Food – Page 4

Vegan at Prezzo

August 19, 2014Jade Green VeganLeave a comment

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!

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!

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

August 14, 2014October 16, 2019Jade Green Vegan8 Comments

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

Vegan at Pizza Express

July 21, 2014Jade Green Vegan5 Comments

When I first became vegan, before I had even started the blog, I had my first (awesome) vegan pizza experience. I read on the PETA blog that Pizza Express had introduced a vegan pizza: the Pianta, so I immediately dragged my best friend Alfia to Pizza Express to try it out. After initial issues with the Pizza arriving with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top (naughty Pizza Express), they sent me out a new one and it was DELICIOUS. Hands down, the best pizza I’ve ever had. It is served on their classic base smothered in spicy sauce, topped with artichoke, chestnut mushrooms, pine kernels, spinach and I added some red onions.

I went back to Pizza Express this week with the same friend, and had the same pizza. I’m a creature of habit, okay?! Buuuut this time I added mushrooms and garlic oil – yummy! Who says I don’t like to try new things ;).

vegan pizza

What’s even better is that all of their pizza bases are vegan, so you can make any pizza vegan friendly by just asking for it without cheese. Ideal! Although I really enjoyed my pizza without cheese, it’s also good to know that they offer the option of bringing in your own vegan cheese, providing it meets a couple of requirements.

There are a couple of starters that are vegan too, including olives and dough balls (substitute the garlic butter for garlic oil). With such a range of vegan options available, Pizza express is definitely a great place to hang out with your non-vegan friends as there is something for everybody!

Check out this statement on the Pizza Express website for a full list of vegan friendly dishes.

Vegan at Wahaca

July 19, 2014Jade Green Vegan7 Comments

After one too many trips to Nandos where I always have my favourite veggie wrap, my boyfriend and I decided to mix it up a bit and visit Wahaca. I was a little worried about finding vegan options as I couldn’t find anything on their website about this. However, our waitress was extremely helpful and pointed out all of the vegetarian dishes they could make vegan by excluding cheese or sour cream – ideal!

To start we had tortilla chips with guacamole whilst we pondered over the menu, and they were good!

I love the style of the Wahaca menu as it offers a selection of smaller, street style dishes as an alternative to ordering just one, bigger dish. As there were so many amazing looking veggie options that could be made vegan, we decided to order lots of little dishes.

For the very childish reason of wanting to know whether or not it would be spiky, we ordered the cactus tacos without cheese. I am happy to report that they were in fact not spiky but were very yummy!

We also had the plantain taco without feta cheese and crema which was nice but very spicy!

The black bean tostadas (without cheese and crema) were awesome! I love black beans, red onions and lettuce so this dish was perfect for me.

Finally, saving the best to last we had broccoli drizzled in garlic chilli oil. DE-LIC-IOUS!

Not only was the food amazing but the staff were so friendly and helpful so we will definitely be heading back to Wahaca soon.

You can check out their menu here. Veggie options are marked with a v and most of them can be made vegan, so be sure to ask in the restaurant, and if our experience was anything to go by, the staff will be more than happy to help.

Confessions of a vegan chocoholic

July 9, 2014Jade Green Vegan1 Comment

Since deciding to eat a vegan diet, I have had lots of people ask me the same question (usually with a horrified look on their face), ‘so wait, you can’t eat chocolate anymore?!’ In response to this, I thought I’d write a post about the wide range of vegan chocolate available, to quash the myth that vegans can’t eat chocolate.

Confession: this has been by far my favourite post on the blog to research so far!

In case you hadn’t guessed already, I’m a bit of a chocoholic; so I will admit, missing chocolate was one of the things that I was a little worried about when I decided to become vegan. The first vegan chocolate I ate was Asda own brand. As a plain chocolate bar it’s not the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten; but when melted to make chocolate covered strawberries, it is absolutely awesome! This is the desert I had on my first fully vegan day, and it was an absolute blessing!

After eating an almost entirely vegan diet for around 1 month, I was sitting in work one day when I was hit with a major chocolate craving! Just when I was about to give in to guiltily considering getting a boost bar from the vending machine, I googled vegan chocolate on whim to see if anywhere nearby could satisfy my craving. The first thing that came up was… HOTEL CHOCOLAT! Excited does not even begin to describe how this made me feel, as not only do they make incredible chocolate, but there is also an outlet less 5 minutes from my office. I practically ran downstairs and bought an unhealthy amount of vegan chocolate. I may have also sent a slightly embarrassing tweet to Hotel Chocolat about how they had ‘Made. My. Day’ whilst I scoffed down my chocolate on the way back to work! Totally worth the embarrassment to express my gratitude for this amazing afternoon snack.

