Vegan Food Spotting: High Street Kensington [Video]

Whole Foods Market - just like a well-stocked bookstore - is one of those places I could spend hours walking through. Forget properly shopping there, because some of those prices are...phew!...but when I'm in the area it's satisfying to wander around, marvelling at all the vegan alternatives on offer. This is where you go if/when you miss things like grated cheese and evaporated milk and French pastries. Who knew? Coconut evaporated milk for crying out loud! I treated myself to a vegan croissant while I was there and the first bite felt like being lifted off the ground. It transported me back to my year of living abroad in France in 2012... those few months before I went vegan, when croissants and pains au chocolat were an almost-daily indulgence. Memories.

On this particular evening of vegan food spotting at Whole Foods, I also had dinner at Wagamama - my first visit to the chain since the launch of their new vegan & vegetarian menu. Slow clap. Totally game-changing. My heart and stomach were full that evening. Of course, I had to go for their signature 'vegatsu' (a vegan take on their popular katsu curry, but with crispy seitan strips instead of chicken strips). Have you been yet? You should.

With the weather as beautiful as it is in London these days, I imagine I'll be doing a lot of trekking around the ol' city. When I do, I'll likely create more of these food spotting videos, because why not.

Have a great week!

Catering a Vegan Wedding [Pictures & Video]

Words are not enough to capture the weekend gone by. I catered a wedding! A whole wedding! The intensity was unlike anything I've ever experienced before and I don't think I've ever had so much adrenaline pumping through my system. Forget skydiving and bungee jumping, catering a wedding is where it's at if you want a good kick.

Overall, it was a challenging experience with a lot of rewarding outcomes. My clients were an absolute pleasure to work with and my team was the definition of 'Dream Team'.

The video I've put together barely captures the experience, but I'm glad that I was able to get some footage at least. When the official wedding photographs come out, I'll try and update this post with more pictures.

If you've got an event coming up and think we could work well together, definitely drop me a line. Just putting it out there that I would love to cater an all-vegan baby shower next. Or a birthday party!

Baked Plantain Chips (Savoury)

A bowl of plantain chips = a thing of absolute beauty. Skip the spitting-splashing oil from frying and bake them instead. I'm more of a sweet plantain chip gal myself, and for that you'd need to use ripe plantains, but I had a rogue green plantain at home and decided to use it up in this way. Plus, you'll never see me turn down plantain in any form, so there's that.

I used a mandolin slicer to achieve the super thin strips and would recommend that you use that too. If you're missing this most essential kitchen gadget though, go ahead and slice as thinly as you can with a knife.

Hope you enjoy this super simple recipe!

Ingredients
- 1 unripe plantain
- sunflower oil (enough to coat the sliced plantain)
- salt to taste
- crushed chilli flakes

Slice the plantain as thinly as possible using a knife or mandolin slicer (available on Amazon). Place in a large bowl and add sunflower oil, salt and chilli flakes. Give it a quick toss/mix until the plantain is well-coated.

Lay the plantain slices out on a a lined baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees C for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Leave to cool slightly before serving.

Vegan Tests by HealthLabs.com

'Should I be vegan?' 'Am I doing this vegan thing right?' If either of those questions have ever crossed your mind, then the feature below may be of massive interest.

HealthLabs.com was founded by Fiyyaz Pirani in 2010 and is a platform that offers fast, private, and affordable lab testing that can be scheduled and ordered online. They have now become the first ever online lab testing service to offer comprehensive testing packages that are tailored toward vegans and those considering the health benefits of a plant-based diet.

The Vegan Nutritional Maintenance panel is designed for those who are already vegan and want to ensure that they have a well-balanced diet. This panel contains 11 tests for possible nutrient deficiencies that vegans may encounter if their plant-based diet is off-balance. It will look for things that the bloodstream may be more vulnerable to, such as a B-12 deficiency or high levels of folic acid.

The Should You be Vegan testing panels are designed for those considering veganism, who want to see if they're experiencing unwanted side effects from a meat and dairy diet. This test will look for allergies that may be brought on by animal-derived food. Many experience pain, sluggishness, and discomfort after consuming meat or dairy and this test aims to help non-vegans see the benefit in making changes to their lifestyle and habits, which could ultimately improve their mental and physical health.

The comprehensive Should You Be Vegan test panel will test for 38 different food allergies, looking for lactose intolerance, egg allergies, meat allergies, and more. The Standard and Basic panels, on the other hand, will be less extensive versions of the test and will look for the more common animal-derived food allergies.

Many have recently become drawn to a plant-based diet, due to its numerous health benefits, such as lower risk of diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. Veganism is also one of the best ways to fight factory farming, animal cruelty, and reduce our environmental impact. It's exciting to see a company such as HealthLabs expand its resources to empower the vegan community.


