Vegan Business: Moo Free Needs Your Help
Vegan Kebab: Wheaty Gyros and Doner
Vegan Doner and Vegan Gyros from German firm Wheaty, bought from Vx. We've seen vegan kebabs before such as the Vebab, but never pre-packaged ones such as these. Based entirely on wheat protein these kebab 'meats' are intended to replicate the thin slivers of lamb cut from those rotating spits seen in kebab shops. We can't remember what kebab tastes like, but are these kebabs worth seeking out to extend the vegan food experience?
Review: Redwood Breaded Cheezly Bites
Chunks of vegan cheese with a crispy breadcrumb coating. Redwood's selection of snacks and party food seems to have exploded lately. We're not quite sure where these fit in to an everyday menu but we can imagine them being served as an appetiser. We've no idea what dairy pepperjack cheese tastes like as it's not really a cheese eaten in the UK. We certainly know what Cheezly tastes like though and we're interested in how it tastes hot and breadcrumbed.
Review: Morrisons Free From Millionaire's Shortbread
Vegan caramel shortbread in the Free From section at Morrisons. There is at least one other widely available dairy-free caramel shortbread that we've reviewed - in the Lazy Day range of tray bakes. This one is distinctly different and isn't made by Lazy Days and repackaged. Have Morrisons managed to perfect that all important vegan caramel layer?
Review: Morrisons Peppermint Cremes
Yet more vegan after-dinner chocolate mints. We know you've started your New Year's regime by now of broccoli and lentils and... no?...us neither, not until we've eaten all of this stuff left over from Christmas anyway! We don't review many things from Morrisons, as their vegan selection isn't great so we rarely go there. They do have occasional gems though, like their mince pies and these peppermint cremes.
Soy-Free Vegan: Cheezly Soy & Dairy Free
Melting vegan cheese made with pea protein. Cheezly's dairy-free range is now pretty extensive and Redwood even cater for those who wish to avoid soya too. Most home-made vegan cheeses are made from nuts, but the commercial stuff is invariably made with some kind of soy. If you are avoiding soy for whatever reason the options are limited. We tried out Redwood's soy-free option to see if it's on a par with their regular Cheezly.
Review: Sainsbury's FreeFrom Chocolate Mint Crisps
Ever get the feeling you've had something before? These after dinner mint chocolates will be very familiar if you've eaten the Celtic Chocolates version... which we reviewed just last month. Companies like Celtic repackage their chocolates for supermarkets to sell as their own brand and we're sure that has happened here. Sainsbury's also sell a chocolate bar remarkably similar to a Celtic bar. If you missed our recent Celtic review, read on:
Review: Vantastic White Chocolate with Smarties
More from our recent trip to Vx. Vegan white Chocolate with dark chocolate 'smarties'. German company Vantastic make a large range of vegan foods and some of it is available in the UK through Vx and Vegan Store. We recently reviewed their vegan white chocolate spread which was a little disappointing... and didn't contain any cocoa. These white chocolate bars have cocoa butter as the principal ingredient so at least they're authentic... but are they any good?
Review: Nutritious Delicious Lime Truffles
Vegan truffles from Nutritious Delicious, working closely with Montezuma's. We chose the lime flavour, but they also produce orange, vanilla and almond flavours. These truffles have a selling point of being 'good for you', with no refined sugar and with ingredients including lucuma, maca and ginseng. You might believe the health claims, but do they still taste like great truffles?
Vegan Christmas: Redwood Chicken Style Pieces
It's too late to buy these for Christmas Day but if you're looking for the perfect Boxing Day sandwich filling, these faux chicken pieces are the answer. Redwood offer plain and tikka style chicken pieces and they can be eaten hot or cold. Read on for why we recommend you keep it cool...
Vegan Christmas: Montezuma's Chocolate Snowmen
Chunky Dark Chocolate Snowmen from Montezuma. These are clearly Christmas treats but we're not quite sure of their intended use... they're not wrapped or threaded...so they're not for hanging on the tree. They're too big for cake decorations too, so quite where they fit isn't clear. We thought we'd review them anyway to see if they should be on your last minute Christmas shopping list.
Kosher Haul: Vegan Goodies from Vx
A selection from our recent trip to Vegan Cross from kosher producer Paskesz. Trios sandwich cookies, Mint Creme cookies and chocolate covered Nutty Chews. The Trios are clearly Oreo inspired and the Mint Creme cookies are almost exactly like Viscount biscuits in the UK. The Nutty Chews are harder to define.... sort of chewy peanut brittle with a chocolate coating:
More Vegan Mince Pies: ASDA / Smart Price
Do we have a new champion of our vegan Mince Pie Taste Test? The choice of vegan mince pies at ASDA includes their regular deep-filled mince pies and their shallow-filled Smart Price offering. Top marks to ASDA for having a choice of animal-free pies... the only supermarket this year to do so. As usual, we tried the pies hot and cold, to see how they fared.
Gluten-Free Vegan: OK Foods Mince Pies
Gluten-Free mince pies from Sainsburys. If the vegan Christmas menu at your house also includes a gluten-free option, then these mince pies are ideal. Large deep-filled mince pies that look convincing as well as appetising. After yesterday's Mince Pie Taste Test, how well can a wheat-free option compare?
Vegan Taste Test: Best Supermarket Mince Pies
A selection of vegan mince pies from various supermarkets for our Christmas Taste Test. Many supermarkets now do both regular and posh mince pies, with the latter having butter pastry. That's fine with us vegans as it means the regular pies are likely to be clear of dairy fat. We took three lots of pies and compared them, hot and cold, to see if there is a clear favourite. UPDATE: includes two sorts of ASDA mince pies.
