Vegan

Bistro 1847

Jade 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!)

Jade 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.

summer fun

 

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)

lemon and lime water

 

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!)

summer smoothie

 

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 )

orange sorbet

 

 

Mildred’s Veggie/ Vegan Restaurant in London

Jade Green Vegan2 Comments

Earlier this week, I dragged my three most veggie friends (2 vegetarians and 1 wannabe vegetarian) to Mildred’s a London vegetarian/ vegan restaurant with me!

The restaurant was packed and had a great atmosphere; so whilst we waited for a table, we started the night off with cocktails at the bar. I ordered the Porn Star, mainly for the fun of ordering it (it never gets old ordering a cocktail with a naughty name, right?! …Maybe that’s just me). Despite my immature ordering tactic, it turned out to be amazing… until I spilt it all over Maria and myself when we sat down at our table. This happens at some point on most nights out with us. I really need to work on getting my clumsiness under control.

porn star cocktail

After wiping up the spilt cocktail (and of course ordering another!) we checked out the menu which is entirely vegetarian and almost entirely vegan or can be turned into a vegan option. As two of us have been life-long vegetarians, we’re used to choosing from the small vegetarian section of menus where there is rarely more than 2 choices; so it was strange, if not a little overwhelming to be so spoilt for choice. Everything looked amazing and it definitely tasted just as good!

To start, I had the gyoza dumplings with mirin and soy dipping sauce. They were DELICIOUS!image

Then for main, I had smoked tofu and white bean sausages, with carrot parsnip and potato mash, wilted kale and pear cider gravy. So. Yummy.

IMG_5215

We all had a great night, with amazing food and maybe a few too many cocktails! Mildred’s is definitely worth checking out, I think we’ve found our new hang out spot…mildreds

 

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookie Recipe

Jade Green Vegan2 Comments

Last night, something very strange went on in our house… my mum and I baked cookies for the first time EVER!! My dog Poppy barked at me as I was stirring the ingredients in the mixing bowl as if to say, ‘you don’t belong here?!’  and she’s probably right. As far as domestic goddess-ness goes, I’m less Martha Stewart, more Miranda! This was definitely highlighted when I was reading measurements from my iPhone and asked my mum how to tell the difference between tablespoon and teaspoon (tsp – it could be either, right?!)  and she replied with, “Well, teaspoon is the one you use to stir tea”, assuming that instead of not knowing the abbreviations, I didn’t know a tablespoon from a teaspoon. Oh dear.

cooking meme

Since becoming vegan, I have realised that there are lots of yummy treats I won’t be able to buy in shops anymore, so I have decided to step up my game and take this opportunity to make my own healthier AND dare I say yummier versions! I decided to start with mine and my mum’s favourite cookie: oatmeal and raisin with a dash of lemon and apple. Bakery abbreviation blunders aside, our first baking session went really well and the cookies turned out to be DELICIOUS.

So, enough of my rambling, and here is the recipe to make these bad boys (and I’m going to spell out tablespoon or teaspoon for y’all just in case anyone finds these abbreviations as confusing as I do)!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup margarine
  • 1/2 cup almond milk
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 tea spoon baking soda
  • 1 tea spoon cinnamon
  • 1 tea spoon nutmeg
  • 3 cups oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup sultanas
  • 1 apple
  • 1 lemon

 

 

 Cooking instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 250°c
  • Mix together the sugar and margarine until smooth
  • Add in the almond milk and stir until the milk has combined with the mixture
  • Add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until well mixed
  • Add in the oatmeal, raisins, sultanas, and apple (peeled and chopped into small chunks and soaked in lemon juice) and stir
  • Squeeze 1 whole lemon’s juice into the mixture and stir so that it is even throughout

  • Spoon small balls of the mixture onto a baking tray covered in baking paper and flatten

  • Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes or until done (note: staring at them the entire time like Poppy did is optional)

  • Finally, leave them to cool for 10 minutes, then enjoy your yummy cookies!

My first entry in Jade’s Vegan Diary (Exciting!!!)

Jade Green Vegan2 Comments

Hey and welcome to Jade’s Vegan Diary! I have been a vegetarian for the majority of my life and recently decided to become vegan. This decision was not only fueled by my love of animals, but also by the amazing health benefits that this awesome diet offers.

I am lucky that a lot of the people I’m closest to are either vegetarian or pescetarian, so I have never struggled in maintaining this diet. However, I know zero vegans so this lifestyle is completely new to me and has already been a massive learning curve since I started transitioning into it around a month ago.

In such a short space of time, I have already had so many amazing experiences and have learnt so much. On top of that, I am feeling the healthiest and most energised I have ever felt. I am so excited about living all aspects of this lifestyle, so  decided to start this blog as a way to share my experiences and connect with like-minded people.

On my blog, you can expect lots of yummy recipes; vegan and mainstream restaurant reviews; exercise and general healthy living  posts; vegan beauty product reviews… and really all things vegan! I’m sure I’ll also find a way to work in lots of stories about my amazing dogs, as everyone who knows me knows I always find a way to bring them into the conversation. They even have their own blog here; yep I’m one of those people!

One more thing to note about me, is that prior to becoming vegan my culinary skills were probably less extensive than those of most 5 year olds, so learning to cook and bake all of these yummy vegan foods has been a completely foreign but amazingly exciting experience for me.

I hope you enjoy getting to know me through this blog, and hopefully finding some inspiration is my stories and recipes. I’d love to hear from you so please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Jade xx