I didn’t realise how hooked I’d become until one Friday on my way to work, the girl working in Hotel Chocolat recognised me as ‘the girl who comes in to buy a Hazlenut Buche every morning’. Oh dear. When she asked if the 4 bars I had picked up this morning were all for me, instead of admitting that I was stocking up on chocolate for the weekend like a squirrel does for winter, I of course lied to save the last shred of my dignity and said they were for presents. It’s kinda true, they were presents, from me… to me. I’m sure I should feel more embarrassed to go back there but I don’t. The chocolate is just too good! Check out the Hotel Chocolat website here to see their award winning vegan chocolate selection.

Holland & Barrett also have lots of yummy vegan chocolate snacks that are well worth checking out; these dairy-free chocolate coated raisins are my personal fave!

holland and barret vegan chocolate covered raisins

If you’re a bit more creative in the kitchen and would like some more vegan chocolate inspiration, check out the awesome Chocolate Covered Katie’s blog which has tons of amazing and quirky recipes!

Vegan at YO! Sushi

June 26, 2014Jade Green VeganLeave a comment

Last night, after a bit of Glastonbury shopping with my mum (I just can’t help myself!) we went to Yo! Sushi for dinner. Now that I’m transitioning from vegetarian to vegan, there are obviously quite a few dishes in my favourite restaurants that I no longer eat; so I was beyond excited to discover that as a vegan I can still enjoy all of the same dishes I had as a vegetarian in Yo! Sushi. For this week’s ‘Being Vegan at’ post I thought it would be great to share last night’s eats with y’all.

Vegetable Gyoza – this is my all time favourite dish; they’re like little parcels of heaven!

Yo! Sushi Vegetable Gyoza

Pumpkin Karoke – these strips of pumpkin covered in breadcrumbs are awesome, and the ‘fruity’ sauce is just too good!

Yo! Sushi Pumpkin Karoke

Aubergine Salad – last night was the first time I’d tried this salad and it has become a new favourite; the harusame sauce is delicious and I can’t wait to try to recreate this healthy snack at home!

I was definitely full up after these 3 dishes but I’m also a big fan of the Kaiso Salad and Vegetable Yakisoba.

For a full list of vegan options currently available at Yo! Sushi, check out the Allergen section of their website here.

Vegan at Nandos!!

June 19, 2014Jade Green Vegan4 Comments

For this week’s ‘Being Vegan at’ post, I have chosen my favourite restaurant: Nandos!

Being a long-time vegetarian, and now transitioning vegan, people always find it weird when I say that Nandos is my favourite restaurant, but it is. I really love Nandos. I go there several times a week in hope that they’ll recognise me and finally deem me worthy of a black card. I’m still living in hope. Sidenote… check out Example & Ed Sheeran’s Nandos black card song below, absolute genius.

Anyway, back to the food. Their veggie burger is the best; so I was praying I could still have it when I became vegan. Good news is, on reading their website I found out that I can still have the burger filet, peri peri sauce (thank the lord!), salad garnish, and chips. However, the bad news is that this yummy burger cannot be sandwiched by one of their buns as they contain dairy. I decided to try the burger sans bun and actually really enjoyed it.

Next time, which of course was a few days later, I tried the veggie wrap without the mayonnaise and chilli sauce and this was even better. Another bonus is that when I said I was vegan, the staff were so helpful and accommodating. The manager brought out a huge, and i mean huge allergen menu and went through it with me to see what I could have. This (and the amazing food) is why I love Nandos!

All of their bastes are suitable for vegans; and they also have a great range of vegan friendly sides including corn on the cob and a mixed leaf salad!

You can check out their vegan recommendation on their website here; and it’s definitely worth asking to see the allergen menu in the restaurant if you fancy mixing it up with some other sides as they are always adding new ones.

Vegan at Pret-a-manger

June 10, 2014Jade Green Vegan1 Comment

One of the things that worried me most about becoming vegan is eating out, as I’m not an ‘I’ll just have the side salad’ kinda gal. I initially anticipated that this would now involve me dragging my friends & family around all of the London vegan restaurants; or picking at a plate of leaves in a more ‘mainstream’ restaurant whilst they ate. However over the past couple of weeks, as well as trying out Vegan restaurants such as Mildred’s & Bistro 1847 (yum!), I have become acquainted with a lot of Allergen menus in my favourite chain restaurants. I have been pleasantly surprised by the vegan options available and thought it would be great to share my experiences of eating out as a vegan in mainstream restaurants in a series of ‘Being Vegan at…’ posts.

What better place to start than PRET-A-YUMMY (Pret-a-manger)?!

My job sends me all over London, so I am constantly grabbing breakfast and lunches on the go from coffee shops. Pret is my all time favourite, and turns out when it comes to Vegan options, they don’t disappoint.

