Today I helped celebrate a friends birthday and we went out for lunch. If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll already know that there is almost nowhere in my home town that caters for vegans! However, the more I ask and explore the more I uncover.
My friend chose the venue and had asked about vegan options when the table was booked. We were eating out at a place which largely cooked burgers, not your regular fast food type but advertised home cooked. The menu was extensive for meat eaters and there were 5 options for vegetarians. I was pleasantly surprised when I was told that the vegetarian burgers were all vegan friendly and that the 'toppings' could be swapped to make the meal vegan friendly. To make sure, I emailed the manager and again he repeated what my friend had been told.
Now I've been bitten once to often before, by people who don't really know what vegans eat and have suggested menu options of omelettes, cheesy dishes and even fish before now! So I decided to make extra sure.
On arrival I asked the chef the same question and advised that the manager had told me that all 5 vegetarian burgers were vegan friendly. Its a good job I spoke to the chef, two of the vegetarian burgers contained egg!
However the falafel burger and sweet potato and bean burger were indeed vegan. I ordered the falafal burger topped with basil salsa and black olives instead of the feta cheese.
It was tasty, but the toppings were a little on the small side and they dressed the side salad of lettuce leaves with a vinaigrette which looked and smelt like it contained honey, so I left that. But overall it was nice to dine out somewhere different than the one other restaurant in town which caters for vegans. There's also another option I can try; sweet potato and bean burger, which I'll keep for the next birthday lunch outing. The meal filled me up so I won't be wanting much for tea!
Yes, its time for another vegan food review and this time I chose Good Life Spinach and Nut Grills. ASDA Used to sell these last year but leading up to Christmas they stopped selling them, perhaps I was the only one that bought them and that wasn't that often as I haven't got a freezer!
Luckily there is a health food shop in our town which will buy in specific items you wish to purchase and after a quick visit to them, they were more than happy to order me a packet in. It actually worked out cheaper than ASDA so it was a bargain too without the effort required of ordering them online!
I served mine on a wholemeal bap with sliced tomato and beetroot on the bottom, with a drizzle of vegan garlic mayonnaise. The burger itself was topped with a baked portabella mushroom and tomato sauce.
The Spinach and Lentil Grill held together really well and didn't break up when transferred to the wholemeal bap. The taste was awesome and in my opinion these bad boys are by far the best burger option for vegans! The portabella mushroom complimented them perfectly, next time I'd add a few salad leaves to the bottom, for colour not taste.
There you have it I saved the best to last.
It's time for another food review and this time I cooked Goodlife Nut Cutlets. I found these in the freezer section of the local Sainsburys. I'd previously tried the Goodlife Spinach & Lentil Grills and was pleasantly surprised with their taste and texture, I'll blog about them soon. It was time to see what the Nut cutlets could do. As with all three other 'burger' type vegan food reviews, I served these on a wholemeal bap with toppings. On the bottom I layered tomato, onion, beetroot and a light drizzle of garlic mayonnaise and on the top tomato sauce and vegan cheese melted to its best ability. I'm still yet to find a melty vegan cheese.
The nut cutlets held their shape very well and didn't crumble. The texture combined soft vegetables including onion, carrot, parsnip and spinach with chunks of peanuts and cashew nuts. The packaging also suggested cooking these straight on a BBQ straight from frozen turning regularly and cooking for 15 minutes or so. One to remember for those long summer days of BBQ's, sun and fun.
Another suggestion was to break them up and use instead of mince to a bolognaise sauce with chopped mushrooms and onions. I'm not 100% convinced with this suggestion as they didn't seem to crumble. But this made them ideal for a burger bap!
What are your favourite vegan burgers?
It's time for another food review and this time I cooked Sainsbury's Spicy Bean Quarterpounders. Once again Sainsbury's have created another vegan friendly food which is labelled suitable for vegans. The product description states "with red kidney beans and vegetables, mildly spiced and covered in a crispy crumb." Now you all know by now, that hubby is an avid meat eater and would NEVER EVER consider turning vegetarian let alone vegan, but even he ate and enjoyed these!
As you can see from the photo I served mine on a bun with cherry tomatoes, spring onion and mixed leaves on the bottom and tomato sauce on the top. Hubby doesn't take kindly to anything green (unless its hidden!) so he ate his on baps with sweet chilli sauce. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed them. The quarterpounders had a good crumb on the outside and were 'beany' and full of texture on the inside. The only downside they crumbled ☹
Would we eat them again - most definately! ☺
TUESDAY, 29 JANUARY 2013
Vegan food review - Sainsbury's Nut Cutlets
Previously I had mentioned that I was going to undertake a review of ready made/processed vegan fare. It was somewhat of a surprise to find what I did on my latest visit to Sainsbury's. As I trawled through the frozen section at Sainsburys, not really expecting to find any vegan fare, I cam across two items that were in the vegetarian section. After reading the ingredients I figured they were suitable for vegans and purchased both items. It wasn't until I got home that I saw that they were both labelled suitable for vegans! Well done Sainsburys!
The first item I chose to cook and eat were nut cutlets.
These cooked in 15 minutes following the instructions, and were fairly crisp on the outside and soft inside.
The overall taste wasn't unpleasant but it did have a floury taste. I had them on bread with salad so this was disguised a little.
Would I buy them again? Maybe if there was nothing else to choose from or I ate them as part of a roast dinner with lashings of gravy. I'll keep you posted.
But I still think thanks are needed to Sainsbury's who have tried to supply us vegans where other big chains have failed. I don't include company's who only make Vegan and/or vegetarian food, these are in a league of their own!
Next vegan food review from Sainsbury's is their spicy bean burgers, watch this space..........
