Vegan Review: Temple of Seitan (Hackney/London) ★★★★★

Temple of Seitan is a vegan chicken shop, think KFC but better and vegan. They sell popcorn chicken, burgers, 2 piece meals, gluten free nuggets, mac’n’cheeze, hot wings, fries and much more (including special guest appearances of the Young Vegans peanut butter mud pie brownie 😍). They often appear at pop up markets, including Fat Gay Vegan’s Hackney Downs Vegan Market, and they have a permanent location in Hackney (which is fast becoming London’s vegan capital). It’s got a few seats outside and some steps that you can sit on too, as the seats are probably full (it is popular). They’re open til late, and if you can, go on a weekday as it’s less busy.

Now, they’re a little more expensive than the crappy chicken shop that your typical London teen will go to after school (I can vouch for this, having been a 13 year old living in London), but the food is better quality, it isn’t dead animals and you know your money is going to a vegan business, so I have no complaints about the price. I do have questions about what is put in the cheaper non-vegan options to make them quite so cheap, my younger sisters, who live in London, are convinced it’s street pigeons, but that’s probably not true… probably. At Temple of Seitan, you definitely aren’t eating pigeons, and you can fill your belly for a tenner (meal deals including a fries and drink are around £7-8), so it’s a winner in that respect. They also have cups and tap water available without you having to ask, which gets it points from me.

Is the food healthy? No, but that’s not what it’s supposed to be. It’s fatty, deep fried, sauce covered goodness. The mac ‘n’ cheese, according to my fiance, is a lot like the cheese and bacon bake you used to be able to get at Costco, I’ve never been to Costco, but I can say it’s damn good, it’s not super cheesy but it’s good in it’s own way. The chicken pieces are to die for, they’ve usually go little bites of sauce throughout, the coating is perfect and crispy, and honestly, I think it’s the closest to chicken in terms of texture that a vegan is going to get. The fries are great, they’re pre-salted though, so don’t add your own! The chicken burger has ranch and cheese in it and it’s pretty much exactly like a non-vegan chicken burger and it’s so so good. They also have lots of sauces (ketchup, mayo, barbecue, ranch) that you can get in little pots to take away with you.

The brand of commercial food containers they use is Vegware, which is all compostabale and environmentally friendly. ‘Fast food’ often comes at a cost to the environment, but in this case you can feel happy in the knowledge that you can put fatty junk food in your body, without putting any junk into the planet. They also don’t sell Coca Cola, which is a good thing, because the brand they do sell, Karma Cola, is fairtrade and natural and hasn’t been implicated in murders (unlike Coca Cola), they also have other drinks by this brand (including lemonade), which is rad.

So why have I given them five stars? Because I literally can’t think of any way in which they don’t meet their description, it is exactly what I would want and expect from a vegan chicken shop. It’s worth the lengthy trip to there storefront (about 40-50 minutes!) from London’s centre to get this food and it even impressed one of my sisters (who isn’t vegan) who we took there on a day out, she said it was much better than any chicken shop she goes to. There you go, vegan and non-vegan approved. Go forth and get yourself some awesome vegan junk food.

Vegan Review: Barnacles (Llandudno) ★★★★★

North Wales can be a bit of a depressing place for vegans, when you open up Happy Cow very little comes up, and most of it is in Chester, not Wales! But, if you instead direct your attention to the Eat Out Vegan Wales website you will discover that you are not in a land devoid of vegan options, and actually, there are quite a few places with a whole lot of choice – one of which is Barnacles.

Barnacles is a shining beacon of what restaurants that cater for vegans need to be doing. They have one of the largest vegan menus of any restaurant I have ever visited, they have desserts, dairy free butter, diary free milk and separate fryers for everything vegan. They even have a full gluten free menu, which has a small amount of crossover with the vegan menu (including a vegan and gluten free apple crumble), although maybe not enough of a crossover for this to be a great restaurant for a gluten free vegan. However, from a vegan perspective only, this place is amazing. They even offer vegan takeout which is slightly smaller than the eat in menu, but no less good (it has falafel and chips, instead of the typical fish and chips). Barnacles impressed me so much as they are not an all vegan restaurant, yet I felt as if I was being perfectly catered for, I had more choice than I needed and I didn’t feel like I was being given ‘typical’ vegan options (I’m talking the whole ‘we have vegan options’ and then when you show up it’s just hummus and some salad).

