Vegan Afternoon Tea Recipe

For as long as I can remember I have been in love with afternoon tea. I have been having major cravings for it lately, so this bank holiday weekend I decided to make the most of my time off and made my first vegan afternoon tea – it did not disappoint! Aside from looking forward to all of the yummy food, I was also super excited to use the beautiful afternoon tea set that my boyfriend bought me for my 20th Birthday!

How cute is that ?! ▽▼▽▼▽

afternoon tea with jade green vegan

For me, afternoon tea is all about the sandwiches, which is strange as under other circumstances I’m not usually a sandwich fan. There’s just something about the tiny, bite size, variety of flavours in afternoon tea that makes the sandwiches so much better than usual! …Or maybe I’m just weird. Either way, these sandwiches were amazing so I’m beyond excited to share the recipe with you! The rest of it was pretty awesome too, so here it is…

Sandwiches

I made 3 different types of sandwiches on a mixture of white and whole grain bread and used Pure dairy free spread!

1. Guacamole and pine nut

I love guacamole so I was super excited to make this sandwich. Peel & mash one avocado, then mix in one clove of crushed garlic and squeeze a little lemon in the mix. Stir together and season with sea salt and ground black pepper before serving with a sprinkle of pine nuts.

guacamole and pine nut sandwich

2. Roasted veg and hummus

For my roasted veg sandwich I used: mushrooms, red onions, garlic & carrot, but what’s great about this is that you can just use whatever spare veg you have lying around in your fridge. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees, then drizzle the veg in garlic oil, season with sea salt and ground black pepper and cook in the oven for 30 minutes. The veg is then ready to be served with hummus. Side note: this was my first attempt at recreating an awesome sandwich that I had on my trip to Amsterdam and it was just as delicious as I remembered.

roasted veg and hummus sandwich

3. Pepper and sea salt seasoned salad

The final sandwich is super simple but so yummy; even my salad fearing boyfriend loved it! It includes: a slice of cucumber, a slice of tomato, a few pieces of sliced red onion (lots of slicing going on here guys!), a piece of iceberg lettuce and a thin slither of beetroot, all seasoned with sea salt and ground black pepper.

salad sandwich

I am feeling majorly hungry after writing that up! On to the sweet bits before I run downstairs and whack out the afternoon tea set!

Scones

In lieu of scones, I made my delicious oatmeal raisin cookies but shaped them into balls before cooking, giving them a softer, more gooey centre – yum! You can check out the recipe for these bad boys here. Alternatively, I’m sure there are some great vegan scone recipes out there, I was just too lazy to look; and plus these cookies are so good, I grab any opportunity to make them!

vegan oatmeal raising cookies

Cakes

For the cakes, I made the awesome Chocolate Covered Katie’s chocolate brownies. They didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped… maybe because I cooked them in a yorkshire pudding tray (I’m a goddess in the kitchen, in case you haven’t already picked up on that) but I rolled with it, quite literally… I rolled the gooey brownies into little cake balls! Despite their questionable appearance, they were delicious and the perfect end to my favourite meal!

chocolate covered katie brownies

Tea

Last but not least, for the tea we had hot lemon water. I’ve spoken before in my summer favourites post about how amazing this is for you; it’s also really easy to make!  Just put a couple of slices of lemon in the bottom of the tea pot, fill with boiling water, and then squeeze the remainder of the lemon into the tea pot.

hot lemon afternoon tea

I hope you enjoyed reading about my afternoon tea almost as much as I enjoyed eating it, which would be a lot! I would definitely recommend making this whenever you have a spare afternoon as it rocks! Aside from stuffing my face with sandwiches this weekend, I also went on a lovely long walk with my dogs in our local fields. Here they all are soaking up the sun!

cockapoos in meadow

I hope everyone else had a beautiful bank holiday weekend ♥♡

Vegan at Prezzo

When I was a vegetarian Prezzo was one of my all time favourite restaurants and until last week, I hadn’t been back since going vegan. When I saw that the allergen menu on Prezzo’s website said that the Bruschetta was suitable for vegans, I thought it was too good to be true… aaaand after a little chat with our waitress, turns out it was too good to be true – the pesto contains parmeasan. Our lovely waitress was so helpful and explained to me all of the things which were suitable for vegans (including the pizza dough). So I decided to get creative and combine two of my previous favourite starters to make the ultimate vegan starter: Bruschetta with garlic oil in lieu of pesto, with a salad garnish and pomodoro sauce (usually served with the Mozzarella in Carrozza). Combining my two favourite starters was a great shout because it was yummy!

