Viva the Vegans!
We know there’s a lot of great health reasons to have a vegan diet and the environment will thank you for it also… but what about going vegan purely for the delicious treats or exciting new ingredients? Not convinced? Read on for our treasure trove of vegan goodies…
Organic Fairtrade Chocolate Spread from Vego
Vego receives rave reviews for their chocolate bars and has now brought out a new vegan hazelnut chocolate spread (think Nutella, only vegan!) Better still, once you have finished your amazing chocolate spread, it comes inside a fabulous reusable drinking glass.
This spread is made from raw cane sugar, hazelnuts, organic sunflower oil, organic cocoa and organic vanilla extract, and contains crunchy hazelnut pieces. It is organic, Fairtrade and of course, vegan. It also contains no gluten, no soy and is palm oil free. It's also deeply delicious, try it on toast, liven up pancakes or try swirling onto banana bread for a sweet hit.
Buy Vego here in our webshop
Organic Young Jackfruit from Essential
Jackfruit has been hailed as a “miracle crop” because of its size (it can reach up to 35kgs!), and its resistance to pests and drought. This all-natural, non-processed ingredient has fibrous flesh that can take on almost any flavour - young green jackfruit can replace beef, lamb or pork with ease and creates delicious dishes with a rich texture.
Vegan, organic young jackfruit are bursting with free radical fighting antioxidants and vitamins A & C, plus they are a great source of potassium, zinc and iron, with the high fibre content helping to maintain a healthy digestive system. This jackfruit is ethically sourced and grown organically by farmers in Sri Lanka.
Buy Jackfruit here in our webshop
Condensed Coconut Milk from Nature's Charm
This is the first off-the-shelf alternative to condensed milk that we've found, and it's now stocked at both of our stores. We've often been asked about sourcing sweetened condensed milk alternatives and previously we sent out recipes that involved a minimum of 4 hours at the cooker. However, now vegans can also indulge in making millionaire's shortbread, tablet or key lime pie! Made with coconut milk, cane sugar, salt and calcium carbonate this will keep for up to five days if refrigerated after opening.
Nature's Charm was set up by the vegan daughter of one of the first coconut milk manufacturers in Thailand. After 2 years and 29 taste trials, they found the winning combination for condensed coconut milk that works in a huge range of recipes from around the world. They also do an evaporated coconut milk and a ready-made coconut and caramel sauce for those of us with an extremely sweet tooth!
Buy Nature's Charm Coconut range here in our webshop
Palm Oil Free Shampoo Bar from Living Naturally
Recently added for a vegan customer who was desperate for a Palm Oil free shampoo that was not produced in plastic bottles, this has been an immediate hit in our stores. The Coconutty Shampoo Bar is handmade from a mixture of high-quality olive, coconut, castor, avocado and rice bran oils with cocoa butter, coconut milk and desiccated coconut. That's all - no SLS, phthalates, parabens, palm oil, mineral oil or anything synthetic! It is particularly good for people with eczema or dry hair and skin.
Living Naturally have a dedicated Vegan (and gluten free) workshop in London and make their artisan products to be 100% vegan, cruelty-free and wherever possible organic. They do not test any products on animals nor purchase any goods from companies that do. The soapnuts are ship-freighted to the UK and are sourced from forest-grown sources, they are never grown on stripped or cleared land and do not contribute towards deforestation in any way.
Buy Living Naturally Coconutty Shampoo Bar here in our webshop
Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausage Baked Beans
Baked Beans with Meat Free Lincolnshire Sausage from Suma
This may very well be the first ever vegan canned beans and meat free sausage in the UK! At least we've never seen any others...
Suma are the largest workers collective based in the UK and make amazing vegetarian and vegan foods in Yorkshire. This is their latest offering, a tasty mix of baked haricot beans in a vegan tomato sauce, with meat-free, vegan, Lincolnshire-style sausages. Registered with both the Vegan and Vegetarian Societies they can be prepared quickly and easily. Perfect on a jacket potato or on toast for a quick meal.
You can find Suma's Vegan Baked Beans with Lincolnshire style Sausage here in our webshop.