The food is exactly what I want when I think seaside, it’s traditional chippy fare made vegan. I honestly wish we lived closer as there was too much food to sample when we were only in North Wales for 2 weeks. The vegan menu was as long as the regular menu is at some places and it included: fishless fingers and chips, sausage and chips, bread and ‘butter’, Sunday roast, multiple kinds of soup, chilli, tikka masala, falafel and chips, falafel kebab, all day breakfast, vegetable hotpot, ‘chicken’ burger, spicy bean burger, ‘chicken’ nuggets and chips, sundaes, banana splits, pineapple fritters, and a few other ‘side’ type options.

We got to try three mains and two desserts in our two visits and it was all delicious. The tikka masala was ‘exactly like chicken tikka masala’ according to my fiance (who liked it so much he had it on both visits), I never liked curry as a non-vegan so I cannot vouch for it’s similarity to it’s non-vegan counterpart but I can say that it was extremley tasty! It was made with pieces of quorn vegan ‘chicken’. I tried the fishless fingers (also quorn) and chips, and I tried the lentil soup. The fishless fingers and chips were perfect if you are craving the ‘traditional’ seaside food experience, and the soup was so hearty and filling (it reminded me of a beef soup) that I couldn’t eat it all. The desserts were really something else, as very few places have good dessert options for vegan, the banana split was my favourite, but this was only because the apple crumble topping was a little dry (I put this down to it being gluten free too). The chips are the perfect chippy chips, crispy and greasy and soft on the inside, and honestly I’d be happy just eating those.

It’s small, which means it’s packed a lot of the time, possibly because it’s the only place with such a broad selection of options for people with dietary requirements – I suspect it would be packed, even with a bigger premises. It’s got a convenient location for those travelling by the train, as it’s on the high street, less than 5 minutes walk from the train station. Most importantly, it’s affordable, (just because they’re providing vegan options, doesn’t mean they’re ripping people off, unlike some places) the vegan main meals range from £4.20-£8.95 and all the desserts on the vegan menu are £4.95, which is the same as their non-vegan equivalents.

Overall, I really have nothing to fault barnacles on, it’s not formal, it’s not fancy, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s just good seaside food that fills your belly and makes you think about holidays to the beach from when you were a kid. Although it isn’t all vegan, you’ll be really well catered for, and it means if your entourage are not vegans it’s very easy to persuade them to go (one of our visits we went with my non-vegan family, who didn’t get vegan food and they were very happy that we could all eat what we wanted to). I give them five stars!

Two Waffle Recipes: Chocolate Waffles & Vanilla Waffles (Vegan + can be GF)

I know that the only other recipe on my blog is pancakes, and maybe you were hoping for something savoury, but I’ve been experimenting in the kitchen and I perfected two waffle recipes: One is rich and chocolatey and has a dark, acidic taste that works perfectly with a sweet topping; the other is a twist on a classic, slightly healthier than your typical waffle with oats and whole grains, but just as sweet and indulgent. Hopefully you like them as much as I do!

Chocolate Waffles & Vanilla Waffles

Each recipe yields 8 waffles/4 servings

Ingredients

Gluten Free Chocolate Waffles

• 1 cup oat flour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 scoop (10g) soy protein powder (you can leave this out, but add less non-dairy milk)
• 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp cocoa or cacoa (cacoa is more bitter in my opinion)
• 2/3 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)
• egg replacer (3 tbsp hot water, 1 tsp chia, 2 tsp ground linseeds)

Vanilla Waffles

• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour (if gluten free, use 1 cup of oat flour or use a wholemeal gluten free flour)
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 scoop (10g) soy protein powder (you can leave this out, but add less non-dairy milk)
• 1 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• a pinch of cinnamon
• a pinch of nutmeg
• 2/3 cup non-dairy milk (I used oat milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• egg replacer (3 tbsp hot water, 1 tsp chia, 2 tsp ground linseeds)

Cooking Directions

1. Pick which of the two recipes you are making, don’t mix all the ingredients for both together!
2. Prepare your egg replacer by mixing the water, chia and linseeds in a small bowl and setting aside
3. Add all your dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl
4. Add the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients, only add about half of the non-dairy milk to start with and then slowly add the rest until you have a smooth, thick batter
5. Grease your waffle iron (even if it’s non stick!) as these waffles are very soft and cakey and they’ll fall apart if the waffle iron isn’t greased ( I would use 1 cal fry spray)
6. Cook your waffles for about 5-7 minutes (this will vary depending on your waffle iron, mine only has one temperature)
7. For extra crispy waffles, pop them in the toaster before serving

