls and will run from 11am until 6pm this year.

For the latest information, ignore the web address on the printed flyers (which is out of date) and visit:

http://www.veganmidlands.org.uk/events.html
or see the facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/417809864898883/

Gluten-Free Vegan: Biscotti Amaretti by Orgran

Orgran produce a massive range of gluten-free foods, all of which are vegan too. Their line of Biscotti Amaretti are the only vegan amaretto biscuits available in the UK as far as we can tell, so it's gluten-free or nothing for us vegans! They also happen to be yeast free, soy free and nut free. These biscotti are free-from pretty much everything, but are they free from flavour too?

Crumbs! New vegan biscuits: Fox's Munch

Bad news if you're dieting...Fox's new Munch biscuits are vegan friendly. These are great everyday biscuits, perfect for dunking in tea. They look a bit like ginger nuts but are softer and chewier...and not ginger. The oat and coconut biscuits have a slight coconut flavour but generally are just a buttery (plant butter...) crunchy, chewy biscuit. The 'Golden' flavour biscuits are the ones to go for, as the Chocolate Chip ones list dairy as an allergen despite no milk ingredients being included.

Coming Soon on Veganoo: Cream of the Crop

Strawberry Season Taste Test: 6 vegan creams go head to head for the right to top our great British strawberries.

UPDATE: Our Taste Test for Best Vegan Cream is now live!

Winning Ways. Fabulous Fudge Factory Fudge

Up against the Holy Cow fudge we reviewed just a few weeks back, this fudge is a clear winner. Winning Ways of Essex, going by the name of the Fabulous Fudge Factory have concocted a dairy-free fudge that has that all important tooth-feel. You can really sink your teeth in to this fudge and we even tried it out on some unsuspecting non-vegans who couldn't tell it was dairy-free.

Flavour Fave: Bessant & Drury's Ice Cream

The vegan ice cream market is still a land of opportunity with a just a few established brands, some better than others in our experience. Bessant & Drury's are the latest to stake their claim to a corner of the dairy-free market with their range of coconut-milk ice creams. They were in the fortunate position of being the only ice cream vendor on site in the scorching heat at last weekend's VegFest. So is Bessant & Drury's a case of ice dream, or I scream?

Belting idea: Recycled Bike Tyre Belts

Belt choices for vegans are pretty limited so what a fantastic idea to recycle old bike tyres. We spotted these non-leather offerings in Bristol at a Sunday market stall alongside the floating harbour. Fifteen quid for your choice of slick or knobbly, in all variety of widths and even a few colours.

VegFest Bristol 2012: Review

Is VegFest Bristol the world's biggest vegan festival? Let's throw some numbers around and see what sticks: 3 days long, over 100 stalls, around 50 live shows and over 25,000 visitors through the gates. That's pretty impressive for a vegan event.

What matters more than numbers is that thousands of people, vegan or not (yet) walked away from a weekend in Bristol with a fantastic impression of what it's like to be vegan - it's all eating, drinking, dancing and getting sunburnt!

This was a truly great festival and thanks must go to the organisers and also to the sponsors (Redwood Foods) who gave us all of this for free this year. The weather certainly helped, but with a robust programme, a great venue and some big name headline acts, success was assured. Here's our round up of VegFest Bristol 2012 on veganoo:

Reports:

• VegFest Bristol 2012: Day 1
• VegFest Bristol 2012: Day 2
• VegFest Bristol 2012: Day 3

Photos:  

• Our Flickr Page has lots of festival photos 

Videos:

• Check out our Finley Quaye video over on YouTube 

Facebook:

• You can jump over to the VegFest UK Facebook page 
• Or catch us on the Veganoo Facebook page

veganoo.net

VegFest Bristol 2012: Day 3

The traditional British summer Sunday...Pimms, Strawberries, Ice Cream...vegan style! We're leading with three photos of the laid back Sunday morning atmosphere of day 3 at VegFest, which go to show why this is the greatest vegan show on earth. Where else would you find a vegan ice cream stall, a vegan strawberries and cream stall and a Pimms over ice stall all in one place?

The Sunday music was just as laid back, with Anthea Neads & Andy Prince kicking off proceedings for the afternoon.

VegFest Bristol 2012: Day 2

UPDATED: Finley Quaye live on stage this evening at VegFest Bristol. The headline act attracted a capacity crowd and queues to get in to the festival site reached across Millennium Square.

The amphitheatre at Waterfront Square filled to bursting for the evening performances.

VegFest Bristol 2012: Day 1

The world's biggest vegan festival got underway today at Bristol (UK) with crowds gathering in the early summer heat for 3 days of music, food and revelry. The event kicked off at 2pm this afternoon and saw festival goers entertained by live bands on the harbourside from afternoon until evening. The weekend is headlined by Finley Quaye tomorrow night (Saturday, 7:30pm). The unexpected May sunshine ensured everyone was in high spirits, although shade was in short supply in the open amphitheatre at Waterfront Square.

The Magnus Puto get people dancing

More photos below...

Butter me up? Review: Cleo's Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut butter is one of those 'marmite' foods....either you love it or hate it. For peanut butter lovers (like us), what could be better than a shot of the stuff covered in chocolate? Two of course...in a handy pack...

A Lidl less Gelatin. American Hard Gums

Lidl continues to be an occasional source of vegan confectionary. In amongst their range of jellies a little vegetarian V gave these away, which on closer inspection were vegan. The vast majority of their jellies are still made with gelatin but it's encouraging to see some progress at the discount end of the market. So here we have vegan American Hard Gums...but are they any good?

Flex Oil. Omega 3s from Flax Oil

Flax oil is just another name for Linseed oil, the stuff your brother might have oiled his cricket bat with. The difference is in the processing...food grade flax oil is cold pressed from Linseeds without the use of solvents. Flax oil is useful for vegans because it contains the highest level of the omega-3 fatty acid ALA among vegetable oils.