Review: Alpro 'Fruity & Creamy' Yoghurt
A new rich and creamy version of Alpro's market-leading soya yoghurts. Alpro now have the supermarkets' own brand soya yoghurts to compete with, and are looking for a niche in the premium yoghurt aisle. We chose the peach flavour twin-pack of their new 'Fruity & Creamy' line to see if Alpro have cracked the creamniness code for soya yoghurt.
Vegan Christmas: Lidl Chocolate Marzipan
Three types of plain chocolate marzipan in the Christmas range at Lidl. Whilst much of the Favorina brand confectionery isn't vegan this year, the good old staple of chocolate marzipan doesn't let us down. We were disappointed that the rum and raisin flavour was covered in milk chocolate, but we have pineapple and two sorts of plain marzipan to choose from.
Video: Ms Cupcake's Vegan Baking Tips
The video takes time to load for some reason. Try the YouTube link at the bottom of the post.
Ms Cupcake founder Melissa Morgan shares her vegan baking tips to a packed house at Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre 2012. We've managed to improve the audio and video quality from our original liveblog post.
Liveblog: Animal Aid Christmas Fayre
We're here at Kensington Town Hall for the annual Christmas without Cruelty event. The place is packed out and despite freezing temperatures outside it's certainly warm in here:
Vegan Christmas: Booja Booja Minis
Vegan chocolate truffles in mini packs. Perfect little stocking fillers for the special vegan in your life. These chocolates are the same great truffles that Booja Booja have won awards for again and again. The ingredients are really simple but somehow they combine to make amazing melt-in-the-mouth truffles that really don't taste dairy-free. These cute little boxes contain two little truffle gems in each:
This Weekend: Animal Aid's Christmas Fayre 2012
This Sunday, Dec 2nd, Christmas Without Cruelty. The event takes place at Kensington Town Hall from 10am until 5pm. The annual Christmas Fayre is a big vegan festival with stalls, talks, workshops, competitions and more. The fayre is an excellent place to stock up on cruelty-free Christmas food and gifts. More than 95 stalls have been confirmed, hosting everyone from Ms Cupcake to the Vegan Runners. Admission to the fayre costs £2:
Vegan Christmas: Chocolate Lebkuchen Hearts
Kopernik brand 'pierniki' as the Polish say, but better known as lebkuchen. We couldn't find vegan lebkuchen from Germany this year, but we found these Polish ones at an independent deli. Lebkuchen are made from a sort of gingerbread and are often coated in chocolate, sometimes filled with fruit puree, and commonly heart shaped... these ones are all of that.
Vegan Christmas: Manner Neapolitaner Wafers
Anyone for wafer jenga? Part of our haul from the local Polish deli is a large bag of Austrian hazelnut-cream wafers. We've reviewed Manner wafers before in their snack sized offering, but this large bag is party-sized for the Christmas season. You have to be careful only to choose the Neapolitaner flavour as the others contain milk, but luckily this is the best flavour anyway:
Christmas Cake: Kuchenmeister Cranberry Stollen
Vegan stollen all the way from Germany. Kuchenmeister supply their christmas wares throughout Europe and as far away as the States and Australia. At least one of their offerings for the UK this year is animal-free: the Cranberry Stollen with Marzipan. Beware of similar ones in Sainsburys by the same company - those contain egg. We bought ours from an independent deli, but you may find these in branches of Aldi too.
Weihnachten: Stollen, Lebkuchen, Spekulatius, Waffeln
Vegan Christmas, German style. We promised to find vegan stollen and lebkuchen and the local Polish deli came to our rescue. We thought we'd put together a selection of traditional German style christmas treats, but we couldn't find vegan domino cubes this year... not yet anyway. Lidl and Aldi have let us down as hardly anything is vegan in this year's Christmas selection, so we needed to look further afield. We've also got three sorts of chocolate marzipan and we'll be reviewing them all shortly.
Vegan Version: The Selection Box... Go Max Go
British tradition... meet American chocolate... it's the vegan version of the chocolate selection box! The festive favourite has gone dairy-free in time for Christmas. Of course, there's not actually a box in the above photo... you have to imagine that bit... but wrap these Go Max Go beauties up together for Christmas and the recipient will be one very happy vegan! Trust us.
Vegan Christmas: Love Hearts Jumbo Pack
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Eleven. Yes 11 mini packs of Love Hearts in a big tube. How better to show your vegan love at Christmas? Love Hearts weren't always vegan, but since the gelatin and cochineal were removed they are now. To celebrate why not pop down to Lidl and grab some as a great stocking filler:
Redwood Christmas: Vegan Duck & Orange Pate
A special pate for a special occasion. We've no idea what duck tastes like, and there isn't anyone to hand that does, so we won't be reviewing this pate for authenticity! We know oranges though, so expect some reference to that. Vegan Pates are usually based on yeast...like Tartex and those others in tubes and tubs. This one is based on wheat gluten and has a far better texture and flavour for that:
Redwood Christmas: Vegan Stuffing Bites
Party Bites - nibbles for Christmas parties. Warm stuffing bites are perfect with a cold glass of wine. Redwood are doing their best to make Christmas easy for vegans who want it that way. Just 8 minutes in the oven is all you need for to create an appetiser, if dinner is a while away. These stuffing bites could form part of a wider spread - a hot or cold vegan buffet:
Redwood Christmas: Vegan Cheese Selection
Your dairy-free Christmas cheese board is sorted thanks to Redwood. If you're looking to offer a selection of vegan cheeses but don't want to buy whole blocks, then this pack of three cuts is ideal. The pack offers red cheddar, cranberry and blue cheese styles in a handy size for your cheeseboard. We grabbed a selection of biscuits and crackers and put the cheeses to the test:
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