Approx Nutritional Information Per 2 chocolate waffles: Calories: 236 Fat: 3.3g Saturated Fat: 0.9g Sodium: 23mg Carbohydrates: 48.1g Fibre: 4.5g Sugar: 28.3g Protein: 6.5g Per 2 vanilla waffles : Calories: 226 Fat: 2.4g Saturated Fat: 0.4g Sodium: 170mg Carbohydrates: 46.4g Fibre: 4g Sugar: 28.4g Protein: 6.2g

Vegan Review: Brooklyn Pizza Bar (Northampton) ★★★★☆

Walking the rather dreary streets of Northampton I don’t think anybody would expect that they’d be magically transported into a slice of America quite so authentic as Brooklyn Pizza Bar. I’m not talking  about one of those disappointing ‘American Diners’ that looks more like a Frankie and Benny’s than a diner, and the food tastes like you’re at Mcdonald’s, but they put it in a plastic basket and charged you twice the price; I’m talking beautiful pizzas, great prices, wonderful staff and a genuinely American atmosphere – but I’d recommend booking if you’re a big group, this place is popular!

The pizzas themselves are amazing, you can literally watch them being made, they cost around £10 a pizza and there’s quite a bit of choice. There are three vegetarian pizzas on the menu and you need only ask for vegan cheese and they shall oblige. None of those take your fancy? Then you can pretty much customise to your hearts content. It’s £1 an extra topping and you can pretty much ask for anything you fancy on your pizza. You can even get a gluten free base if you give them a days notice. They were trying out some vegan chorizo when we went in which was amazing and I really hope it stays on the menu!  You can also get a pizza that is simply crust and marinara if you want to go back to basics.

Now, whilst I personally do not drink, I think it is worth mentioning the good selection of vegan friendly alcohol and more notably the beers. They sell beers from Brooklyn Brewery, and they almost all vegan! Here is a link to the Brooklyn Brewery FAQ so you guys can check out which ones are vegan for yourselves. They also put a bottle of tap water on the table, which is a really nice touch (a million times better than restaurants that seem offended when you ask for it!) and there’s plenty of choice in terms of non-alcoholic vegan beverages (with the apple and raspberry J20 being my choice).

All in all it was a wonderful experience, it was great value for money, it was filling and every member of staff we interacted with was friendly and helpful. The only thing that is holding me back from giving them five stars is the lack of vegan dessert options (they regularly stock cheesecake, and I really wish they’d had a vegan one), but I still 100% recommend Brooklyn Pizza Bar to any vegans in the area!

Chocolate Chip Protein Pancakes (vegan)

These pancakes are beautiful, fluffy and indulgent, but, lower calorie than you’d expect at less than 400 calories for 5 pancakes! How you ask? The secret ingredient is protein powder, it makes the batter thick and adds in protein but not a whole lot of calories, in fact half of the calories in this recipe come from the chocolate chips. You can even add a little soyatoo squirty cream if you like. So, now you know you can have pancakes for breakfast everyday, I’ll give you the recipe!

Vegan Choc Chip Protein Pancakes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 3 heaped tbsp unflavoured protein powder (I used Pulsin soy, if you do not have protein powder, you can add flour instead, but you will need less soy milk, and they will be more calorie dense per pancake.)
• 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
• pinch salt
• 2 1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used Alpro soy)
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks (you can break up a bar of chocolate for this)
• 2 tbsp melted vegan butter or oil

Cooking Directions

1. Combine all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips
2. Add your wet ingredients and whisk until smooth
3. Stir in your chocolate chips
4. Cook on a non-stick pan over a medium/high heat, if your pan isn’t completely non stick then you can oil it very lightly (I recommend a 1 cal fry spray), flip when your pancakes are golden brown underneath, you won’t ruin them by checking!
5. Enjoy fluffy, tasty pancakes!

 

Approx Nutritional Information (per 5 pancakes): Calories: 388 Fat: 15.8g Saturated Fat: 5g Sodium: 119mg Potassium: 340mg Carbohydrates: 50.6g Fibre: 1.8g Sugar: 19.7g Protein: 14.7g

Click here to see me make these pancakes on my youtube channel!