If any of the tests outlined above have sparked your interest, you can find out more by visiting www.HealthLabs.com or by phone at 1-800-579-3914. Their health specialists are available to answer your questions 24 hours a day. Testing is easy and results are received within a couple of days.

Donkwa/Tanfiri/Uloka | Vegan Hausa Snack | Easy Version

This snack is ridiculously easy to make, but it's really got a lot going for it. High in protein (where do vegans get their protein from? snacksssss!), gluten-free (if you're about that gluten-free life) and a unique taste experience, if ever there was one. This snack also goes by the name dawaka.

I made this at my cookery demo in Bristol last week and having forgotten to record the darn thing, thought it'd be good to create a post and video for it.

Admittedly, my recipe has been highly modified for the contemporary, *cough* lazy chef. Instead of blending roasted peanuts from scratch, I've skipped straight to store-bought peanut butter (good quality stuff though! If you're going to replace, at least replace well). Instead of measuring out the perfect ratio of water/oil/sugar to bind everything together, I've used fruit syrup. The traditional recipe can often have a bit of chilli powder thrown in, but this is entirely optional and I have gone for a full-on sweet version.

It's crumbly, it melts in the mouth, it's gritty, it's nutty, it's just plain good. An audience member who tried it last week compared it to halva, and I think that's pretty spot on. You should try it. Seriously.

Ingredients
(makes about 10-15 balls)
- 1 cup fine cornmeal (roasted)
- 2 heap tablespoons smooth peanut butter (unsalted/unsweetened)
- 2 tablespoons syrup (fruit/maple/rice...etc)
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined. Form into little bite-sized ball shapes. Done!

Bristol VegFest 2018 | Diversity, Food Heaven & Live Cooking

Hey folks,

My bank holiday weekend was brightened up by a trip to Bristol for this year's VegFest (26th/27th May). It was my first time visiting the city and I've come away with a pretty positive impression of the place. Granted, I was only there for a couple of days but still virtually every encounter was a friendly one, the vegan food scene is top-notch and it turned out to be a much-needed peaceful break away from busy ol' London.

On Sunday, I was billed to give a cookery demonstration and as with my demo at Brighton VegFest earlier this year, it was a wonderful experience. It gets easier each time I do it and gosh, it blows my mind how much I actually enjoy it - recovering shy kid that I am. I introduced the audience to a couple of Nigerian snacks - donkwa and plantain chips - both of which were well received.
Side note: if you're thinking of getting into cookery demos, be sure to check out my video where I share a few tips and tricks. 

The event itself was a success. A vegan's dream come true. Food, clothing, jewellery, art, beauty, entertainment, talks, literature - there was sheer abundance. I was struck by the diversity too. From Caribbean, Japanese and Indian food (to name a few) to black-owned vegan businesses to various cuisines represented on the cookery demo stage to talks by prominent black vegan activists such as Christopher Sebastian, it seems as though VegFest is making a conscious effort to be more inclusive. The way it should be. Vegans come in all shades, shapes and from different walks of life, and it is absolutely imperative that this is reflected in mainstream veganism. You'll see what I mean in this little video I put together.

Thank you to the organisers and to everyone who made the event what it was. I hope to be back again next year!

Mango Shortbread Cookies

I suddenly had a hankering for some shortbread cookies the other day. As you can imagine, finding vegan shortbread is next to impossible, butter being the primary ingredient: all butter this, all butter that. So I decided to make my own. I also had some leftover mango puree that needed using up and so decided to incorporate it into this recipe. Mango puree is stupidly easy to make. Like jam, just boil the heck out of chopped mango, water and a touch of sugar until it reduces down to a thick consistency.

I hate to state the obvious, but this is not the healthiest snack in the world. I suppose replacing the white flour with wholemeal or spelt flour would be a step in the right direction, but on this occasion I'm embracing the shortbread cookie in all it's naughty, nutritionally-void glory ;)


Ingredients
(makes about 20)
- 1 cup vegan butter/margarine
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
- 2 cups plain flour
- 3/4 cup mango puree/jam

Cream the vegan butter and sugar until smooth. Add the salt, vanilla and plain flour. Mix with your fingers/hands to form a soft dough. Don't over-knead it.

Form into small, bite-size rounds and place on a lined baking tray. Flatten each cookie, forming a small well in the middle. Fill each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of the mango puree/jam.

Bake in a pre-heated oven, 160°C, for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool for a few minutes before devouring. The mango will set and meld into the cookie. Little slabs of sunshine.

Scarlet Mushroom Pasta

I was recently gifted some scarlet elf cap mushrooms by a colleague at work who loves wild foraging. Both beautiful and delicate, I wanted to make them the star of the dish and so I opted for this rather simple pasta creation. Not everyone is going to have access to scarlet mushrooms, of course, so go ahead and use whatever you have available. I think we can all agree that the combination of earthy mushroom and buttery pasta is a recipe for pure food comfort!