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Thursday, 13 February 2014

Vegan Vox Reviews...Tall Poppy Foods, Birmingham

*****UPDATE****** Tall Poppy's kiosk is temporary closed but you can still order cakes and food via their website for collection or delivery. They are also found at local farmers' markets and events - details of which can be found on their facebook and twitter pages above.************************

Back in October, I was lucky enough to be invited to visit Tall Poppy Foods in Birmingham, grab a drink and a chat with one of the co-owners and sample some of their amazing home-cooked vegan food!

Tall Poppy Foods is based in Selly Oak, Birmingham and is a take-away vegan food kiosk. Tall Poppy is owned by husband and wife team Erin and Joe, and they run the kiosk with the help of local student staff who are all vegetarian or vegan.

Joe and Erin have been vegan for around eight years and have worked and lived all over the world before settling in Birmingham where they are raising their family. As well as the kiosk, they supply food to events, weddings, birthdays and take mail order and cake orders through their website.

The unique aspect to Tall Poppy Foods, is that they do not have any processed food, all of their products are home-made from the bread and cakes, to the coleslaw, mayo, butters and sauces. They take great pride in their products and are very passionate about where their food comes from and the health benefits of freshly-made organic produce.

Tall Poppy don't just cater for vegans either, they have Paleo options, gluten free options, soy free options, healthy choices and treats.

Some of the products they had for sale when I visited were:

Organic fairtrade coffee

Almond and soy milk options for espresso based drinks

A range of teas

Lemoncurd, Boston Creme and Earl Grey Cupcakes

Muffins

Brownies

Ginger Cake

Sausage rolls with an almond sausage filling

Fajitas

Wraps

Falafel

Paninis

BBQ Jackfruit Burger

Quite a range as you can see! I got to sample the BBQ Jackfruit Burger, which was amazing!! The jackfruit from Thailand is slow cooked all day in a home-made barbecue sauce and served in a home-made bread roll with coleslaw. It was the first time I had tried jackfruit and it was so good, it is worth the journey to Tall Poppy for this alone! Then Joe gave me some of his cakes to taste. They were moist, full of flavour, tasted freshly baked and so moreish.

A couple of weeks after my visit to Tall Poppy Foods, I caught up with them again at the West Midlands Vegan Festival in Wolverhampton, where I purchased a New York Panini, with Fentimans Cherry Tree Cola and Tyrrells Crisps as a meal deal. The panini was so good, me and Mr Vox went back and bought another!

Tally Poppy can be found at 492 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 6BD and if you pop over and say hello, let them know you found out about them from Vegan Vox! They are also found at many of the vegan and veggie festivals around the country.

You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by clicking these links.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Guest Recipe from Little Miss Meat-Free

For the first Vegan Recipe of the new year, I am very honoured to have a contribution from Little Miss Meat-Free (aka Katy). Katy is a passionate vegan home cook who enjoys creating dishes for family and friends. She also shares vegan recipes on the blog Little Miss Meat-Free. After living in south London for a few years, she has now returned to Yorkshire. You'll find Katy driving around in her beloved 'Mini' or baking a cake in her small kitchen.

Katy's blog can be found at:

http://littlemissmeatfree.blogspot.co.uk

or you can follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Lilmissmeatfree

Borlotti Bean Bake with Winter Herb Dumplings

Nothing beats the aroma of winter herbs baking in the oven. Team this with seasonal vegetables and savoury borlotti beans for a true ‘comfort-food’ experience. Serve straight from the oven with fresh crusty bread.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the bake:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 large potatoes, cubed

1 onion, chopped finely

3 carrots, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

3 celery sticks, chopped

400ml water

1 tin Borlotti beans, drained and rinsed

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp salt

½ black pepper

For the dumplings:

200g white plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried sage

½ tsp dried rosemary

½ tsp thyme

250ml soya milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.
In a large casserole dish, add the oil, potatoes, onion, carrots, garlic and celery and cook over a medium heat for 5-6 minutes.
Pour in the water and Borlotti beans. Stir in the cornstarch. Add the paprika, oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, salt and black pepper and cook for 3 minutes.
Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the dumplings. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sage, rosemary and thyme in a bowl. Make a well and stir in the soya milk until it forms a thick dough.
Place tablespoon sized amounts of the dumpling dough on top of the casserole. Place the lid on the casserole dish and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Little Miss Meat-Free

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For more of my recipes, click here.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Thursday, 22 August 2013

Vegan Vox Reviews...2 Moon Trading Co. Walsall, West Midlands

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend a lovely hour or so at 2 Moon Trading Co. in Walsall, West Midlands. I met with one of the co-owners - Georga, interviewed her, took some pictures of the shop, got given a couple of samples of the products to try for free and met her lovely puppy, Mylo!

