It's not often that you're given the perfect opportunity to sample a completely different diet. Last weekend our lovely friends the Middletons came to stay. Mr Middleton is vegan. This was our opportunity.
I was adamant that this was not going to be a cop out. I wanted us all to eat the same meal and for nobody to feel like they'd compromised or lost out. I couldn't bear the idea of this being like
Come Dine With Me where the sad little vegetarian gets a mushroom with a lump of tofu while everyone else eats fillet steak.
I did my research (thank you internets) and wrote a meal plan. Here are the results...
Friday dinner
- Cauliflower, butternut squash, spinach and chick pea rogan josh; spiced carrot and almond salad; soya yoghurt; chapattis, poppadoms and pickles.
- Vegan chocolate cake
This is yet another of
Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals which we've cooked a few times before. With that in mind it was less of a risk but I was still relieved to discover every single ingredient was vegan. This recipe uses Patak's Rogan Josh paste and their website was detailed enough for me to
check its ingredients.
The only switch I made was from natural yoghurt to soya yoghurt on the side. (I failed. Having grabbed without reading the label, I was inches away from scooping a nice dollop of summer berries soya yoghurt on the side of the curry. Oops.)
The cake was billed as
the best chocolate cake in the world ever ever even though its vegan - honest mum. So... with that billing, I thought I'd better give it a go.
Sure enough, despite the lack of eggs (vegetable oil as substitute) and butter (soya margarine as substitute), this was a surprising success.
Brownie-like in texture, the cake didn't rise much but had a satisfyingly squidgy texture and was topped off with a sticky chocolatey glaze. The secret ingredient it seemed to me was the vanilla essence which provided extra sweetness to compensate for the lacking dairy richness.
I'm happy to report, the cake was a success with Mr Middleton but even more jaw-droppingly, with my man the dairy fiend Mr C. Score!
Saturday breakfast
- Herby garlic mushrooms on toast
- Granola with soya yoghurt (summer berries in fact!) and fresh fruit (I picked mango, blueberries and red grapes).
Having said we didn't compromise, Mr Middleton opted for the granola so a rogue knob of butter was dolloped into the garlic mushrooms - but I'd like to make clear that THE THOUGHT WAS THERE.
Saturday lunch
Thank you
@BTPcafes for having a helpful twitter account who confirmed that we would have plenty of choice if we came to visit. They were truth-telling. Their menu already has a good mix of meat-free options and they adopt the 'ask nicely and we'll make it vegan' approach.
Mr Middleton and I both had their veggie burger: mine slotted with halloumi, his without. Oh my word - what a thing of wonder. The single most beautiful veggie burger I have ever eaten. What's more, it's pretty - pink with beetroot. Everyone wins! And as if that wasn't enough, Mr Middleton was confronted with a choice (faint) of vegan cake choices.
Top marks Boston Tea Party!
Saturday night
- Non-butter, non-parmesan risotto with as much butternut squash, mushrooms, leeks and herbs as I could find.
As it transpired, Mr Middleton went to sample the delights of vegan curry in North Bristol before a big night out in a karaoke room.
Confession time - vegan barriers broke down as Mrs Middleton and I stayed in and tucked into a cheeseboard. What can I say? The manchego was calling to us...
Sunday morning
More of the fruity yoghurty wonderment (and lashings of toast for Mr Middleton to absorb the previous evening's karaoke lubricant).
Sunday lunch
- Mushroom and Chesnut Wellington with all the roast dinner trimmings
Who says Sunday roast has to revolve around meat? Mrs Middleton stepped in as head chef and cooked up a beautiful Mushroom and Chesnut Wellington from Vegan Village. The revelation that Jusrol puff pastry was vegan gave me some food for thought (no pun intended) for the next vegan invasion.
We served the Wellington (crammed with mushrooms, chesnuts, cashew nuts, onions and breadcrumbs) with roast potatoes and all the vegetable trimmings. I will be making this again - it was (forgive the Os) soooo good.
(Aah) Bisto onion gravy topped it off - thanks again to the internet for a clear list of ingredients (plus vegan website reccomendations), this shortcut is 100% vegan and 100% easy peasy.
I completely forgot to take any photos to accompany this post. I put this down to having far too much of a lovely time as well as being testament to the delicious food. Would I go vegan? No. But could I? Could we? In a zombie apocalypse? Yes. Yes ve-GAN!
