Tried and Tested: New Vegan Ready Meal Options at Waitrose.

On By ClareIn minimofo, products2 Comments

The theme for mini mofo (the miniature, monthly spin off from the vegan month of food) is lazy. Which is fantastic. What a time to be alive for the lazy vegan in Torquay. We can buy our lunch from The Kind Grind, order pizza or ring for an Indian. Just because we can’t be arsed doesn’t mean we’re forced to eat hummus. No, I eat hummus because I choose to eat hummus. Still there are a few gaps in the market. For instance, what do you do on nights when you have enough energy to turn on the oven but not awake enough for food prep? Well now we have some new ready meal options.

3 bean chilli

Waitrose announced a new range of ready meals for vegetarians that included, for the first time in the UK, meat from the Vegetarian Butcher. They’ve started to arrive in the local branch on St Mary Church Road so it’s time to see what this means for vegans. For starters it means options! Choices. You can have a Rainbow Vegetable Stew, a Green Thai Curry, Three Bean Chilli and Couscous, or Vegetarian Chilli with Rice. Each weigh in at £3. We went for the Green Thai Curry and The Rainbow Vegetable Stew.

green thai

Desperate to get our hands on some of that Vegetarian Butcher meat we went for the Green Thai Curry. The chicken did have an incredible texture, appearance and flavour. it wasn’t exactly like chicken but its the closest I’ve ever seen. Very impressive. The rest of the curry was a bit meh. We both found that our curry was full of big chinks of chicken and big chunks of bamboo shoot but it only had three or four small pieces of french bean. It made it seem really unbalanced. The sauce also seemed really heavy to me and could really have used some crunch french beans to lighten it up.

rainbowstew

The Rainbow Stew, in contrast, was full of veggies. Mostly squash, bits of beetroot and kale to round out the rainbow. It was all served in a lovely tomato sauce with gorgeous little lentils in their to fill you up. For my taste the vegetable were a bit under done. Textbook al dente, but I generally want more of a melt in the mouth quality in a stew. The variety of texture, flavour, and – of course – colour from the different veggie worked well.

All in all I’d eat either of them again, though I might wait for a sale. I felt a little let down, though that might just be my expectations. These are ready meals after all. Keeping in mind that they are ready meals, they are good ready meals. Worth stashing in the freezer for a rainy day.

Vegan at The Beach, Coastal Vegan Gets Costaler

On By ClareIn DevonLeave a comment

Sometimes we actually visit the beach. Recently my Dad came down for a visit and we ended up at the stunning Bigbury-on-sea in search of lunch. It is tidally linked to Burgh Island which, like most places around here, served as inspiration for a couple of fictional murder scenes. Fun fact: Agetha Christie, nee Miller was born all of thirty seconds from our front door. No doubt our flat would also be the scene of a fictional murder if it had been built at the time.

puppysilouette

Let’s head west, and get back to the topic of Bigbury-on-sea. It’s home to a Venus Cafe. They’re a small chain of local beach cafes which offer locally sourced, really well made. The menus vary according to location but there is at least one vegan option in each place. In Bigbury-on-sea I could choose between chilli and a falafel wrap.

wrap

I went for the falafel wrap. I have had more falafel wraps in my life than I can count and most have them have been extremely meh. I knew that Venus falafel wrap would be a good falafel wrap and I adore a good falafel wrap. It was indeed a good falafel wrap. Succulent slices of beetroot, bursts of briny olives and delicious, delicious falafel. Not soggy, not wilted, not tasteless. This is the falafel wrap other falafel wraps want to be when they grow up. Get yourself to the beach and try one.

Vegan Options at Bombay Express 

On By ClareIn Torquay1 Comment

Bombay Express is our local Indian and while I’ve known for a while that it has vegan options I’ve been reluctant to try them. I do prefer to go to places were vegan options are marked on the menu because I’m awkward and panic easily. But recently they had an offer for world vegan day so I held Kate’s hand and bravely went in to ask what we could have.


There is quite a lot of choice. You can have a vegetable balti, jalfrezi or madras. There’s also garlic chilli vegetable on the menu. Bombay potatoes, aloo gobi, channa massala, tarka dhal, saag aloo and mushroom bhaji can all be ordered as a side or a main. So between me and Kate we polished off four side dish sized portions. Clockwise from top left we have the dhal which is super creamy, a saag aloo that’s full of flavourful spinach, a rich channa masala and a delicious portion of Bombay potatoes.

It’s always great to have another vegan take away option, it’s brilliant to have one that is so very yummy.

Pasta Factory: Vegan Mofo, the final day.

On By ClareIn Manchester, Veganmofo172 Comments

Rather than cook something spooky I went out to eat for the last day of vegan mofo. I went back into Manchester to check out the amazing vegan options at The Pasta Factory. I know you’re probably confused about what The Pasta Factory serves, so I’ll let you in on the secret. It’s mostly pasta. Delicious, amazing home made pasta. But first for the Antipasti. 


I wasn’t actually going to order anything but the pasta. I couldn’t really resist this one though. Look at it! They make that cheese themselves. It’s brilliant. I can’t forget to mention those crackers, they are also homemade and really flavourful which goes great with the more neutral tasting cheese. 


Bucatini was my Pasta of choice, dyed playfully green from spinach and covered in tomato basil sauce. It was just perfect. Incredibly tasty. Very filling. And a great end to both Vegan Month of Food and my trip to Manchester.