Breakfast

For breakfast I have been loving the Super food fruit salad. It’s so refreshing, and with all of its goodness this yummy little pot is the perfect way to kick-start a busy day.

Their smoothies and juices are also amazing; my favourite is the mango smoothie.

Lunch

Last week, I tried Pret’s vegan friendly superfood sandwich for the first time. I’m embarrassed to admit that I have been putting this off for a while now, as I thought it looked ‘too green’ but I am so glad I tried it because now I am addicted!

They also do a great vegan-friendly butternut squash soup.

Snacks

On the snacks front, there’s a great range of vegan options: selected crisps, pretzels, drinks & of course fruity treats like dried mango.

Check out Pret’s allergen menu here for a full list of all of their vegan options. I have this bad boy downloaded on my phone, ready to whack out at any time!

Bistro 1847

June 1, 2014Jade Green Vegan5 Comments

This weekend, my boyfriend Matt and I visited Bistro 1847, a Birmingham vegetarian/ vegan restaurant. It has been voted the best vegetarian restaurant outside London; so needless to say, as a vegetarian and a vegetarian/ wannabe vegan we were very excited to try it out!

The restaurant is small and intimate and is conveniently located in the Great Western arcade near to Snowhill Station. The staff are so friendly and helpful, and the restaurant has a great, chilled-out vibe. Then of course, there’s the amazing food. Everything looked so good, so we decided to go all out and get 3 courses!

For starter, we both ordered the vegetable tempura with sweet chilli sauce and it was delicious! The broccoli was my favourite and it was complimented perfectly by the chilli sauce.

Bistro 1847 - battered vegetables

For main, we both ordered the vegetarian/ vegan ‘fish and chips’… are you noticing a pattern here? We don’t always order the same thing! This is a vegetarian dish as contains halloumi cheese; however, it can be made into a vegan option by trading the halloumi for tofu, so this is what I did. The variety of sauces made for a unique infusion of tastes, and we both absolutely loved this dish!

Bistro 1847 - tofu and chips

Although we were full up after our amazing starters and main courses, we of course managed to make a little room for desert. Once again, we ordered the same thing… the apple crumble, and it was a good choice. The apple was really sweet and was the perfect way to finish the meal.

Bistro 1847 - ice cream

We had such a great evening and can’t wait to go back and try out the rest of the menu; I’m particularly excited about having the afternoon tea, as this is my all time favourite! We are also planning on attending some cooking classes with 1847’s incredible chef so are very excited for this!

As you can see from the pictures, the presentation was impeccable, and the food was equally great. It is clear that everyone who works there is so passionate about what they do and this translates into a great dining experience for everyone who visits Bistro 1847.

My top three vegan summer must-haves (or must-eats!)

May 19, 2014Jade Green Vegan1 Comment

I have been LOVING the heatwave we are having in London at the moment and have been making the most of it by chilling out in the sun (of course with my dogs and torts), and enjoying some vegan summer treats. Here are my favourite 3 that I wanna share with you.

1. Fresh lemon and lime water

I nearly always start my days of with a mug of freshly squeezed hot lemon water, because as my mum has been telling me for years, lemon is a great antioxidant and helps to push our bodies to the required ph alkaline state; which in english means it makes you feel great! In this hot weather, a chilled version of this is perfect. One of my favourite drinks has always been lemon and lime flavoured water, and nothing beats the natural version!

What’s great is that this super healthy drink is so yummy and also really easy to make:

Slice 1 lemon and 1 lime in half
Squeeze half of each into a glass
Pour in water and stir
Decorate glass with 1 slice of lemon and 1 slice of lime (if you’re a little OCD about making your drinks look pretty like me)

2. The summer smoothie

Fresh smoothies are so good for you, and also happen to be incredibly yummy; win, win. This morning, I created my first Jade’s Vegan Diary smoothie recipe: the summer smoothie. One word, yummy!

Ingredients

2 bananas
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blueberries
2 kiwis
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon of pomegranate

Instructions

Chop bananas and kiwis into chunks
Put all fruit and almond milk into a blender/ smoothie maker
Blend until smooth
Pour into a glass and sprinkle pomegranate on top (love those bad boys!)

3. Orange sorbet ice cream

Orange sorbet is the perfect desert for a hot summer evening, and I was really surprised when I found out how easy it is to make. I think I will definitely be having a lot of orange sorbet this summer!

Ingredients

2 oranges
1 cup/ carton soya milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions

Chop oranges into chunks
Blend until smooth
Add in soya milk and vanilla essence
Blend until mixed together and smooth
Pour into tub and put into freezer
Stir after one hour (to prevent crystallising)
Leave in the freezer for another hour before serving
Add raspberries and pomegranate (mainly for decoration, but also because they’re yummy )