Sgaia Mheat Seitan Vegan Vegetarian
Sgaia Vegan Meat
Introduced into our Edinburgh stores recently, are these seitan steaks from Sgaia Foods. Handmade from plants from scratch in small batches, Sadly we don't have the facility to sell them online yet, but they can be found at both of our stores in the chilled section - follow this link to find our Edinburgh stores on the map. It has a savoury, tasty flavour that will complement any marinade, sauce or dish.
You can see the product details here in our webshop.
Vegan GF Vegan Egg Replacer
Vegan Eggs
These new vegan eggs from Follow Your Heart are already proving mighty popular with customers. Made with algae and carrageenan, they can be used just like eggs, including scrambled eggs or omelettes, and they're not stored chilled so we can sell them online. Vegan Eggs can be found here on our site. Vegan variants or replacements for eggs are a long-standing request from customers, so we put together a handy infographic for replacements.
Follow this link for No Eggs No Problem if you're looking for replacements for binding, leavening or moisture elements. Or if looking for alternatives, try the no-egg egg replacer from Orgran or Ener-G here.
Vego Vegan Chocolate Bars
Vego Bars
Scrumptious, amazing and delicious are just a few of the words used by our customers to describe the new favourite vegan hazelnut chocolate bar. Made using fine Italian hazelnut paste, hazelnut cocoa cream and whole hazelnuts that they blend together in a unique process, they are available in 65 gram and 150 gram bars and are not only vegan but also Organic, Fairtrade and Gluten Free!
The 150 gram bar can be found here in our webshop and the 65 gram vego bar here.
Peasemeal from Golspie Mill
Peasemeal
Milled by Golspie Mill (a small mill in Scotland doing speciality flours). Roasted peas are ground through three sets of stones in a water-powered millstone. Peasemeal is traditionally used for brose (which is a soup or broth) or thick savoury porridge. Since its renewed popularity (it was on the telly in January 2016!) the requests for it have come flooding in. We've always stocked it as it's an old favourite in Scotland and many of our customers remember being fed it as children and as a convalescent food. Peasemeal has been used as a crispy coating for foods, within white sauces and also used to make healthy vegetarian patés. Find it here in our webshop.
It's been tricky finding the nutritional information for such a niche product but the lovely people at Fallaine Foods teamed up with Glasgow Caledonian University to have it analysed and here are their results!
Per 100g Golspie Mill peasemeal
Calories 351 (1485kj), Protein 20.4g, Total carbs 69.4g, Available carbs 59.4g, Sugars 1.6g, Fat 1.3g, Saturates 0.1g, Sodium 20mg, Salt 0.05g, Fibre 10g
Seitan Vegan Wheat Gluten
Vital Wheat Gluten
It’s the gluten in flour that gives it elasticity and helps it to rise and have texture. Ideal to have on hand if you’re a baker as if you’ve run out of b bread flour, a tablespoon of this with all-purpose plain flour should do the trick. Find it here in our webshop. It’s also very popular with our vegan customers to make seitan – a chewy, savoury food that’s ideal for loads of Asian recipes. Here's one of the most popular Seitan recipes.
Champagne Truffles
Booja Booja
Legendary for their amazing taste, some people travel to Edinburgh to come into one of our stores, simply for the raspberry truffles that are chilled and so unavailable in the webshop - Anyone who’s eaten Booja Booja truffles will nod knowledgeably at this point! Try Champagne truffles for a grown-up kick or hazelnut crunch for delicious melt-in-the-mouth goodness.
Vegan Marigold Engevita
Engevita Flakes with added B12
Vegans are always advised to up their vitamin B12 as it’s only produced from micro-organisms and that’s not readily available on a plant-based diet (actually to be honest everyone is advised to keep up their vitamin B12 intake, particularly vegans and anyone over 50 as they're most at risk.). Many vegans swear by engevita flakes with added B12 from Marigold. Grown on molasses in carefully controlled conditions it can be used as a savoury condiment for soups and stews. They have a cheesy/nutty flavour so are often used as a topping on dehydrated kale chips, homemade crisps or popcorn. Great with pasta, pesto or other Italian or tomato-based dishes also. Buy them here.