A Successful Meal Out

Hubby and I went out the other night, which is a rare treat these days! We had bought some tickets way back to see Al Murray and decided to go out for a meal before the show. Now like most of you who live outside London, Brighton or a big city, it's normally very difficult to find a restaurant that caters for vegans. This is especially true, where I live!

My local town doesn't have many independent restaurants and mainly consists of fast food chains, pub food or other restaurant franchises, like Bella Italia, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut. However, fairly recently one of the popular hotels which also has a restaurant, bistro and bar decided to hold a vegetarian and vegan night once a week which has proved to be fairly popular. 

The menu also includes options for vegans which are even labelled and when asked the chef is more than willing to 'veganise' a certain dish on the menu. You are never treated as a "freak" and you never get asked the standard question "a vegan! What do you eat?".

Over the last few weeks through Birthday meals at work and girly get togethers I've eaten there 4 times! The first time I was able to chose something from the specialised vegetarian/vegan menu and I chose hummus and roasted red pepper babaganoush with chargrilled flatbread as a started followed by Sri Lankan sweet potato, coconut and pea curry with cashew nuts and basmati rice. Both dishes were extremely delicious and far too tasty to stop eating and take a photo! 

The second time I went I chose from the main menu which had two vegan options, yes two, I was spoilt for choice! I chose sun blushed tomato and artichoke risotto. This time I took a photo!

The third time I went I chose again off the main menu but this time I asked if something could be "veganised". It was no problem as everything is cooked from scratch, which means that you do have a bit of a wait compared to your bog standard pub food grub but its worth it! I chose four bean and coconut curry with saffron scented rice. This isn't something I would chose normally but I was willing to give it a try as all previous choices had turned out well. I wasn't disappointed, it was delicious.

The fourth (and by no means the last) time I visited I chose the four bean and coconut curry with saffron scented rice again as I was blown away with it the first time I had it. Once again it was no problem to "veganise", but what did surprise me was that it was different to the first time I had it which just proves that each meal is cooked from scratch. This time I did take a photo of it.

Chill Bean Stuffed Mushrooms

Two days ago I blogged about the Mexican Bean Deli Filling that Caroline of Tea and Sympatico sent me which I used in the Mexican Bean Deli Wrap. I didn't use all of the jar so I needed to come up with another recipe idea that used the rest of the deli filling. 

I needed something quick, I was ravenous after a long day at work, so I stopped off on the way home and picked up a bag of frozen chips and paired this with stuffed mushrooms.

I put a dollop of the Mexican Bean Deli Filling in the centre of each mushroom and then topped it with a piece of roasted red pepper from a jar and chopped jalapenos from another jar. Finished with a sprinkling of vegan cheese and baked in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.


Result a very tasty stuffed mushroom that was quick and easy to put together with store cupboard ingredients.

Mexican Chilli Bean Wrap

Last Month, my Vegan swap box contained a Mexican Chilli Bean Deli Filling, thanks to Caroline at Tea and Sympatico. It was used in two delicious meals. The first was a quick lunch for a work day, Mexican Chilli Bean Wraps.

Spread a flour tortilla with the Mexican Bean Deli Filling and add layers of salad about a third of the way down before rolling. I used similar ingredients to my Houmous Salad Sanga; baby leaf salad, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, beetroot, olives and gherkins. Then to finish it off squeeze just a little garlic mayonnaise over the top (vegan of course).


My favourite vegan mayonnaise is available from Sainsbury's and is called Tiger Tiger Garlic Mayonnaise. This lunch didn't last long, because I was hungry and it was so tasty. The Mexican Bean Deli Filling made a nice change to houmous too. But I do love houmous!