vegan bruschetta at prezzo

For my main course, I went a bit more mainstream and ordered ‘The Vegetarian’ pizza without cheese but with extra mushrooms and red onions (my two favourite pizza toppings). Although I enjoyed it, the pizza was nowhere near as good as my starter so I think next time I visit Prezzo I will be ordering two vegan Bruschettas!

vegan vegetarian pizza at prezzo

Despite Prezzo’s website blunder, it turns out they have some great vegan options so it’s definitely worth asking in the restaurant what they can whip up for you! If it’s anywhere near as good as my Bruschetta, I’m sure you’ll be a happy bunny!

Amsterdam Vegan Guide

Wandering around the streets of Amsterdam city centre on a hot Saturday afternoon, my Pret fruit salad and Hotel Chocolat airplane snacks seemed like a distant memory and the hanger was starting to set in. This is why I was so excited when we stumbled across Maoz Vegetarian, an international food chain serving falafel and other freshly made veggie food – yum yum yum! I ordered the whole wheat falafel pita topped with lots of yummy salad from the self-service salad bar and a shared a side of chips with my mum. It looked and smelt so good that I couldn’t resist taking a quick bite before snapping a picture – sorry guys! With numerous locations across Europe and the USA, this is the perfect on-the-go lunch for a travelling vegan; I know I will definitely be hitting up Maoz when I visit NYC later this summer.

Maoz vegetarian Amsterdam

After seeing the 2 hour queue outside Anne Frank’s house on Sunday afternoon, we decided to have a wander along the canal and find somewhere to eat lunch. We stumbled across a little pub overlooking the water and I ordered this delicious humus and roasted veggie sandwich. It was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had and I will definitely be trying to recreate this sandwich in the near future. Side note: Anne Frank’s house is such a moving experience and well worth a visit; we went back at 7 in the evening and the queue was much shorter so avoiding peak times seems to be the way to go!

humus and roasted veg sandwich

Last but not least of my vegan Amsterdam eats was my Sunday night dinner. The Tempura of vegetable spaghetti from the Skyy Bar at the top of our hotel was my favourite meal of the trip. Just looking at this picture is making my mouth water! The dish was crispy on the outside but soft on the inside and perfectly complemented by the bed of seaweed on which is was served, just yum.

vegan tempura vegetable spaghetti

Not only was the food amazing but like the rest of our hotel, the bar atmosphere and decor were uber cool too. If you’re planning a trip to Amsterdam, I would definitely recommend staying in our hotel, or at the very least a visit to the Skyy Bar! How freaking cool is that ceiling?!

Skyy bar amsterdam

On top of lots of yummy food, we also had an awesome time exploring Amsterdam. We were really lucky as we visited on gay pride weekend which meant that there was even more atmosphere and activity than usual!  Here are a few of my favourite pics from our trip…

Lemon water in Amsterdam

THE AWESOME MARKET STOOLS

Lunch by the river

Gay pride

 

Inside my vegan hand luggage

Yesterday morning my mum and I got back from our awesome weekend trip to Amsterdam. Our flight was at 7am, so we had to get up at half 4 and now I am feeling majorly jet-lagged (can you even get jet lag from a one hour time-difference? I thinks so!)

This was my first trip abroad as a vegan so I was a little unsure how the food situation would be. However, I decided that if worst came to worst, I’d have lots of fresh fruit and veggies – YUM!

As we only went away for the weekend, we didn’t check in any bags and packed everything in our hand luggage, *gulp*! I used to find this such a struggle but since I’ve been travelling more for work, I’ve got pretty good at cramming a few day’s worth of stuff into a small bag!

I thought it’d be fun to give you a peek inside my bag to see my travel essentials for a weekend away and check out the cute tiny toiletries I took with me (I love tiny toiletries) – everything is cruelty free of course.

Cath Kidtson vegan hand luggage bag

Bag: Cath Kidston

Shampoo & conditioner: Tara Smith at M&S

Make up wipes: Formula at M&S

Tooth paste: Dr Organic at Holland and Barrett

Snacks: Evian (which I had to throw away at the airport -oops!)

Gianduja chocolate bombs from Hotel Chocolat (YUM!)

Book for the flight: I can do it by Louise Hay

Lightweight PJs: Forever 21

P.s. My vegan eats in Amsterdam post will be up soon, stay tuned because there were some yummies!