First of all, let me tell you that this shop is a hidden little vegan gem! It is in a pretty mews, off a small side street behind the markets in Walsall, with grape vines growing over the archway. I would never have known it was there if it wasn't for the wonderful world of Twitter where I connected with the owners. 2 Moon Trading Co. are a bath, body and skincare boutique, selling all vegan products like bathbombs, soaps, solid shampoos, bath truffles, massage bars, shower gels, body butters, foot scrubs, eye gels and body jewellery. Think 'Lush' but on a smaller independent scale, much cheaper and 100% vegan! Yay!

As you walk into the shop, you get the gorgeous smells of all of the bath bombs and your eyes are treated to a gorgeous array of pretty colours and packages, there is bunting around the walls and chalk displays and the owner's puppy to say hello to! What's not to love? They are open Monday-Saturday 10-6. But what's that, I hear you cry? You don't live anywhere near Walsall! Well, that's okay too because they have an online shop too at 2moontradingco.co.uk and they will post items out to your home (in the UK) within 3-5 days.

The best thing about 2 Moon Trading Co. though are the prices. The products start at £1.50 and the most expensive item in the entire shop is only £6 for a large tub of body butter! The bath bombs are around £2 each which makes them more of a regular treat than an expensive luxury item. They have a huge range of fragrances - around 15 different bath bombs and soaps, 8 different bath salts and 3 different body butters, for example.

I asked Georga about the store's origins. Georga and her business partner and co-owner Al live together in a house-share and started 2 Moon as a market stall, frequenting the Black Country Markets of the West Midlands, as their popularity grew, they found these premises in Walsall and decided to set up their own shop - much warmer in the cold months than a market stall! The shop opened in April 2013 and is growing in popularity.

The owners, whilst not vegan themselves, have many vegan friends and they believe that all skin and body care should be cruelty-free and that everyone should be able to buy their products regardless of your beliefs, lifestyle choices, religion or financial status. So they decided to go for natural, vegan products at an affordable price so nobody has to be excluded from purchasing there. This is a refreshing stance for non-vegan business owners to take and let's hope others will realise that this is the best way to get more customers.

Georga is really passionate about what goes in to their products and works on the products from concept to testing and development and she checks all of the ingredients and their provenance before letting her wholesalers go ahead with a product to sell in their shop. She insists on strict ingredient checks and makes sure items are free from all animal testing as well as animal ingredients or by-products. They do not use palm oil in any of their products and their 'honey' products do not use real honey from bees, just honey fragrances - all vegan! If 2 Moon don't currently stock an item that you would like to buy, they will look into the feasibility of the product and try and develop the product with their manufacturers for you. This kind of service only comes from a small independent shop where the owners still have such control over their supply chain.

I asked Georga where the name came from and she told me that she and her business partner had been friends since childhood, and their nicknames for each other at school had always been 'Moon', so 2 Moon Trading Co was born from that early friendship! Aww!

So let's get to the important part of this review - the samples! I am a lucky vegan blogger and Georga gave me a gorgeous Bath Bomb and some Coconut Bay Body Butter to take home and sample :-) They were divine! It felt like a proper luxury treat rather than my usual boring bathtime! These are the kind of products I get bought as birthday gifts from friends and save for a special occasion but at these prices I might just be popping back next payday for a few 'weekly treat' baths! I also purchased a Pink Fizz shaving soap bar as a gift whilst I was there. It is a gorgeous bright pink and I know the recipient will love it, even though they are not vegan. That's the beauty of vegan body products, no one will complain that animals aren't in their bath products or that kittens and rabbits were not harmed in the testing of the products. Vegan beauty products should be the norm for everyone and 2 Moon Trading Co. are starting that revolution right here in the West Midlands!

So, please show some support for this small independent business by visiting the shop, purchasing online or just spreading the word. Too many small companies like this go under because people don't know they exist as they don't have marketing budgets of big chains like Lush or The Body Shop.

You can find 2 Moon Trading Co. at:

Unit 2, Guildhall Mews, Goodall Street, Walsall WS1 1QJ. 10am-6pm Mon-Sat.

You can connect with them online at:

https://www.facebook.com/2moontradingco

twitter.com/2moontc

http://www.2moontrading.co.uk/

Read previous Vegan Vox Reviews here.

Until next time,

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Coconut and Oat Biscuits with Chocolate Orange Drizzle and UK Vegan Food Swap pt.1

This month, for the first time, I took part in the UK Vegan Food Swap (#ukveganfoodswap) organised by tohappyvegans.com. If you would like to take part too, you can sign up here.

The way it works is you are assigned a sending partner and a receiving partner. The sending partner sends you your box of vegan goodies of their choice spending a budget of £10 and the receiving partner gets sent a box from you. For my first month, my receiving partner was one of the founders of the scheme - Sasha from tohappyvegans.com. I decided to send her a mixture of sweet and savoury snacks, some cooking sauces, a vegan lip balm, some organic tea and a batch of these fab biscuits with the recipe so she can make her own. I also received my box from the lovely Chrissie which I will blog about next week.

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Hill Biscuits and I promised to include a biscuit recipe or two on my blog, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all as well.